The Australian War Memorial Collection. Test site
Twelve Khmer members of a bridge construction crew greet photographer Heide Smith from the deck of the bridge they are building across a river at the village of Peam Sitha, 35 kilometres northwest of Phnom Penh on Route 5. The project was supervised by Australian contractor and engineer Clay Semchyshyn, one of three Australian engineers contracted by Transfield Australian Pty Ltd (a company specialising in construction, engineering, defence and telecommunications) to rebuild six bridges destroyed by the Khmer Rouge. Route 5 runs northwest from Phnom Penh to Poipet on the Thai border and is renowned for banditry, becoming especially dangerous in the period leading up to the May 1993 elections, when bands of Khmer Rouge regularly terrorised villagers and members of Semchyshyn's construction team who slept on site, in an attempt to keep them away from registration and polling booths. One of tasks facing the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) and assisting the non government agencies (NGOs) was the reestablishment of basic infrastructures such as water and communications. Australian journalist Marje Prior and photographer Heide Smith visited Cambodia in January and August 1993 to document Australian involvement with UNTAC, later publishing a book entitled 'Shooting at the Moon - Cambodian Peacekeepers tell their stories'.
The small village of Peam Sitha, sited 35 kilometres northwest of Phnom Penh on Route 5 at the confluence of the Tonle Sap River (in the background) and a smaller river across which Australian contrac
Australian contractor and engineer Clay Semchyshyn poses next to the foundations of a bridge he is building with a Cambodian crew across a river at the village of Peam Sitha, 35 kilometres northwest o
An inhabitant of the small fishing village of Peam Sitha, situated on the confluence of the Tonle Sap River and a smaller tributary, 35 kilometres northwest of Phnom Penh, repairs his nets in the shad
An informal portrait of Australian contractor and engineer Clay Semchyshyn with his Khmer foreman near the bridge he is building (see left background) with a Cambodian crew across a river at the villa
A vehicle belonging to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) parked at the small village of Peam Sitha, 35 kilometres northwest of Phnom Penh, near a bridge construction being supervised by
PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA. 1993-04-03. LOCAL WORKMEN BEGIN THE CONSTRUCTION OF CYCLONE WIRE SCREENS AROUND THE HEADQUARTERS OF THE UNITED NATIONS TRANSITIONAL AUTHORITY IN CAMBODIA (UNTAC), IN ANTICIPATION
