Untold story of how a deadly Japanese doomsday cult bought 400,000 hectares in the Australian Outback to test a Nazi nerve agent on sheep - before they poisoned 5,500 commuters in Tokyo's subway

Banjawarn Station takes up a million acres of shrub and grassland on the edge of the Great Victoria Desert in the middle of Western Australia. It is marginal land to graze livestock but about as isolated as any habitable place that exists on the planet and the perfect location to do things without being watched. 

Banjawarn Station takes up a million acres of shrub and grassland on the edge of the Great Victoria Desert in the middle of Western Australia. It is marginal land to graze livestock but about as isolated as any habitable place that exists on the planet and the perfect location to do things without being watched. 

In April 1993 two senior members of the Japanese doomsday cult Aum Supreme Truth flew from Tokyo to Perth on a fact-finding mission looking for just such a spot. The group's second-in-charge and its 'intelligence minister' chartered a plane with a local real estate agent and inspected properties for sale across the Outback.

The sect planned to stage terrorist attacks its leader believed would start a nuclear war between superpowers, and remote Australia seemed a safe place to seek refuge in the fallout. More immediately, they were in search of a hideout to plan and prepare for what has been described as the first use of a weapon of mass destruction by terrorists. 

A yard with a fence in front of a house: Banjawarn Station was bought by the Japanese doomsday cult Aum Supreme Truth in 1993 and used to manufacture and test the nerve agent sarin. Two years later the cult used sarin in a fatal attack on Tokyo's subway system. The Banjawarn homestead is pictured© Provided by Daily Mail Banjawarn Station was bought by the Japanese doomsday cult Aum Supreme Truth in 1993 and used to manufacture and test the nerve agent sarin.

Two years later the cult used sarin in a fatal attack on Tokyo's subway system. The Banjawarn homestead is picturedForward scouts Kiyohide Hayakawa and Yoshihiro Inoue eventually settled on Banjawarn Station, 4,047 square kilometres of mulga and saltbush, about 14 hours' drive north-east of Perth. The sect paid less than $500,000 for the land, avoiding foreign ownership rules by starting up two companies through an Australian citizen of Japanese decent. 

Over the next 18 months the sect - also known as Aum Shinrikyo - would use this property to conduct experiments with the nerve agent sarin, a chemical weapon developed in Nazi Germany. What the group learnt about sarin on the station would culminate in an attack on the Tokyo subway system in 1995 which would kill 12 innocent people and poison 5,500 other commuters.

Events at Banjawarn Station would become a focus of the Australian Federal Police's Operation Sea King and inform the crime-fighting body's future response to international terrorist threats. On September 9, 1993, a party of 25 sect members including their charismatic blind guru Shoko Asahara arrived in Perth on tourist visas issued in Tokyo, immediately attracting the attention of Customs.

Events at Banjawarn Station would become a focus of the Australian Federal Police's Operation Sea King and inform the crime-fighting body's future response to international terrorist threats. On September 9, 1993, a party of 25 sect members including their charismatic blind guru Shoko Asahara arrived in Perth on tourist visas issued in Tokyo, immediately attracting the attention of Customs. 

Shoko Asahara sitting on a bed: On September 9, 1993, a party of 25 sect members including their blind leader Shoko Asahara (pictured) arrived in Perth on tourist visas issued in Tokyo, immediately attracting the attention of Customs. The group later travelled to Banjawarn Station© Provided by Daily Mail On September 9, 1993, a party of 25 sect members including their blind leader Shoko Asahara (pictured) arrived in Perth on tourist visas issued in Tokyo, immediately attracting the attention of Customs.

The group later travelled to Banjawarn StationThe group had brought with them mining equipment and chemicals including hydrochloric acid contained in sake bottles and glass jars marked 'hand soap'. Their arrival and what they would later do at Banjawarn Station is covered in a feature article in the latest issue of the Australian Federal Police magazine Platypus. 

Detective Leading Senior Constable Mark Creighton told the magazine an AFP officer noted the amount of excess baggage the group was carrying and the jars of acid they claimed were soap. 'Customs invited them to put their hands underneath the bottles and pour it out and they said, "Oh, no, no, we don't want to do that",' Leading Senior Constable Mark Creighton said.

'Then, apparently one of the Customs officers accidentally brushed against leader Shoko Asahara and were set upon by other sect members because they'd touched their "god".  'They could not have done anything more to draw attention to themselves.

Customs basically said, "Right, we're going to go through you like a dose of salts."Customs officers found ammonium chloride, sodium sulphate, perchloric acid and ammonium water, all of which was seized along with some laboratory equipment. The group claimed to be ignorant of local laws and said they were simply planning to do some gold mining.

They paid $30,000 in excess baggage fees to cover equipment including a mechanical ditch digger, picks, petrol generators, gas masks, respirators and shovels.  "Accompanying the group were six or seven Japanese girls who were under the age of 18"They paid $30,000 in excess baggage fees to cover equipment including a mechanical ditch digger, picks, petrol generators, gas masks, respirators and shovels. 

"Accompanying the group were six or seven Japanese girls who were under the age of 18"a group of people that are set up on the grass: Aum Supreme Truth members carried mining equipment and chemicals including hydrochloric acid to Perth in sake bottles and glass jars marked 'hand soap'.

Pictured are chemicals left behind by members of the Aum Supreme Truth sect at Banjawarn Station© Provided by Daily Mail Aum Supreme Truth members carried mining equipment and chemicals including hydrochloric acid to Perth in sake bottles and glass jars marked 'hand soap'. Pictured are chemicals left behind by members of the Aum Supreme Truth sect at Banjawarn Station.

Reference:Stephen Gibbs for Daily Mail Australia 5 hrs ago- 23/05/2020: 

Read More.....