East was captured by the Indonesian armed forces and was brought, along with many other prisoners, to the Dili waterfront where he and scores of others were then executed by firing squad.

Working at first in regional New South Wales newspapers, in the 1950s he left Australia to cover foreign events in places as varied as Cyprus, Africa, China and the Suez Crisis.

East was one of only three journalists in Timor — the other two were Michael Richardson, the South-East Asia correspondent for The Age and Jill Jolliffe, a freelancer who was then working for Reuters.

He planned to retreat with the Fretilin forces to the mountains in the interior and report from there to the outside world through high frequency radio transmissions.

Eyewitnesses later reported that East was brought, along with many other prisoners, to the Dili waterfront, where he and scores of others were then executed by firing squad.