On the morning of March 18, 2003, Australia was on the brink of going to war in Iraq, and Dave Burgess was scaling the Sydney Opera House in what would become one of the nation's most infamous protests.
"Just as I flatten myself out on the tiles and put the fingernails and toes into action, a voice from below said, 'Come down, now!'" Mr Burgess recalled.
"It was the security guard, and it was the hairiest part of the climb, and I sort of screamed through gritted teeth: 'I just might mate!' Then I continued on my merry way.
"I reached the spine and then had a larger climb, vertically at first, up the sail.
"I was padlock and chaining the trap doors on the way up so the police wouldn't bother us until we were ready."
Mr Burgess and his fellow protester, Will Saunders, set about painting "NO WAR" in giant red capital letters on the side of the Sydney Opera House.
"We just had a five-metre roller pole and stood at the top writing the words upside down," he said.
"Ferries started honking, the climbers on the Harbour Bridge stopped, and you could see them staring across.
"I was just thinking about the imminent conflict and the number of people who were going to die and how global politics would be changed forever for the worse as a result."
The tallest sail of the opera house is a pretty high-profile canvas, but by chance, the protesters also timed their run for maximum exposure.
"We somehow managed to score the exact 25-minute, half-an-hour window that [then US president George W] Bush went on television," Mr Burgess said.
While they were painting, Mr Bush was addressing the world, giving Saddam Hussein 48 hours to leave Iraq or face military conflict.
"We were actually in the cells at The Rocks when the detective came in and looked at us and said, 'You know he's declared war?'," Mr Burgess recalled.
"We all had a moment of, 'Oh, bugger', including the detective. It was a sad moment."
'Improved' Opera House souvenirs and 'no regrets'
Mr Burgess and Mr Saunders were later convicted of malicious damage, sentenced to nine months' periodic detention, and ordered to pay the Opera House's $151,000 cleaning bill.
"We made it very clear that we had to pay the bill; we'd done the damage; it was our responsibility," Mr Burgess said.
"It didn't take too much of a thought to look at all the plastic kitsch in the souvenir shops around Sydney and go: if someone donates, we can gift them an enhanced and improved graffiti Opera House souvenir.
"We worked out that if you melted the glue, you could separate the glass from the base. You did it in a frying pan.
"If someone donated us $20, we'd give them a snow globe.
"A lot of other people made large donations, there was a very successful art show and a number of concerts to raise money for it as well, but the snow globes were the people's favourite."
Despite the fallout from the protest, Mr Burgess said he had "no regrets at all".
"My children were born just after that, and they certainly bore the brunt of some of the circumstances a stint in prison does and the financial impacts," he said.
"But I still meet people who say to me, 'You made us feel good on what was a very bad day', and you can't regret that.
"I essentially feel very comfortable with what we did. I just regret that we went to war, which led to such an impression on the world that Australia made."
New Iraq War gallery to explore controversial topics
Two decades later, the Australian War Memorial's (AWM) $500 million redevelopment will include a new Iraq War gallery.
The centrepiece will be a F/A-18 Hornet, the first Australian aircraft to drop a bomb in conflict since Vietnam.
Alongside it will be the red paint, paint roller and paint-splashed Dunlop Volley sneakers used by Dave during his protest, as well as one of the snow globes.
"Sometimes the most powerful stories actually come from very personal effects," AWM gallery development director Bliss Jensen said.
"We know that there's a really high appetite for content that is thought-provoking content that really looks at the social impact of war.
"That protest story helps flesh out the story of those events that were unfolding in 2003, and it's still very much in the popular consciousness globally today."
Then-prime minister John Howard sent Australia to war to "deprive Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction".
No weapons of mass destruction were found, yet the conflict lasted a decade and cost four Australian lives.
A controversial topic Ms Jenson said the AWM would not shy away from.
"We will touch on the story around weapons of mass destruction, looking at the Australian experience of war," she said.
"We'll be looking at those threats and dangers to our defence forces that were deployed.
"But also looking at for the Iraq War, our diaspora communities, those communities who have fled war and have settled in Australia — they have a perspective as well to bring to the story."
While Mr Burgess approves of his protest items going on display, he is still a protester at heart.
"To be honest, it sits very uncomfortably [beside the fighter jet], and I think it's meant to be that way," he said.
"Obviously planes dropping bombs are the first image that was coming into our heads and our anger when we carried out the act.
"But at the same time, in some sort of poetic way, it also shows the smallness of protest actions and public opposition compared to the power of one of those awful machines.
"I think anything that makes a government or a politician reflect on what they can do with the stroke of a pen or a casual remark or a lie always needs to be reflected and improved upon."
