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Schapelle Corby May Be Returning To Australia Soon, And It's A Very Different Place Since 2004

John Howard was still PM and the iPhone hadn't been invented yet.
Australian drug trafficker Schapelle Corby could be returning home in 2017.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Australian drug trafficker Schapelle Corby could be returning home in 2017.

With Schapelle Corby said to have just six months left until she can return to Australia, the convicted drug smuggler will have to readjust to a very different nation to the one she left behind in 2004.

When Corby was convicted of smuggling 4.1kg kilograms of marijuana into Bali in a bodyboard bag, John Howard was still Prime Minister and it was the year Cronulla riots shocked the country.

That's not all. Facebook had just got its official name, DVDs were still a thing, and iPhones hadn't been invented yet. Justin Bieber was 10 years old.

Corby's also missed lots of great Aussie milestones like the Melbourne Commonwealth Games, Catholic Youth Day and five different prime ministers leading the nation.

It's stuff like this that the 39-year-old will be keen to get across once she lands back in Australia.

NewsCorp Australia reports that parole board officials and Indonesian Immigration have determined that Corby will be sent home in May after 12 years detained in Bali. The details of her release will reportedly be confirmed in the lead up to the deportation, it reports.

The Queenslander was sentenced to 20 years in jail for drug smuggling despite arguing that she had no knowledge found when she arrived in the popular tourist destination. Her case grabbed international headlines and captivated Australia.

After failed legal appeals Corby's sentence in 2012 was cut to 15 years and she was granted parole from Kerobokan Prison in 2014. Since then she's been keeping a very low profile.

There has been speculation that on her return Schapelle could join her sister, Mercedes, working at the family's Laneway Dining and Bar in Coolangatta.

But Mercedes told the Gold Coast Bulletin recently that she was unsure what Schapelle would do when she got home.

"She will come and sit here and drink beer probably," Mercedes is quoted as saying.

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