THAT D AUSTRALIA
ones and for the frontline workers who witnessed the results of his evil rampage.
Mike Bingham was a senior reporter in the newsroom of Hobart’s The Mercury on the day of the massacre. Months later, he wrote the book Suddenly One Sunday, which became the definitive version of the terror that unfolded.
“The sheer chilling horror of what happened was so shocking, and in a number of ways, it was more than the 35 people who died so tragically that day,” Mike recalls.
“What I found so disturbing was the way the impact spread out through the community, taking a toll on so many lives. For many, that still continues to this day.”
Of all the horrors Mike uncovered while researching the book, one detail still haunts him. He tells of a member of the Port Arthur management who rushed to the Broad Arrow Cafe after Bryant’s killing spree and was confronted with the carnage of the dead and dying.
“As this manager stood horrified by the scene in the cafe, he felt something drip on his head,” Mike recalls. “He looked up and saw a ceiling fan still slowly turning, and there was blood dripping off it.”
Bryant, then 28, was a troubled, often violent misfit, who had been planning the massacre for months. He had the date of the 28th circled on his calendar. On that fateful Sunday, as tourists flocked to Port Arthur, Bryant left his Hobart home for the 90-minute drive to the World Heritage-listed site.
In the back of his yellow Volvo was a sports bag containing two semi-automatic rifles and a shotgun. Later in a police interview, Bryant referred to one of the weapons as “a sweet little gun”.
On the way, he stopped at the Seascape Guest House, owned by David and Noelene Martin. Bryant had wanted to buy their house, but the couple continued to refuse, so Bryant shot and killed them.
Bryant then drove to Port Arthur and parked outside the Broad Arrow Cafe. Calmly stepping out of the car, he picked up his sports bag and walked into the cafe.
Witnesses later reported he appeared nervous as he ate his lunch on the outside deck. Once he finished, he went inside the crowded cafe, pulled an AR-15 rifle out of his bag and began shooting fellow diners at close range.
Mourners laid flowers as a tribute to those who lost their lives.
Before the Port Arthur massacre, Australia’s gun control laws were a state matter and rules varied greatly where they pertained to licensing and usage.
In the wake of the tragedy, gun control laws were put into sharp focus when Prime Minister John Howard engaged with the states and territories to enact identical gun laws, including a ban on firearms that were fully automatic, semi-automatic, pump-action and self-loading, as well as limitations on who could legally sell or own weapons.
It took four months of lobbying, but Howard convinced all states and territories to change their gun legislation to comply with the 1996 National Firearms Agreement.
A gun buyback and amnesty was initiated, in which more than 700,000 firearms were surrendered and destroyed. Since then, there has been no mass shootings in Australia.