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Port Arthur VictimsPrint Page Print this page

15-January-2014
15-January-2014

Photographs supplied by John Huth
The memorial commemorates parishioners and others who were killed during the Port Arthur massacre in April 1996.

In April 1996, twenty-eight-year-old Martin Bryant entered the Broad Arrow cafeteria in Port Arthur and after eating lunch, he remarked to a patron, "There are a lot of WASPS, not a lot of Japs." He then picked up his bag and walked toward the entrance, where he took out a military-style semi-automatic rifle. Within 15 seconds, he had slaughtered 12 people and injured several more. After executing others including a mother and her two young children, he drove some miles to a bed-and-breakfast, the Seascape Cottage.

The elderly owners, whom he had known for most of his life, had been murdered on his way to Port Arthur. After a siege which lasted most of the night, Bryant set the building on fire and ran screaming with his clothes alight into the arms of waiting police. The final toll, including a hostage Bryant had taken with him to Seascape from Port Arthur, was 35 dead and 20 wounded--the largest mass murder in Australia`s history. It led to an urgent review of the nation`s gun laws.

Location

Address:St John`s Circle, St John the Evangelist Church, Richmond, 7025
State:TAS
Area:AUS
GPS Coordinates:Lat: -42.731647
Long: 147.441079
Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate.
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Details

Monument Type:Monument
Monument Theme:Culture
Sub-Theme:Crime
Actual Event Start Date:28-April-1996
Actual Event End Date:28-April-1996

Dedication

Front Inscription

In memory of our parishioners and those who lost their lives

Port Arthur 28 April 1996

Eternal rest grant them O Lord

Source: MA
Monument details supplied by Monument Australia - www.monumentaustralia.org.au