Port Arthur Memorial GardenPrint Page

The garden, featuring a pool of peace, commemorates the victims of Australia’s worst mass murder, which occured at Port Arthur in 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.

Note : The name of Raymond Sharp, who was one of the Sharp brothers murdered is missing from the dedication plaque which lists only 34 of the victims.  His name is listed on the plaque attached to the cross which lists all 35 victims.

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Dedication