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The Port Arthur massacre is the name given to a murder spree that occurred on 28 April 1996 at the ruins of the Port Arthur Prison Colony, a popular historic tourist site in the town of Port Arthur in south-eastern Tasmania, Australia. The massacre resulted in the deaths of 35 people and the serious injury of 37 more.

Martin Bryant, a 28-year-old from New Town, pleaded guilty to the crime and is currently serving a life sentence without possibility of parole in Risdon Prison.

Timeline of events

The murder spree began on the morning of April 28 1996 at the Seascape guesthouse north of Port Arthur, where Bryant murdered the elderly couple who owned the business. It is believed that Bryant's late father had earlier made several offers to purchase this guesthouse. After Bryant's father committed suicide, Martin Bryant seemed to believe that this refusal had caused his father to become depressed.

Martin Bryant may have then visited life long friend Mr Roger Larner and, according to the bulletin article of 4 April 2006 , Martin Bryant asked Mr Roger Larner to see Mrs Marion Larner, but Mr Roger Larner said that Marion was not at home (she was).

He then travelled to the nearby Port Arthur historic site where he paid for entry, and parked his car near the Broad Arrow café where he purchased a meal. He ate on a deck area outside the café.

At around 1:30 p.m. Bryant re-entered the "Broad Arrow Cafe" and removed an AR15 rifle from his bag and commenced firing. Bryant rapidly fired 29 rounds, killing 22 people, 19 from head shots. Bryant then moved to the car park and fired at random people, killing several. He shot and killed the driver of one of the several tour buses parked side by side in the car park and three passengers, as well as several others who were taking cover in and around the buses. At some point Bryant swapped his AR15 for a FN FAL military rifle, kept in the boot of his car, where he also stored a magazine-fed shotgun. Bryant eventually drove his Volvo out of the carpark towards the park entrance. Along the way he left the car and, at point blank range, murdered a mother, Nanette Mikac and her two small children Alannah, 6, and Madeline, 3, who were trying to escape.

Bryant then went to the tollbooth at the entrance to the historic site, held up the driver of a BMW at gunpoint, murdered the four occupants and drove the car towards the Seascape guesthouse. At a petrol station along the way he saw a Toyota with two occupants, a man and a woman. Bryant forced the man at gunpoint into the boot of the BMW, then shot the woman dead. He then drove the BMW on to the guesthouse, arriving a few minutes before 2:00 p.m..

Here he shot at several passing vehicles, injuring two more people. Bryant then released the man from the boot of the BMW, handcuffed him to a railing inside the guesthouse, and set the BMW on fire. Within two hours two policemen approached the guesthouse but were pinned down in a roadside ditch for several hours. Six hours later a team from the Tasmanian Police Special Operations Group had arrived, and an 18-hour standoff ensued.

Capture and prosecution

Bryant was captured the following morning when he set fire to the guesthouse and ran outside, his clothes on fire. It came to light that the man who was thought to be his hostage had been shot dead during or before the standoff.

Bryant initially pleaded not guilty to the 35 murders but after the prosecution began presenting evidence, changed his plea to guilty. He is now serving a sentence of life imprisonment in Hobart's Risdon Prison without possibility of parole. In Australian terms his prison papers are marked "Never to be Released".

Australians reacted to the event with widespread shock and horror, and the political effects were significant and long-lasting. Both federal and state governments, some of which (notably Tasmania itself and Queensland) were opposed to firearm control, quickly took action to restrict the availability of firearms. Under federal government co-ordination all States and territories of Australia banned and heavily restricted the legal ownership and use of self-loading rifles, self-loading shotguns and pump-action shotguns together with a considerable tightening of other gun laws. Family members of victims, notably Walter Mikac (who lost his wife and two children), spoke out in favour of the changes.

Much discussion has occurred as to the level of Bryant's mental health. It is generally accepted that he has a sub-normal IQ (estimated at 66, and in the lowest 2% of his age group: ) and at the time of the offences was in receipt of a Disability Support Pension on the basis of being mentally handicapped. Bryant had never been diagnosed with schizophrenia, nor any major depressive disorder. Reports that Bryant was schizophrenic were based on his mother's misinterpretation of psychiatric advice. Media reports also detailed his odd behaviour as a child. However, he was able to drive a car (ref: ) and also able to obtain a gun, despite lacking a gun licence. This was a matter which, in the public debate that followed, was widely regarded as a telling demonstration of the inadequacy of the nation's gun laws. Bryant was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome by a psychiatrist appointed by the Crown (prosecution), Dr Sale, but this diagnosis was disputed by Prof Mullen, a forensic psychiatrist working with Bryant's defence team.

Bryant was assessed as fit to stand trial as a mentally competent adult. There were no indications that he could be regarded as criminally insane at the time of the offences; as he clearly knew what he was doing (of his own free will), and that it was wrong. See the M'Naghten Rules.

After Bryant's imprisonment, several other prisoners boasted of their intention to murder him in jail. For his own safety, Bryant was held in near-solitary confinement in a specially built cell from his sentencing in November 1996 until July 1997. His motivation for the massacre remains a closely-guarded secret, known only to his lawyer, who is bound not to reveal confidences without his client's consent. Martin Bryant is only allowed to listen to music on a radio outside his cell, and is denied access to any news reports of his massacre. Photographers allowed in to take pictures of him in his prison cell were forced to destroy the film in his presence when the lapse in procedure was discovered by prison management.

Aftermath and analysis

The Port Arthur tourist site reopened a few weeks later, and since then a new restaurant has been built. The former Broad Arrow Cafe has been converted into a "place for quiet reflection", and the surrounding grounds converted into a memorial garden.

The massacre at Port Arthur created a tragic kinship with the Scottish town of Dunblane, which had suffered a similarly horrific event only weeks previously. The two communities exchanged items to place at their respective memorials. The defense psychiatrist in the case has revealed that the Dunblane massacre was a trigger in Bryant's mind for the Port Arthur Massacre.

Theories

A range of theories have emerged providing alternative explanations about the massacre. Most theories suggest that Bryant was not acting alone, that someone else performed the massacre whilst disguised, or that the Government of Australia ordered secret agents to conduct the massacre.

The main proponent of the conspiracy theories is a nurse who was the first person to call police about the incident, a Mrs Wendy Scurr , who, along with many other eye witnesses, launched a campaign to free Martin Bryant. Wendy Scurr went on a public speaking tour with retired policeman Andrew MacGregor, who on 29 September 2004 called for a coronial inquiry in to "the Terrorist action of Port Arthur" . Another major figure was gun expert Stewart Beattie, who provided detailed analysis of the weapons used and the exact requirements needed to perform the shooting, in his published book "A gunsmith's notebook on Port Arthur" which he released in 2002. This was picked up by the One Nation party .

The theorist most widely publicised in the Australian media was Joe Vialls, who suggested that Bryant was framed by one or more people who were actually the shooters. (Joe Vialls has been criticised as being anti-semitic and hence his views could easily be ignored). The Shooter's News, who provided a comprehensive report on the Port Arthur massacre , has stated that they believe that Joe Vialls was used to cover up the more believable theories so that the Australian public could think that they were baseless. , something which eye witness Wendy Scurr agrees with A range of theories were posed by opponents of gun control, many suggesting that the gun control lobby staged the massacre in order to gain public support for gun control laws. For example, the militia organisation Australian Freedom Scouts argued that Bryant did not have the requisite weapons proficiency to carry out the massacre. Some theories have compared the massacre with the assassination of President of the United States John F. Kennedy.

These theories have generally been discredited by the mainstream media and the authorities as utterly ridiculous and without foundation. The Government of Tasmania, the Tasmania Police, the prosecutor Damian Bugg and a lawyer who at one stage defended Martin Bryant, John Avery have all dismissed theories which suggest Bryant was not acting alone, saying that the evidence simply does not support any of the conclusions reached by the theorists.

See also

• List of disasters in Australia by death toll

External links

• Crime Library description
• Defence psychiatrist's analysis, November 1996
• Port Arthur News Archive
• Shooter's News Port Arthur Conspiracy Claims

• 1996 in Australia
• History of Tasmania
• Spree shootings
• Murder in Australia
• Gun politics