| Submit your comments on this article |
| Down Under |
| Australia remembers Port Arthur Massacre |
| 2006-04-27 |
| DOZENS of relatives and friends of the 35 victims killed 10 years ago at Port Arthur in Tasmania will gather today for the national memorial service to be held at the historic convict site. Prime Minister John Howard will speak at the commemoration ceremony, which will start at 12.30pm. The Governor-General, Major General Michael Jeffery, will also attend. Many of the families attending the service have not returned or visited Port Arthur since the mass tragedy a decade ago. On Sunday, April 28, 1996, crazed Hobart gunman Martin Bryant went berserk at Port Arthur, shooting, killing and wounding dozens of visitors. In the wake of the tragedy - Australia's worst mass murder - tough new laws restricting gun ownership were introduced nationwide. But the eyes of the nation today will be on the commemoration service at Port Arthur, with its theme of Looking Forward, Looking Back. Keith Moulton, the father and grandfather of Nanette Mikac and her two daughters Alannah, 6, and Madeline, 3, killed at Port Arthur, expects it to be a day of mixed emotions for everyone affected by the shootings. "For many people it will bring back sad memories," Mr Moulton said. Mr Moulton, who is part of the 10th anniversary organising committee, will be attending the service with eight other family members. But he also knows of families, both local and from interstate, who cannot face visiting or returning to the scene of the massacre. "It will always be a special day for me; it's a day when you remember what happened, think of where you are in your life, where the kids would have been, and have a little cry. "Then you get up and walk back into the sunlight." Despite his resilience, Mr Moulton said he still expected to "have a tear or two" at the memorial service. "But I'm not looking for 'closure'; the day I forget my girls there's something wrong with me," Mr Moulton said. At today's ceremony, a large candle for each of the victims will be lit and carried into the special memorial garden at Port Arthur by families and emergency service workers affected by the 1996 tragedy. Tasmanian Premier Paul Lennon will read a poem written by Tasmanian poet, Margaret Scott, about the special memorial garden. The Prime Minister will be the only dignitary to make a speech at the hour-long service, which will include a minute's silence at 1.30pm, the time the mass slaughter started in 1996. The Port Arthur service will also be broadcast live within Hobart's St David's Cathedral, followed by a meditation service at 2pm conducted by the former Anglican Bishop of Tasmania, Phillip Newell. From 8am today, candles will be lit in St David's Cathedral for each victim. Related links: In-depth: The Port Arthur massacre Graphic: The chain of events |
| Posted by:Oztralian |