Transcript of Module 21 – The Port Arthur Massacre

Anyway, guys, let's get into the Aussie English fact for today which is a bit of a sombre (1) fact, it's a bit macabre (2), it's a bit… it's a bit sad, but it's worth knowing, guys. It is important that you guys know more about Australian culture if you're coming to Australia and yeah, that's why I thought I would talk about this today.

So, today I want to discuss the Port Arthur massacre (3), guys. This occurred at, obviously, Port Arthur (4), the Port Arthur Historic Site (5) in Port Arthur, Tasmania, on the 28th and 29th of April in 1996.

So, the Port Arthur Historic Site was a penal settlement (6) that began as a small timber station (7) in 1830 and it is a tourist attraction (8) that you can visit in Tasmania, but tragically it is now well known in Australia for this massacre (9) that happened where one of, if not the largest, mass shootings (10) occurred in Australia. So, 35 people died and 23 were wounded (11). The murderer (12) was Martin Bryant (13), and he had a subnormal (14) IQ and was intellectually disabled (15). He pleaded guilty (16) for the incident (17) and was given 35 life sentences (18) without the possibility of parole (19).

So, he is currently serving something like over a thousand years in jail (20) in Tasmania. So, this event underpins (21) some fundamental (22) changes to gun control laws (23) in Australia that came into place shortly after this incident.

But what happened? What exactly occurred? Let's chat a bit about the story.

So, Martin Bryant was this kid who grew up in Tasmania. He, for all intents and purposes (24), had two normal, loving parents. He was bequeathed (25) about $600,000 in property (26) in assets (27) from this eccentric (28) woman that he became really close friends with. She had apparently, like, 40 cats and 16 or so dogs that he was paid to take care of as a job, but she tragically passed away (29) in a car accident (30) and he gained all of this inheritance (31).

So, he went on many trips around the world (32) from 1993 onwards (33) and was withdrawing (34) quite a lot of money during this time, obviously spending it on himself and life experiences (35), but he also spent this money on some guns (36), including an AR-10 semi-automatic rifle (37) through a newspaper advertisement (38) that he had seen in Tasmania and then later he went on to buy an AR-15. At the time, non-handguns (39) in Tasmania were not required to be registered (40).

Switching on to his family, though. Bryant's dad wanted to buy a bed and breakfast (41) called Seascape (42), but unfortunately a couple called Noelene and David Martin bought the property (43) before his father could organise his finances (44).

Unfortunately, his father fell into a deep depression (45) and ultimately committed suicide (46). And so, this, coupled with Martin Bryant's best friend, that woman, having passed away, set him on a path to destruction (47). He blamed the Martins and described them as the worst people in his life.

So, what happened on the fateful (48) day?

Martin woke up at about 6:00 AM and saw his girlfriend off to visit her parents. He switched on the burglar alarm (49) and left the house at around 9:40. He went to the Seascape bed and breakfast and shot (50) and stabbed (51) both of the Martins to death. He then travelled to the Port Arthur Historic Site, parked his car in the parking lot near the Broad Arrow Cafe (52), and entered the cafe with a sports bag (53) and a video camera (54). He purchased a meal, ate the meal on the deck (55) outside and then walked back into the cafe to return his tray (56). This is when the story becomes macabre.

He pulled out his bag on the table, pulled the gun out, and started shooting at people. Within 15 to 30 seconds, he had already killed 12 people in the cafe and 10 more were wounded. He moved into the gift shop (57), killed another 10 people and wounded two more. He walked out into the car park (58) and killed another four people and injured another six. You see the pattern here. He just was on a rampage (59). He ended up getting into his car and actually sounding the horn (60) and waving at people as he was leaving the scene.

He killed a number of people on the way out, including a woman and her two daughters who were three and six. Just horrible. He ended up hijacking (61) a car with a man named Glen Pears in that car and his girlfriend Zoe Hall. He forced Pears into the boot (62) of his car and then shot Pears's girlfriend who was trying to climb into (63) the driver’s seat (64) of her car.

He headed to the Seascape Bed and Breakfast again and forced Pears inside and handcuffed (65) him to a stair rail (66) in the house, and at some point, he also set the BMW on fire.

The police arrived shortly afterwards, and after an 18-hour stand-off (67), they caught him the next day when the guesthouse was set on fire and Bryant came running out of the house on fire himself, with his back and buttocks (68) severely burned.

He was arrested and taken for treatment in a local hospital where his victims were being treated, and it was later discovered that Pears, the man he had kidnapped, had been shot before the stand-off had even begun.

So, by the end of the day, the body count (69) was at 35 dead people and 23 wounded people. An incredibly tragic event and the only positive side to this event was the fact that after this, shortly after this, all states and territories of Australia restricted the legal ownership (70) and use of self-loading rifles (71), self-loading shotguns (72), and tightened controls on their legal use by recreational shooters (73). The government initiated a mandatory buyback scheme (74) with the owners paid according to what they had in their possession (75).