Murder At Port Arthur

Ten Years Later

TEN YEARS LATER

In April 2006, various sections of the media ran stories on the aftermath of the massacre at Port Arthur, one decade after the event. The Bulletin magazine interviewed Roger Larner who lives a minute's drive from the Port Arthur site. Larner reports, “I talked with him for about 10 minutes; he wanted to know where my wife was but I told him she wasn’t home. She was, actually, but I knew she didn’t want to see him’ As with the Martins, Bryant had a bizarre vendetta against Larner’s wife. She had become so sick of his pestering, she had taken out an intervention order. ‘I can still see him standing there,’ Larner says, pointing at the gate.” (The Bulletin, 04 April 2006, p. 21). This revelation is an embarrassment to the conspiracy theorists. This eyewitness testimony from someone who knew Martin well places him about one minute's drive from the scene of the mass murder with the same car (a distinct Volvo) which was parked near the scene of the crime. Martin probably intended to kill Roger's wife, but he was thwarted by the claim she was not at home.
The mentality of Martin Bryant is revealed in a statement where he says regarding the incident, “Yes, it was, truly exciting, really exciting ... The most exciting thing I’d ever done in my life which was something different...” (The Bulletin, 04 April 2006, p. 25).
The reaction of Martin Bryant's relatives is quite revealing. Colleen Bryant (his mother) stays in Tasmania, other members of the family have fled to the mainland to escape the shame and gain anonymity (The Bulletin, p. 17). Quite clearly, those who have fled to the mainland don’t believe the conspiracy theorists.

The security officer
Ian Kingston, ten years later stands by his earlier evidence. He says, “I pulled Martin Bryant up as he drove up to the site,” Mr Kingston says. “I didn’t know him like some of the staff did and we had an argument over parking. “He wanted to park there - he got quite pissed off about it. He went to the old ticket office to get his entry pass, he was wanting a ticket on the 1.30 pm Isle of the Dead cruise and I said, ‘You won’t get it, it’s booked out’”.
Ignoring Mr Kingston's directions, Bryant parked his yellow Volvo. Mr Kingston, whose chief task as security officer was ensuring people paid their entry fee, took no further action, but kept an eye on the thin 28-year-old with long blond hair.
“‘He parked his car with all the coaches and then I saw him get a big black bag from his back seat,’ says Mr Kingston, then aged 42. ‘He set the bag down on the ground and then messed around in the boot before walking into the cafe. I watched him do it, not realising he had 1000 rounds of ammunition and a couple of rifles in that bag.’” (Courier Mail, 28 April 2006).

Terry McCarthy
Terry McCarthy was the police negotiator who made contact with Martin Bryant. The Courier Mail reports that “McCarthy made contact with Bryant six times until the battery in the killer’s handset lost power. ... He [Bryant] told McCarthy he had three hostages and wanted a helicopter to fly to Hobart Airport ...” (Courier Mail, 22 April 06, p. 65).
Another person among many who got a good view of Martin was Ms Loughton. Ms Loughton reports that Martin Bryant came so close to her, she could have touched him. She was shot in the back and lived. Her fifteen-year-old daughter was fatally shot. (Courier Mail, 28 April 2006).
In 1996, the conspiracy theory did not have any supporters from those who were in the Broad Arrow Café. Ten years later the theory still lacks support from those who clearly saw what happened, and it continues to lack the support from respected reporters who have closely investigated the events on that fateful day.

Martin Bryant
Why did he do it? I think there are several things in his situation which contributed to his actions.

• He had few friends. People avoided him because they could see that he was not “quite right”.
• He had a lot of wealth. People who have a lot of money are supposed to be happy and contented. Having the money, but still having few, if any close friends must have been frustrating.
• Martin probably felt insecure and powerless; that is, until he had a rifle in his hands. Nobody’s going to mess with someone who is armed with a high-powered rifle.
• Martin I suspect, failed to grasp the depth of the problem he had, and blamed most of his problems on others.

People usually like to form into groups with others who have similar interests or problems. For instance, people who have suffered in some way so as to produce a form of stress or anxiety may seek out others who have gone through the same ordeal so as to give comfort and learn from each other. The problem for those with an intellectual disability such as Martin Bryant, is that they do not possess the capability of organising a group; someone must do that for them. From my reading of the life of Martin, it does not appear that he had much, if any contact with others in his situation. The government approach in recent years has been to push mental patients out into society with little or no support base of the type described above.
God’s warning to Cain was, “... sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” (Genesis 4:7). Cain failed to master the sin lurking at his door and he killed his brother Abel. Martin also failed to master the sin crouching at his door, and he killed thirty-five people. He also wounded many others, both physically and psychologically.
Perhaps society failed also, by not giving Martin the type of help that he was not able to organise for himself. If we do not help others, it can rebound back on us. We are our brother’s keeper (Genesis 4:9-11).
Click on link for full article (.pdf format, 16 pages) Murder.pdf

David Holden
May 2006

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