The Port Arthur massacre was a mass killing that took place at Port Arthur, Tasmania, Australia. On Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 April 1996 35 people were killed, and 18 people hurt. Martin Bryant used 2 semi-automatic guns to shoot people who were visiting Port Arthur. Port Arthur is an café and, hotel and historic site.000 convtd Irlitors to Tasmania. Bryant is in jail for the crime.
The massacre was the worst single-day mass murder incident in Australian history. 35 people died on 28 April 1996, the middle day of the massacre. After the massacre, Australia made new laws about gun control. People could not buy guns very easily anymore. New laws were changed. This law also exits in new Zealand and many other countries.
Bryant had first killed the owners of a small guesthouse. then he went to the Port Arthur Historic Site. 20 of the people killed were shot in the Broad Arrow Cafe in 2 minutes of gunfire. before Bryant started shooting in the café he ate lunch Bryant went into the café and began shooting. There were more than 60 people in the cafe. He then went into the gift shop and continued shooting. Two minutes later he went back to his car to escape. He continued to shoot and kill people outside in the gardens.
Bryant then took a hostage and went back to the Seascape Guest House. He killed the hostage and then set fire to the house. He finally gave himself up to the police after 18 hours. He was burned in the fire.
Bryant was found guilty of killing 35 people. He was sentenced to a life sentence for each murder. The court said he was never to be released.
The ruins of the cafe are now a memorial to the people who were killed in the massacre. A square pond has been built as a place for quiet thinking. The Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard spoke at the memorial in 2006. This was to remember 10 years since the massacre.
Backpacker murders
Between 1990 and 1996, a total of seven people were killed in Australia. Since all of the people were backpackers, the events are known as backpacker murders today. All of their bodies were found in Belangalo State Forest, which is close to Sydney. Ivan Milat killed all of these people.
7 people were found in Belangalo State Forest. Five of these people were visiting Australia - three Germans and two British people. The other two were visiting Sydney from other parts of Australia. Some of these people were by themselves. Some of these people were with a friend. The 7 people were all different from each other.
On the TV they said that tourists were killed, but not everyone who died was a tourist.
The 7 people were found all over Belangalo State Forest, which is a big area. One of them had their head chopped off. Someone had sex with some of them. Some of them had their clothes taken off. Some of them had bits of their bodies cut off and put somewhere else. Some of the bodies were by themselves.
Some of the people had been killed with a knife. Some had been killed with a gun. Some seemed to have been strangled.
The 7 people who died had nothing in common. People who tried to find out who did it said that there may have been more than one person who killed them. They said that they may have been a part of a gang.
Ivan Milat (born 1944 died 2019) was an Australian man from New South Wales who lived near Belangalo State Forest. So police arrested Milat and searched his house. They found out that:
Milat went to court, and people in court said that he did kill all of these people.
Some people think that other people helped Milat. Some people said his brothers helped him, or a girl, or lots of other people. Police have said that there are more than 30 people that went missing that might have been killed by Milat.
Death of Azaria Chamberlain
Azaria Chamberlain (11 June 1980 – dissapeared on 17 August 1980 - died 26 January 2010) was an Australian baby who was born in Mount Isa, Queensland, and went missing in 1980 near Ayers Rock, Northern Territory, Australia. The family were camping in a tent at the base of the rock. Her mother, Lindy Chamberlain, said that she had been taken by a dingo and killed. Police said that Lindy Chamberlain had murdered the baby and had lied about the dingo. After a long trial which was reported around the world, Chamberlain was convicted of murder and sent to jail. Chamberlain kept arguing that she was innocent. When some of the baby's clothes were found three years later near a dingo's den, the case was reopened since the 1980s.
After a long legal battle which involved three inquests, three appeals and a royal commission, she was released. In 2012, a fourth inquest found that Azaria had been taken by a dingo, and the death certificate has now been changed to show this. The inquest noted that there had been other dingo attacks in the region.
Lindy Chamberlain was released from jail on February 7 1986, but not cleared until September 15 1988, at which time Lindy and Michael (her husband) were declared innocent of all charges. She and Michael were divorced on June 27 1991. She met Rick Creighton on a speaking tour of the United States in February 1992 and married him on December 20 1992.
The disappearance of Azaria became one of the most argued about events in Australia. Many people thought that a dingo would be unable to kill a baby. This meant that the mother must have lied. People in Australia say "a dingo stole my baby" as a joke, when they think someone is lying. After a dingo killed a nine-year-old boy on Fraser Island in 2001, people have had to rethink their beliefs about dingos.
Author John Bryson wrote a book about the case, called "Evil Angels." This was later made into a movie called "Evil Angels" and starred Meryl Streep and Sam Neill. The movie was released in other countries as "A Cry in the Dark."
In 2005, a woman called Erin Horsburgh said that she was really Azaria Chamberlain and wanted police to do a DNA test to check. But police said that the woman was lying and they did not need to check. This created interest in the media, but there was no truth to the story.
Murder of Peter Falconio
Peter Falconio (20 September 1972 - c. 14 July 2001) was an English tourist who went missing in Northern Territory, Australia in 2001. Falconio was last seen near a place called Barrow Creek. This is one of Australia's greatest murder mysteries. Police say that he is dead. A trial decided that Bradley John Murdoch murdered Falconio.
Peter Falconio and his girlfriend Joanne Lees had been fighting with each other. Lees was going to leave Falconio because she had a new boyfriend in Australia. Some people think that Lees wanted to kill Falconio because of this. Some people think that she might have asked Murdoch to kill Falconio for her.
Bradley John Murdoch sold drugs to people. Falconio and Lees liked to use drugs. It is thought that they knew each other, and that Falconio and Lees bought drugs from Murdoch. Falconio owed a lot of money in taxes, and he was scared. Falconio had told people that he wanted to fake his own death. Many people say they saw Falconio over a week after police say that he died. It was known that Murdoch had hurt people before this. He had once shot at some aborigines just for fun. He had told people that he thought he was being followed and was going to get rid of them. Some people think that he raped some women too.
This remains a great mystery and many people have different stories as to what really happened. A movie called "Wolf Creek" was made that is similar to the story. It was not allowed to be shown until after the trial.
John Howard
John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is a former Australian politician who was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. John Howard is the second longest serving prime minister of Australia after Robert Menzies. John Howard is a member of the Liberal Party.