'Terrible cruelty': Australia marks 30 years since Port Arthur massacre

Tuesday, 28 April 2026 10:18

Australia today commemorates the 35 victims of the country's worst mass shooting in modern history.

Australia has today marked the 30-year anniversary of the Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania - Australia's deadliest mass shooting in modern history.

Armed with a semi-automatic rifle, gunman Martin Bryant killed 35 people and left 23 wounded on April 28, 1996.

In a statement, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that "the terrible, indiscriminate cruelty of that day remains beyond understanding", but "somehow amid the most terrible darkness the best of humanity found a way to shine."

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An anti-gun rally in Hobart in the wake of Port Arthur.

"We think of everyone whose world was shattered by the loss of those who had been the bright centre of their lives, their love left desperately wrapped around an absence.

"Our hearts go out to everyone who has lived with decades of loss, and every survivor and loved one who is no longer with us but was shadowed by an inconsolable grief for the rest of their days.

"We think of all who survived but with memories that would never soften."

The Prime Minister also praised Walter Mikac, whose wife and their two daughters were among the victims, for channelling his devastating loss into a call for gun reforms.

His campaigning helped persuade then prime minister John Howard to overhaul Australia's firearms legislation.

"Australia is a better place because the government and the parliament of the day came together to answer Walter's call," said Albanese.

"This is what we hold on to – the abiding memory that somehow amid the most terrible darkness the best of humanity found a way to shine."

On today's anniversary, John Howard told the Nine Network's Karl Stefanovic that he was stunned when he heard the first reports from Port Arthur.

"It was the largest death toll at the hands of a single person."

He said the firearms reforms his government brought in could never guarantee that a repeat of another mass shooting would never happen.

"But what I can say is that all the evidence is that reduced the likelihood ... and sadly, the terrible events of Bondi on the eve of Christmas is the starkest example, but we haven't had much since."

Howard also recalled his efforts to persuade the public and the recreational shooting community to support his government's firearms legislation.

It included a gathering at Gippsland in Victoria in 1996 when, addressing a hostile crowd of gun owners, the then prime minister wore a bullet-proof vest under his suit.

"The police in Gippsland came to my AFP (Australian Federal Police) and said we have evidence someone is going to take a gun and shoot the prime minister," said Howard.

"I reluctantly put it (the bullet-proof vest) on ... I felt a fool ... and I never felt unsafe."

During 1996-1997, multiple states pass gun reform laws to a national standard. As part of gun buyback scheme 700,000 weapons were surrendered.

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