13 Questions Surrounding the 1996 Port Arthur Massacre

TOTT News

1 year ago

A few questions that remain to this day.

The following piece is an overview of some of the most ‘interesting’ anomalies surrounding the events of the Port Arthur Massacre, Australia’s most infamous mass shooting in Tasmania, 1996.

Of course, this is only scratching the surface, and resources will be provided at the bottom of this piece for those who wish to explore the topic further.

But the reality is, many Australians remain unaware about some of the points highlighted below, and this article hopes to serve as an introduction to questions surrounding the official story.

1) FORESHADOWING

Many major landscape-changing events, such as 9/11, have all come with elements of foreshadowing (predictive programming) in the years — and sometimes decades — preceding the day itself.

The Port Arthur Massacre is no different, and unlike other events that are woven into the fabric of mass media or cinema, this particular circumstance is right in front of your face.

In 1987, then-NSW Premier Barry Unsworth, said after storming out of a national gun summit: “It will take a massacre in Tasmania before we will be able to introduce gun laws”.

Almost a decade later, his words would indeed become a reality.

2) THE POLICE RIFLE

In 1996, it was reported that one of the guns that was used in the massacre was handed into Victoria Police during the 1987 gun amnesty. If this gun was surrendered to police, how did it end up there?

Court documents also show bullets from different types of guns at the scene, including from police weapons, despite the fact most of the killings officially took place with no authorities around for hours.

3) PRE-PURCHASED MORGUE TRUCK

Prior to the Port Arthur massacre in 1996, the Tasmanian government ordered a custom design refrigerated morgue truck to hold 22 bodies.

The truck was sold soon after the massacre.

This is either very coincidental timing, or perhaps someone was ‘in the know’.

4) AUTHORTIES DIVERTED AWAY

On the day of the massacre, Royal Hobart hospital held a trauma seminar. Members of the royal college of surgeons were being taught new techniques for treating gunshot wounds.

If you zoom in from this photo taken from the 2018 annual meeting, you can see the 1996 meeting held on the very day the massacre occurred, April 28.

Likewise, just before lunch on the day of the massacre, Police received a phone call claiming there was a stash of heroin found at Saltwater River a 20-30 minute drive in the opposite direction to Port Arthur.

The only two police officers on duty in that district drove to Saltwater River.. only to find glass containers of soap powder. Here is a look at the distance between where these officers were and the site:

Suspiciously, many authorities would not show up to the scene for several hours, leaving victims with medical training and local residents the task of responding to the situation.

5) INQUIRY ABANDONED

In 1996, just months after the event occurred, there was growing support from victims for a Royal Commission.. but it was ultimately abandoned by the government.

Tasmanian Attorney General, Ray Groom, said it “wasn’t in the best interest of the public” to have “a long, drawn out inquiry”, despite calls from family members and victims for questions to be answered.

But it never happened.

“We should get on with the healing process”.

What about the healing process of those, like Wendy Scurr, who claimed it was a government operation?

6) MARTIN’S IQ

According to reports, upon assessment, Bryant had an IQ of just 68 and an intellectual functioning capacity of a much younger child.

According to the state psychologist, he had the “mind of about a 9 year old”.

Could such an infant-minded individual really massacre dozens of people in cold blood?

7) THE MARKSMAN

The shooter that shot the victims in the Broad Arrow Cafe shot right handed, and from the hip. Meaning he did not take aim down the sights. This is incredibly difficult for someone to do, especially someone with no military or tactical experience.

“The gunman was right-handed and held the rifle about 3 inches above the hip whilst
shooting.” – Graham Collyer, Port Arthur Massacre Survivor.

In 2017, for the first time, clips from Bryant’s police interview were released on Channel 7’s Spotlight.

In the interview with police, Martin reveals he is actually left handed when shooting.

DETECTIVE:
When you practiced your shooting, did you, where did you hold the gun?
MARTIN BRYANT:
Up like this, on my left
DETECTIVE:
So if you held a gun, you would pull the trigger with your a finger on your left hand?
MARTIN BRYANT:
Yeah that’s right, yeah

Martin is also asked if he ever practiced shooting from the hip.

MARTIN BRYANT:
No, never

Now, if you believe the official story, his marksmanship was beyond fantastic – twenty head shots, from the right hip, in 90 seconds. A movement of 3 degrees would have missed at 3-4 meters.

“Eighteen of the first twenty dead in the Broad Arrow Cafe died from single shots to the head, all fired by the marksman from his right hip in less than 90 seconds”, as described by Prosecutor Damian Bugg.

This is also confirmed on the Port Arthur memorial website:

Was this really possible? For an individual with the IQ of a child?

Dutton admitted to the media that there was no forensic evidence to place Martin Bryant at the Broad Arrow Cafe. No finger prints, no DNA, no blood splatter. Was none collected?

Or, knowing the outcome of the trial beforehand, maybe they just didn’t bother to collect any..

8) GUILTY BEFORE TRIAL

Speaking of the trial, in the days after the massacre, the media published Bryant’s photo describing him as “the killer” before he had been charged with a crime.

This tainted any chance of a fair trial.

It also may have distorted witnesses memories who had seen the shooter. This happened before many witnesses were able to submit statements to the police.

In the days after the massacre, the Tasmanian director of public prosecutions warned the media he was considering contempt charges for anyone who published Bryant’s photo:

No charges were ever laid.

Bryant was kept in solitary confinement for 5 months until he changed his plea from not guilty to guilty.

Once the guilty plea was obtained, there would no longer be a trial.

To this day, Martin has never truly shown his side of the story in a court of law.

9) ALTERED NEWSPAPER IMAGES

In 1996, The Australian newspaper admitted they modified the eyes in Martin Bryant’s published photo giving him the look of a crazed killer. They said it was a “mistake”.

It was also alleged someone from the Hobart Mercury broke into Bryant’s home to obtain the photo.

If the media would resort to this type of behaviour, how can we believe anything else that was reported?

10) LEAKED POLICE FOOTAGE

In the years after the massacre, a police training video was interestingly ‘left at a garage sale’.

How did it turn up there?

The video was of the crime scene including some of the victims.

In 2004, the video was being sold at a local market.

In 2011, the video was uploaded on to the internet.

The video showed police sweeping through the scene in the aftermath of the shooting with very fake-looking scenes of bodies on the cafe floor. Was this ‘leaked’ to silence questions at the time?

11) THE SHADY LAWYER

In 2008, Bryant’s lawyer John Avery was sentenced to four years and six months’ imprisonment after pleading guilty at Hobart Supreme Court to one count of misappropriation and 129 counts of stealing.

This is the same lawyer that convinced Martin Bryant’s mother to tell him she would not visit him unless he entered a guilty plea, a questionable move that would seal his fate in court.

12) THE ‘REAL’ MARTIN BRYANT?

Another problem for the official story is raised by Bryant’s hair.

The photos taken at a prior Richmond show that it was wavy throughout, not “fairly straight with a bit of a wave in it”. Yet most witnesses said that the gunman’s hair was straight, with a wave only at the bottom.

Witness statements fluctuate between those that said his hair was collar-length, and those that stated that it went down to his shoulders, as our good friend Lindsay ‘The Silverfox’ explains:

The aforementioned photos of Bryant taken at Richmond raise questions about his hair colour.

Further doubts about the whiteness of Bryant’s hair are raised by the news footage showing Bryant arriving at the Royal Hobart Hospital.

In frames from this video footage — the last images of the accused man ever captured — it is apparent that he had brownish hair with blond streaks, rather than white or “really blond” hair.

It is also obviously collar length.

Some have suggested the real gunman had peroxided his hair in an effort to emulate Bryant’s hair, which may have looked white or blond in very strong sunlight.

13) GUN CONTROL AGENDA

In just 12 days after the massacre, the Australian states and territories came together to establish a National Firearms Agreement (NFA), under the pressure of John Howard, who had just won the election.

The NFA restricted ownership of automatic and semi-automatic weapons and made it harder to obtain a gun licence. But is Australia really safer?

You be the judge.

LEARN MORE

Much of the information above is just scratching the surface of questions surrounding this event, and if you would like to learn more, please visit some of the links below.

ARTICLES

The Port Arthur Massacre

PORT ARTHUR: THE DISSENTING NARRATIVE

Port Arthur Inquiry

VIDEOS

BOOKS

Noel McDonald: “A Presentation on the Port Arthur Incident: Prelude to a Royal Commission”, (2001);

Andrew McGregor: “Deceit and Terrorism – Port Arthur”, (2001-2004);

Wendy Scurr: “My experiences at Port Arthur” in “Deceit and Terrorism – Port Arthur” Andrew McGregor (2001-2004);

Stewart Beattie: “A Gunsmith’s Notebook on Port Arthur” (6th edition May 2006);

Carl Wernerhoff: ‘A Critical Study of the Port Arthur Massacre”, (2006);

Ian McNiven: “Port Arthur Coverup”, (2009?);

Carleen Bryant: “My Story” (2010);

Keith Allan Noble: “Mass Murder, Official Killing in Tasmania Australia” (2013);
“Official Terror in Tasmania Australia” (2019);

STAY TUNED

In 2016, TOTT News had the pleasure of interviewing Port Arthur survivor Wendy Scurr in-person, recording almost two hours of content in one of her last discussions ever before she passed.

Wendy was in the cafe that day, and for decades campaigned for what she described as “the truth” to be revealed, hinting on numerous occasions of a government conspiracy.

Here is Wendy speaking at the famous Inverell Forum, a pre-internet, in-person event that was held annually to gather truth-seekers from across Australia on a number of topics.

For the first time ever, TOTT News will be releasing this audio and will be building a dedicated Port Arthur website to compile some of the great work done by researchers over the years.

One of Wendy’s last wishes was that young individuals like myself brought Port Arthur into the digital age, so the truth is not lost with time, and I still hope to fulfil her wishes.

Not only did she grace us with her time, in a secret location she had arranged due to continued fear over the authorities targeting her, but she also provided us with much of the research she had compiled.

Let me tell you, ladies and gentlemen, some of the information will shock you. Wendy was there for it all: the shooting, the court proceedings, and the life of fear she would endure afterwards.

Stay tuned for more information on this special project, and for the podcast.

RIP, Wendy Scurr.