What’s changed since Port Arthur

What’s changed since Port Arthur

It’s been 30 years since the Port Arthur massacre - when a lone gunman opened fire at the historical site in Tasmania, killing 35 people and injuring another 23. As many of us know, it led to big changes to Australia’s gun laws - an issue that’s come back into focus following the antisemitic terror attack at Bondi in December. So in this Squiz Shortcut, we’ll look at:

• What happened at Port Arthur

• The changes it led to

• And what’s happened since

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First up, where is Port Arthur?
It’s a town on the Tasman Peninsula, southeast of Hobart. It was a penal settlement in the 19th century, and was known for its tragic history long before what happened in 1996…

What’s there?
It’s one of our 11 World Heritage-listed Australian Convict Sites, and so it’s been a tourist destination for a long time. People go there to experience the history of the place and look at the ruins and historic buildings. And up until 28 April 1996, that’s how it was best known. 

What happened on that day?
It became the site of the most violent day in the history of modern Australia when Martin Bryant, a 28yo man living in New Town, Hobart, fatally shot 35 people - including 4 people under 18 - and left 23 injured. The toll of course was much more than that. It was a traumatising event for the people that live there - and for the nation as a whole… 

What do we know about Bryant?
On that day, he took 2 semi-automatic rifles and a shotgun and drove to the Seascape Cottage, a guest house by the water on the Tasman Peninsula. We won’t get too much into Bryant’s history - we covered it in a previous Squiz Shortcut that you can listen to here - but the reason he went to the cottage is that his father had once tried to buy it. 

Join the dots for me…
Bryant’s dad died by suicide a few years earlier, and before that, he’d been beaten to buying the property by a couple called Noelene and David Martin. From what we know, that triggered an angry response in Bryant, and he focused that rage on the Martins - heading to the cottage to shoot them both dead, which was confirmed by a psychiatric report leaked last year. He was planning to kill the couple over their refusal to sell the property, and then kept going. 

What else do we know?
Around the same time, he’d also reportedly been obsessed with a mass murder of schoolchildren in Dunblane, Scotland that took place around 6 weeks earlier, in March of 1996. After murdering the Martins, he went on to kill many more people, opening fire around the dining area and gift shop of Port Arthur. He was eventually captured by police, but not before shooting a hostage and setting fire to the guest house. It was a series of events that has left deep and long-lasting scars in the community. 

What happened to Bryant?
He pleaded guilty to the murders and was given 35 life sentences without the possibility of parole. He’s still in prison 30 years later - reports say largely in solitary confinement - and will be for the rest of his life.

What happened in the aftermath?
The aftermath of the massacre was felt in many ways, but the impact that is most commonly talked about is around Australia’s gun laws. The Prime Minister at the time, John Howard, and his Coalition government, made some significant changes to the way guns are handled in Australia.

How did they change things?
Despite pushback from the pro-gun lobby, the government brought in a full ban on automatic and semi-automatic firearms for civilians and a gun buyback scheme which saw 650,000 firearms destroyed. And that wasn’t all…

What else was brought in?
There was a new licensing system introduced that required a ‘genuine reason’ to own a firearm, new permits for each one, and a 28-day waiting period for new purchases. There were also plans set out for a national registration system to allow law enforcement to share information about gun owners. While that still hasn’t been done, it’s been scheduled to roll out in 2028.

Were the changes universally accepted?
No… It’s worth noting that the changes were unpopular with a group of voters that would have largely voted for the Coalition. But, with a while to go before the next election, Howard had time on his side to get it over the line. In a recent interview reflecting on the tragedy, Howard said that a letter from Walter Mikac was important to ensuring he went through with the legislation. 

Just explain that a bit more…
Walter Mikac lost his wife Nanette and his 2 daughters Alannah and Madeline in the Port Arthur massacre. He wrote a letter - which is in the National Museum of Australia - asking Howard to take the lead on gun laws in honour of his family’s legacy. It wasn’t easy - gun laws are state-based, so it needed buy-in from Premiers and Chief Ministers - but it happened. And for a long time afterwards, Australia’s gun laws were seen around the world as the gold standard…

Is that view still held?
Since then, we’ve had more mass shootings in recent years, like at Wieambilla in 2022 and the antisemitic terror attack at Bondi Beach in December 2025. As of very recently, there are 4 million guns in Australia, spread amongst about a million owners - that’s about a million more than there were at the time Port Arthur happened. 

Why have the numbers risen?
There’s a few reasons - one of them is that the states and territories weren’t fully complying with the National Firearms Agreement. Things had been allowed to drift, and numbers of gun owners and guns went up. Then there was the fact that the National Firearms Register still hadn’t been made, decades after it was promised in 1996. Each time this day comes around and we reflect on the attack and what took place, the discussion starts up again. But this year, it’s more urgent…

In the wake of the Bondi terror attack?
Yes… That’s when this drift in our gun control legislation was put firmly back at the forefront of people’s minds. As a reminder, it’s when 2 men opened fire on a Jewish celebration at Bondi Beach on 14 December, killing 15 people and injuring 40 others. It was the deadliest mass shooting in Oz since Port Arthur.

Remind me how the attackers were able to get the guns they used…
One of the shooters - Sajid Akram, who died at the scene - was a licensed gun owner. He owned those guns legally. And so the work started again on bringing gun ownership under control…

What was proposed?
The proposed restrictions would bring in a cap on how many and what type of weapons one person can own. But again, it’s been complicated because of the state factor - and even in the short time since Bondi, things haven’t happened as they were promised. One of the goals was for a full national framework on gun legislation by March. It didn’t happen by then as many of the states are still resisting. The new deadline to get those reforms passed is the first of July.

Who’s pushing back?
One of the states pushing back is Tasmania, the site of the Port Arthur massacre. Survivor Walter Mikac, who we mentioned earlier, has criticised Tasmania for that and says the state should be setting the standard as far as gun control goes. 

What is at the Port Arthur site now?
These days, Port Arthur has a range of memorials to those that were lost on that day. The cafe where Bryant killed multiple people has been preserved as a ruin - there’s a memorial garden there, and it’s a place of tribute to those that were lost. And even though 30 years have passed since that day, it’s still really raw for lots of the people who were there…

What’s happening to mark the 30th anniversary?
There have been some interviews with the people who were there that day. One of them is Cathy Goodman, who was with her music group. She said that she wakes up every day thinking it’s the 28th of April 1996. She says it’s the first thing she thinks of. Another one we read was with Rob Gordon, who has counselled people impacted by the shooting. He said that time actually adds significance to events like this, because “you realise what a profound impact it has had on your life”. 

Onto our Recommendations

Reading: The ABC’s article about the shootings and interview with Walter Mikac…

Watching: This John Oliver series on gun control legislation, featuring an interview with former PM John Howard… It’s still worth a watch, all these years later.

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