In an interview with ABC’s Australian Story to air tonight, Port Arthur survivors recall the horrific tragedy that ended with 35 dead and 23 injured.
It was a last-minute pit stop on the way back from a holiday that put Peter and Pauline Grenfell at the Port Arthur Historic Site as the horrific massacre unfolded.
On April 28, 1996, Martin Bryant entered the Broad Arrow Café with a high-powered weapon, and in just 15 seconds, he’d killed 12 people and injured 17.
The Grenfells were at a nearby toilet block at the time, and thought the loud banging sound was a gas explosion. But just as they saw people running and yelling, “he’s got a gun and he’s shooting”, they saw the gunman come out of the café and start shooting in their direction.
“We were just so panicked,” Pauline remembered.
Everybody was heading towards an oval. We didn’t feel safe going to the oval; we thought we’re just going to be sitting ducks there so we decided to head up Jetty Road.”
Peter and Pauline shortly before they went to Port Arthur
A NSW police officer Justin Noble was on a second honeymoon at Port Arthur and was also there at the time.
He recognised the gun that Bryant was carrying – an AR-15, military-style weapon.
Justin said: “I’ve witnessed what they can do on firing ranges. They fire a bullet at supersonic speed.”
“In other words, the bullet hits you before you hear the sound.”
The 500 people there on the site that day were in complete shock.
“I was going around pushing people off the site, telling them that they had to get out, off the site, to take cover,” said Justin.
While the Grenfells were on Jetty Road, trying to find an escape route, they were joined by mother Nanette Mikac, and her two daughters – Madeline, 3, and Alannah, 6.
“I remember at least two cars driving past. They didn’t stop, they just kept going,” Pauline said.
“We must have been about 50 metres from the toll booth [exit] as this car pulled up and stopped. We thought: ‘Thank God, somebody’s going to pick them up and get them out of here’.”
But the driver was Bryant.
Pauline remembers Nanette walking towards the car. “The problem was she walked right into him,” she said.
Peter was almost at the passenger door of the car when he saw the gun on the front seat. “I yelled out, ‘It’s him, run’.”
Peter and Pauline were able to make it to a tree for cover, but Nanette, Madeline and Alannah were all shot dead.
Bryant then continued on with his killing spree.
“A mother and her two children saved us. They saved us, and I was always just so sorry we couldn’t save them,” said Pauline.
“They gave us the precious seconds to move away. So, yes, we were lucky and we were fortunate but that doesn’t take away the pain of what happened. That stays with you.”
Not long after the horrific tragedy, Walter Mikac, the husband of Nanette, learnt of his family’s last moments from the Grenfells.
“That was his family and he had a right to know that at least they didn’t suffer too much,” Pauline said.
“We all cried together. We felt, what could we do, why couldn’t we do something to save their lives?”
“Reality was, we couldn’t. Not without being killed. But I just felt so guilty. The guilt just ate at me.”
Peter said: “To be in that position and tell somebody what had happened, [that] you were the last person to see his family alive.”
“It was very hard. Very hard. But you cope.”
The full interview on Australian Story is on tonight at 8pm on ABC.
VIDEO: Emma Parkinson recounts the Bataclan massacre
