Soprano Amelia Farrugia and 40 others cheated death as they crouched in the dark while the gunman ran amok at Port Arthur

SOPRANO Amelia Farrugia was one of several Opera Australia cast members who were in the Broad Arrow Cafe in Port Arthur minutes before Martin Bryant started shooting 20 years ago.

Opera singer Amelia Farrugia sings with the Rosny Children’s Choir at the 10th anniversary memorial service of the Port Arthur Massacre in 2006.

TWENTY years ago a group of us from Opera Australia arrived in Hobart, a few days before opening night on Tuesday, April 30, 1996, to rehearse La Cenerentola (Cinderella) with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra (TSO).

I was playing one of the ugly step-sisters. On the Sunday (April 28) before the opening we had a day off. We wanted to enjoy ourselves, so what else do you do when you stay in Hobart but visit the convict ruins at Port Arthur.

There was a lovely lady named Cathy working for the TSO who took the group on the 90-minute drive to the historic site. We arrived shortly before lunch and went to eat at the Broad Arrow Cafe. We had no idea then that Martin Bryant was also there at the same time. We finished our lunch and I said to the group “Does anybody feel like a coffee” — because I always have a cappuccino after lunch, without fail. Neil Kirkby, a baritone playing a comic role in the opera, joked saying “I don’t think the coffee here is going to be up to my standard”. He liked the real deal, really strong, really good coffee. We were all just having a laugh, but we got up and left. That was eight minutes before the shooting began. We walked up to the top of the hill near the cafe. We were walking through the remains of a burnt-out cathedral, which looked like it had been bombed in a war, and were upstairs when we heard gunshots.

We all thought it was some kind of convict re-enactment, like they used to do at Old Sydney Town.

We all laughed and said “let’s go back down and check that out, it could be fun”.

The Broad Arrow Cafe where opera singer Amelia Farrugia and her colleagues had been only minutes before Martin Bryant started shooting on April 28, 1996.

But as we were heading down the hill towards the cafe, a man ran up the hill toward us. He was as white as a sheet and said: “He’s got a gun, he’s shooting everyone, run for your lives!”

We could tell from the tone of his voice and his pallour that he wasn’t kidding. At that point we were still kind of half laughing, half panicked.

We ran along the side of some convict enclosures that had no windows or doors that we could lock, but could give us some protection, so we hid in there. There were maybe about 40 people hiding there, crouched together in the dark, hiding there all day. Every few hours the police tried to communicate with us. An officer came to tell us “We’re trying to contain the man. At the moment he is in a yellow Volvo.” The next message — a few hours later — was “He is now on foot.” Which was horrible for us because we thought now that he wasn’t in a car we wouldn’t be able to hear him coming. He could just run in at any time and kill us all. We felt like sitting ducks. I started praying. I was holding the hand of my colleague, mezzo-soprano Roxanne Hislop, and together we prayed, pretty much all day. I remember thinking “this is it”. It wasn’t until the end of the day when it got dark and very quiet that an officer finally came to say “You can come down now”.

Police and forensics gather evidence at the Broad Arrow Cafe in Port Arthur where gunman Martin Bryant began his shooting.

By that time they had taken all the bodies, airlifting them by helicopter. They had protected us from seeing that. In that sense we were very fortunate, being shielded from the worst of it. But it was a highly traumatic experience and we were offered counselling by Opera Australia. Despite that, we still opened on Tuesday night as planned.

The most significant thing that came out of this was that Prime Minister John Howard changed the gun laws in our country.

It was a significant moment in Australia’s history. We set an example that I hope some day the Americans might emulate with their gun laws.

I will always pray and try to honour the survivors of that terrible day. In 2006 I sang a memorial marking 10 years since the massacre and today I will be performing at the official ceremony in Hobart to honour the people who were killed 20 years ago.

As told to Troy Lennon

Amelia Farrugia will sing at today’s official ceremony marking 20 years since the Port Arthur tragedy

Originally published as Soprano Amelia Farrugia and 40 others cheated death as they crouched in the dark while the gunman ran amok at Port Arthur