Melbourne’s struggle to shake off touch of evil
AT FIRST glance, the Lord Mayor’s plea to “return to normal” seems unnecessary as Bourke St brims with chatter and bustle. A closer look reveals otherwise, writes Patrick Carlyon.
VIC News
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“RETURN to normal.” That was yesterday’s plea from Lord Mayor Robert Doyle.
At first glance, his call seems unnecessary. Bourke St’s path of madness on Friday afternoon now brims with chatter and bustle.
Prams compete for space with buskers and shoppers.
Doyle need not urge Melburnians to go to Myer’s stocktake sale, or David Jones’ extra 25 per cent off sale.
They’re already there.
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Yet look closer, to the huddle of silence beneath the former GPO, Melbourne’s geographic heart. Or walk westwards along Bourke St, to the posies of flowers dotted on the dark grey footpath slabs.
Or consider Doyle himself. He freely admits he does not feel normal. Throughout a press conference with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Premier Dan Andrews, the PM repeatedly squeezes Doyle’s shoulder. Doyle looks wet-eyed and overwrought: afterwards, he admits he is “a bit shaky”.
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“I like the way you care,” a wellwisher tells him near the swelling pile of flowers and soft toys in the Bourke St Mall.
“I feel pretty sad today,” he replies, shrugging. He leads journalists to the condolence card that touches him most deeply: “What happens here happens to us all.”
Doyle gives the impression that he has read — and absorbed — every note here. As he says a few moments later, he doesn’t know how to grasp the events of Friday afternoon. What he does know is that he will carry on.
“It’s just sad,” he says. “You just reflect on those children and the people who were hit here and you can’t help but be moved by what’s been a terrible tragedy in our city that’s so foreign to us, so foreign to our way of life. It’s difficult to process. It’s difficult to understand what the right reaction is to it.”
Other clues point to ructions beneath the wider veneer of normality. Some of the written tributes reflect a defiance that leaders will increasingly be compelled to address in coming days. How the hell did this happen?
One passer-by, spotting Turnbull’s arrival soon after 12.30pm, yells: “We need tougher laws, Mr Turnbull.”
Andrews, too, confronts the bald truth of the public frustration. “We are sad, we are angry, and we are resolute in making the changes that need to be made to learn from this,” he says. “To honour that three-month-old baby, and to honour all those who have lost their lives here and all of those who have had their lives forever changed.”
Is Andrews himself frustrated by Victoria’s justice system, which allowed the man accused, Dimitrious Gargasoulas, to be on bail?
“Yes, I am.”
Perhaps Andrews gleans the mood in the more recent offerings at the memorial yesterday. Simple expressions of grief have acquired an edge of confusion and anger. Near a tiara and wand set reads a card: “Justice must be done”.
“The worst kind of sad is not being able to explain why this had to happen,” reads one message. Another note lists five points of apology, including the inability to “protect” people in “beloved Melbourne”.
Federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, during his own press conference, uses the “evil” label again and again. His defiant tone is imbued with pride, as he gestures to the throngs in acknowledgment of community spirit.
The police speak of 300 witness statements and counting. As for safety, Turnbull declares that Australia has the best police force in the world. Safety, he says, is the most important task of any government.
“If changes need to be made, based on facts, they will be made,” says Andrews of perceived system failures.
“Resources will not be an issue, expense will not be an issue ... It’s my job to take that frustration and that anger and the deep sadness I feel, and every Victorian feels, and to make sure that that is put into reform and change …”
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The rhetoric, however, does not penetrate the rituals playing out in silence and solemnity at each of the smaller Bourke St shrines.
In the middle of Queen St, pausing at the hydrangeas and the card addressed to the “person that lay in the middle of the road here”, an elderly lady says: “Just paying my respects. Shocking.”
Outside the RACV Club, a man whispers to his daughter as they read a card to the “little boy who lay here”.
A single dried daisy now lies at the site of an upturned pram on Friday. “It’s just so emotional,” says a churchgoer, off to get flowers.
Doyle will be in his office at 9am today. Psychologists say that restoration lies in the power of routines, he says.
Services will be available to the grieving in Bourke St Mall.
But Doyle will set to working, while pondering a shock that for him, as this city’s Lord Mayor, is deeper than that of Black Saturday.
“This is at home,” he says. “This is our home.”
Fund started for victims ahead of vigil
The Bourke St fund has been set up, with Premier Daniel Andrews stressing 100 per cent of the fund would go towards helping victims.
The government has already donated $100,000 to the victims’ fund.
Victorians wishing to donate to the fund can do so by donating to:
Westpac Banking Corporation
Name of account: Bourke Street Fund
BSB: 033 009
Account Number: 668251
People can also phone 1800 226 226 for advice on how to donate.
More details here: vic.gov.au/bourkestreet
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