The day started with a secret kiss. It ended in tragedy

Away from their guests, and before their wedding ceremony began, Maddy Edsell and Mitchell Gaffney met quietly under the Lovedale trees to steal a secret kiss – their last before becoming husband and wife.

Edsell, in a delicate veil and a strapless ivory gown, carried white roses; Gaffney wore a beaming smile and a rose in his buttonhole. Within moments, their life together would begin; they saw nothing but joy in their future.

Mitchell Gaffney and Maddy Edsell in a private moment before their wedding ceremony.Credit: Instagram

Not long after, a restored 1950s Volkswagen Beetle carried Edsell to a timber pontoon at the Hunter Valley’s Wandin Estate and the couple wed before family and friends as the fading sun reflected off the dam.

The union of Maddy and Mitch was a Singleton society wedding, of sorts; Gaffney, who turns 30 this year, is a key player for the Singleton Roosters Aussie rules men’s team, and Edsell is a stalwart for the women.

The 100-odd family and friends who gathered at Wandin on Sunday afternoon included Roosters players, as well as members of the cricket and netball clubs at Warrandyte, a leafy north-east Melbourne suburb where the couple once lived.

The wedding car was a vintage Volkswagen Beetle, owned by the bride’s family.Credit: Instagram

When the ceremony was over, the couple rode up to the reception in the Beetle, which had been lovingly restored by the bride’s father. “They’ve been holding on to it for 42 years and finally got it ready for Madeline’s wedding,” celebrant Ashley Ogle said on social media.

The couple married on a pontoon overlooking the Wandin Estate dam.Credit: Instagram

At the reception, friends sat on long tables that were decorated with roses and candles, and lit by chandeliers and fairy lights. There was a grand piano and a live band. After dinner, guests danced on the verandah.

Wandin Estate general manager Leona Emeny told Australian Community Media those at the wedding were “the most beautiful people”.

As the evening faded, many made their own way home. But some caught the chartered bus from Lovedale to their homes and accommodation in Singleton. The couple’s emcee, who posted a photograph of the bride and groom cutting a three-tiered cake decorated with roses, was among them.

Mitchell Gaffney and Maddy Edsell cutting their wedding cake.Credit: instagram.com/alextigani

The mood would have been buoyant; the day had been a magical celebration of a much-loved couple.

Soon after 11.30pm, the joy turned to horror.

The bus driver, who one police source said was “driving erratically”, lost control as he went through a roundabout. The bus crashed to its side. Revellers, who just an hour earlier had been dancing, were crushed beneath its bulky frame.

A NSW Ambulance inspector was first on the scene. There was carnage and chaos. Quickly, the inspector realised that at least seven of the passengers, still decked in their wedding finery, were dead.

NSW Fire and Rescue arrived next, scrambling for tools to lift the bus enough to pull a victim from beneath it. Other officers smashed the front windscreen and pulled victims out, as ambulances and police raced to the scene.

Some bodies were unrecognisable. The mother of the emcee and local journalist Alex Tigani – who was injured in the crash – said the road resembled a war scene. She told news.com.au that her son was “covered in other people’s blood”.

Emergency services worked through the night. Victims were taken to hospitals by ambulance and helicopter as reports of the horrific end to a blissful evening began to reach other guests.

By morning, the full horror was clear. Ten guests were dead and more than 20 were in hospitals around Newcastle and Sydney. It was Australia’s worst bus disaster in a generation; not since a 1994 crash in Brisbane have so many lives been lost.

Police investigators work the scene of the fatal bus crash on Monday afternoon.Credit: Nick Moir

On Monday, police were still working to identify the crash victims and contact their families. Guests at the wedding, and the bride and groom, declined requests to comment as they came to terms with the tragedy.

Jimmy Harris, president of the netball club in Warrandyte where Edsell played until she was 16, said the community was shocked. “It’s such a sad, sad thing to have happened, particularly on such a special day.”

NSW Premier Chris Minns acknowledged their trauma. “A day that was meant to be a joyous one, where family and friends could come together to celebrate something really special has obviously ended in unimaginable despair.”

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