It was the chilling phone conversation journalist Alison Smith never expected to have.
As word spread of a major incident at the Port Arthur historic site in Tasmania, Smith raced to the scene.
Seeking more information in a pre-internet era, she phoned Seascape Cottage, a guesthouse about five kilometres away from Port Arthur, to see if anyone there knew what was going on.
She never expected Bryant himself to answer the phone.
By this point, he’d finished his murderous spree at Port Arthur and holed himself up in the guesthouse along with a hostage.
Journalist Alison Smith found herself on the phone with Bryant as the situation unfolded.
Bryant’s
callous actions left a nation in mourning.
“All I could hear was this hysterical high-pitched laughter that went on for quite a few seconds,” Smith recalled, before revealing what Bryant told her: “I can tell you that I need to take a shower, because right now, I’m covered in blood. Don’t think about calling the police – I’ve got a couple of hostages. If you call the police, I’m going to kill the hostages.”
Smith features in the
first episode of a new ABC docuseries I Was Actually There, which revisits newsworthy events from the past, retold by the people who were there.
Survivors and first responders of the Port Arthur massacre share their memories from the day in 1996 when gunman Martin Bryant killed 35 people and wounded 23 others at the Tasmanian tourist attraction.
Smith recalls how Bryant then hung up, and she immediately called the police commissioner’s
office to pass on the information.
Bryant remained in that guesthouse for 18 hours before a fire started, presumably set by him, and he was captured by police in the ensuing chaos.
Bryant is currently serving a lifelong prison sentence in Hobart, with no possibility of parole.
The charred remains of Seascape guesthouse after the siege had ended. Fire Picture: Supplied
The first episode of I Was Actually There airs 8pm Tuesday, July 9, with the full six-episode season then available to watch on ABC iView.
