THE PORT ARTHUR MASSACRE - 28 April 1996

Andrew MacGregor's talk to Launceston Speaker's Club

Thank you all for coming here tonight to listen to me.  It has been 6 years since Wendy Scurr and I last spoke here on the Port Arthur massacre, and since then a lot of evidence has turned up that totally disputes everything the media and our governments have stated.  It is though my belief that we may have some people here who are not aware of what Wendy and I stated last time, so I shall start from the beginning.  That’s always a good place to start.

For Martin Bryant to have acted in the manner described by our media and the government in murdering 35 people at Port Arthur on the 28th April 1996, there would have been a massive built up of anger and frustration.

The Tasmania Police Negotiator, Sgt Terry McCarthy referred to this expectation, but noted that it was entirely absent from Martin Bryant, when Sgt McCarthy was speaking to him during the Siege at Seascape Cottage.  Sgt McCarthy made another observation of Martin Bryant.

McCarthy stated it was as though he (Martin Bryant) was speaking from a script.

Martin Bryant was speaking from a script.  This is what the expert, Sgt Terry McCarthy has stated emphatically, and for his comments and actions in trying to bring out the truth, McCarthy lost his job.

Martin Bryant’s girlfriend, Petra Willmott gave us another clue.  Petra made two vital statements, (1) that Martin wouldn’t hurt a fly, and (2) that Martin was always looking for action.  Martin once drove past a motor car accident, and drove around it a couple of times to check it out.  Now what Petra was not aware of was the fact that Martin Bryant was not licensed to drive a motor car.  If we compare this story with that of Angelo Kessarios from the Midway Newsagency, who knew Martin Bryant when he resided at Copping, and that Bryant used to drive in the early morning, that is prior to 6.00 am to avoid police, but just prior to the Port Arthur massacre, Bryant had lost his fear of being caught by the police.

I wonder if this change of behaviour had anything to do with Bryant’s friendship with the Tasmania Police’s only full-time SOG member, Sgt Michael Charles Dyson.

On Sunday the 28th April 1996, Martin Bryant’s journey from New Town to Seascape Cottage was remembered by various witnesses, as though to document this particular trip.

Angelo Kessarios from the Midway Newsagency, Spiros Diamantis from the Sorell Supermarket, a small store, not a giant Coles or Safeway.  Then there was Gary King from the Shell Service Station at Forcett, who served Bryant with some coffee between 11 am and midday and Bryant sat in his car and drank that coffee for about 8 to 10 minutes.  Now please notice that in each of these incidents where Martin Bryant has been identified, Bryant has actually broken his journey to Seascape Cottage, entered a business premises and has acted in a manner that caused the witness to remember him.  Then there was Christopher Hammond at Taranna, where Martin Bryant bought some petrol for the Volvo.  Please note here that the petrol did not go into any container, and again the broken journey.

Then there was the witness not called for by the DPP, but who saw Martin Bryant driving the Volvo at Eaglehawk Neck at 11.30 am.  And finally we have Jai Nichols who was hitch-hiking from Port Arthur to Hobart, and saw the Volvo drive past him just after he passed the Fox and Hounds Hotel.

Then at about 12.30pm Jai saw the Volvo pass him heading back towards Hobart, and he actually saw the Volvo brake, and he thought he had a ride, but the Volvo turned right into Seascape Cottage.

Martin Bryant arrived at Seascape Cottage at approximately 12.30 pm on that Sunday.

Witnesses Andrew Simmons and his wife Lynn were outside of their house opposite Seascape Cottage waiting for a car that was to pick Andrew up for a work Seminar at Swansea, when they both heard two shot emanating from Seascape at 10.40 am.  At this time Martin Bryant is drinking coffee at Forcett as per the witness Gary King.

Doug McCutcheon heard a series of rapidly fired shots emanating from Seascape, possibly 6 – 12 shots between 10.00am and possibly 11.00am.

And these shots heard by three or four witnesses, occurred at least 100 minutes before Martin Bryant arrived at Seascape.

Now the DPP, Mr Damian Bugg QC told the Hobart Supreme Court that the shots heard by Andrew and Lynn Simmons killed David and Sally Martin.  The fact that Constable Gary Whittle saw Mrs Sally Martin naked, running around the back yard of Seascape Cottage yelling and screaming, after 2.30 pm, and that the dog was barking, means that Mrs Sally Martin was not shot at 10.40 am.  In fact according to a report by Sgt Gerard Dutton, Mrs Martin died from multiple fractures to the back of her skull, while David Martin was shot twice.

David Martin was shot twice, the shots being heard by Andrew and Lynn Simmons at 10.40 am, when Martin Bryant was 58 kilometres away drinking coffee at the Shell Service Station at Forcett.

I would like to pass by the actual shooting at Port Arthur and go directly to the Siege at Seascape Cottage.

After the shootings at Port Arthur and the kidnapping of Glen Pears, the gunman, and this was not Martin Bryant, drove back to Seascape Cottage, drove across the highway and parked the Volvo facing oncoming traffic outside Seascape and then started to shoot-up the oncoming traffic.  One of the first cars that was shot up was driven by a Canadian diplomat Simon Williams, and both Simon and his wife Susanne Williams received wounds from the fractured glass, Mrs Williams losing her left little finger.  It has been noted that the Canadian High Commissioner to Australia had visited the Port Arthur Historic Site in the month prior to the massacre.

Now I wish to emphasise here in no small terms that Canada and Australia are major players within the UN treatise on Gun Control, and the move to remove America’s 2nd Amendment.

After this shooting spree, the gunman then jumps back into the Volvo, and drives down to the front of Seascape Cottage, and reverses up to the front door.  Track marks were clearly visible from later overhead photographs taken of Seascape Cottage, showing the tracks made by the Volvo from that position at the front door of Seascape Cottage, to the rear of the cottages on very wet ground, to where the Volvo was parked, and bogged beside some curly willow trees.

At approximately 2.30pm the first two policemen arrive at Seascape; Constable Paul Hyland from Nubeena, the local station and Constable Gary Whittle from Taranna.

Constable Whittle parks the police car at the top of the driveway into Seascape and thus blocks that venue for any escape attempt.  Constable Hyland drives his car up the road about 200 metres to the high ground and thus has the best view possible of the area.  It is at this stage that Constable Whittle sees a naked female running about in the back yard of Seascape Cottage, yelling and screaming, and this can only be Mrs Sally Martin.

Constable Hyland states that he saw a black-haired person who appeared to be naked at Seascape.  Again, Mrs Sally Martin.  Constable Hyland also states that whilst he was holding this position on the highway above Seascape; “Two ambulances had driven past me, heading south.”

Think about this for a moment.  Constable Hyland has been made aware that he has a mass murderer armed with some very high-powered rifles in Seascape Cottage, and yet he permits two ambulances to drive past him and into range of the killer at Seascape Cottage.

We have only one ambulance where the driver stated that he drove past Seascape Cottage and that was Jim Giffard from Taranna.  Jim actually told Wendy Scurr that he had to slow down to avoid colliding with the two police cars that were blocking the highway at Seascape.

In other words, when the ambulance went past Seascape Cottage, Constable Whittle’s police car was in the driveway, and Constable Hyland’s police car and another police car were blocking the highway just north of Seascape Cottage.  The other police car belonged to the SOG member, Sgt Andrew Mark Fogarty, the policeman who set fire to the BMW (so as to negate it being used as a get-away vehicle, according to a Tasmania Police CIB member) and to Seascape Cottage on the following morning.

Now what you must remember is that the gunman after shooting all the people at Port Arthur, kidnapping Glean Pears and shooting his companion Zoe Hall, and then driving to Seascape where he shot up several passing cars including the Canadian Diplomat, there is no shooting at this stage.

I guess the gunman was having his smoko.  I wonder if Const Hyland was aware that the gunman was having his smoko?

Another police-car arrives driven by Constable Pat Allen, and Pat Allen also drives past Seascape Cottage and drops his offsider Perry Caulfield off at the Fox and Hounds Hotel, and then returns to back-up Constable Whittle at the driveway of Seascape Cottage, and at this time, the gunman has finished his smoko and the shooting is back on.

Why was there this break in the shooting????

The gunman at Seascape, or perhaps gunmen, as there were reports of the gunman shooting from two different buildings, and of shots being fired at police whilst those police had the gunman in view, but without seeing the gunman shooting at them.  The Tasmania Police alleged that the gunman fired over 250 shots during the siege at Seascape Cottage.

The Tasmania Police however had strict instructions that they were not to shoot the gunman.

Deputy Commissioner, later Commissioner Richard McCreadie gave us two explanations as to why the Tasmania Police were not permitted to defend themselves and shoot the gunman.

(1)   There were very strict rules of engagement

(2)   If the police had shot the gunman then that would have required a Coronial inquiry.

Neither of these explanations stand up to scrutiny.  However, in one of the police negotiator tapes between Sgt Terry McCarthy and Martin Bryant, we have Bryant talking whilst in another room, somebody fires an SKK rifle.  There were in excess of 20 such shots recorded on the Police Negotiator tapes whilst Bryant was talking with Sgt McCarthy.  In other words, Martin Bryant is not the gunman.

Who was the gunman at Seascape Cottage?

It was recorded that Martin Bryant’s companion inside Seascape Cottage was called ‘Rick’.  Police and the media have put forward the idea that ‘Rick’ was actually the hostage, Glen Pears, but that is not correct.

After reading the Police negotiator tape transcripts, we realise that Martin Bryant knows Rick quite well, has met ‘Rick’s wife’, is aware of the family connections and that the family resides in Lauderdale, and that Rick is a top member of the Tasmania Police SOG’s.  It also becomes obvious that Rick was running the show.  Then with other information we were able to identify Rick as being Mick Dyson, or to use his full name and title, Sgt Michael Charles Dyson of the Tasmania Police SOG.

The gunman at Seascape Cottage was Sgt Michael Charles Dyson of the Tasmania Police SOG’s.

According to police statements Martin Bryant’s photograph was circulated amongst the police SOG’s headquarters at about 10.30pm on the Sunday night.  In other words, the Tasmania Police had identified ‘Jamie’ at Seascape as Martin Bryant and besides the photograph would have had a fairly accurate description of him, including his inability with firearms.

With this in mind, when we look at Sup’t Bob Fielding’s synopsis that the SOG’s would have suffered a 30% casualty rate if they had tried to take the gunman, as somewhat ludicrous.  Of course, after years of training and preparations for such an event, and the writing of several scenarios similar to ‘Die-Hard’ films, perhaps for them it was a possibility, but for the last seven years of my police experience, the quickest way to end a siege was to send in a police dog.  The SOG however prefer to use firearms and arson.

At 0600 hours on the Monday morning, the local CFA unit is put on alert as per instructions from Sup’t Bob Fielding, and stationed itself at the Fox and Hounds Hotel, that is within a kilometre of Seascape Cottage.

At 0747 hours Seascape Cottage is reported to be on fire.  In a ‘secured area, a Channel 9 film crew is on the other side of Long Bay filming the action.  At 0824 hours, Martin Bryant is observed leaving the burning Seascape Cottage.  At 0835 hours Martin Bryant is arrested by members of the SOG.

It took the Tasmania Police SOG’s, 11 minutes to arrest a suspected terrorist, Martin Bryant who had emerged from a burning building with his clothes on fire.

Now this is not the record.  In the Aramoana Massacre, it took the New Zealand Police anti-terrorist squad three days to locate and kill the gunman.  In all 34 hours to locate the gunman in his home, force him out and then put 7 bullets into him, and the gunman David Gray bled to death.

And that episode also starred Sgt Michael Charles Dyson of the Tasmania Police SOG

At Seascape, one story is that the ‘Arrest Team’ had to leave their positions, journey back to the highway, collect their ‘anti-ballistic shields, clamber onto an SOG vehicle driven by Sgt Andrew Mark Fogarty, be driven down the driveway of Seascape Skirting Const Whittles police car, dismount from the vehicle, surround the now naked person of Martin Bryant and then arrest him.

Procedures Sir, they must follow procedures.

I have seen films depicting emergency police actions such as these.  The films were of the Keystone Cops.  Australia has spent Millions of dollars to train our quasi-military police anti-terrorist squads to the highest levels of competency in combating major violent crime, to the level of the Keystone Cops.

Now this concludes the parts of the Port Arthur massacre that featured Martin Bryant.  We can prove with the various witness statements that Martin Bryant was not present at the murder of David Martin.  We can demonstrate that somebody else and we believe that person was Sgt Michael Charles Dyson who fired at police during the siege of Seascape Cottage, and who we also believe murdered Mrs Sally Martin by smashing the back of her skull in with a very angry blow from the butt of his rifle.

The gunman at Port Arthur.

The first sighting of the gunman at Port Arthur was by Gaye Lynd and her companion Vicki, whose van had broken down just outside Seascape Cottage due to overheating, and the girls had stopped and were letting the motor cool down before putting some water into the radiator.

The Volvo sedan complete with surfboard on top pulled up behind their van and the blonde haired driver got out and asked what was wrong.  Now the blonde-haired driver must have had a nose for it, and must have smelt the marijuana that Vicki had smoked because he asked if they had any for sale and the two girls sold him a packet for $50 and he paid for with a $50 note.  He also told the girls that he was going to the ‘Isle of the Dead’ to kill some wasps.  Then when the girl’s van wouldn’t start, he reached inside the van to the battery, juggled with the leads, and said here’s your problem, you have a loose lead.  The van started and off went the girls.

This was not Martin Bryant, for three obvious reasons.

(1)   Martin Bryant did not partake in drugs, including marijuana.

(2)   Martin Bryant knew nothing about the electrical system in motor cars.

(3)   Martin Bryant knew nothing about the two busloads of American tourists that had arrived just prior at the Port Arthur Historic Site.

How did this person know about the two busloads of American tourists?

Why did this person tell the girls he was going to the Isle of the dead to kill some wasps?

It is interesting to note that neither of these two girls were given the police Identification board to identify the gunman as Martin Bryant.

The gunman then drives to the tollbooth at the Port Arthur Historic Site, where he again pays the entrance fee with a $50 note.  Again, something happens and there is a small commotion and Aileen Kingston has cause to remember the driver, and later identifies the gunman by Martin Bryant’s passport photograph, the passport being found by police in the Volvo’s glovebox.

The gunman parks the Volvo in the bus carpark.  There were some complications here, but the gunman ended up parking the Volvo where he wished to park.  He then went into the information office to collect his ferry ticket and discovered that the ferry schedule had been altered.

The gunman then went into the Broad Arrow Café, stood in the queue, with his very heavy ‘Prince’ sports bag and bulky video camera, bought two drinks and some sandwiches for lunch, went out on the balcony scoffed down the lunch, mumbled a lot to himself, tried to chat up Rebecca McKenna, then still carrying his sports bag and video camera, picked up the tray with his scraps on, tried to re-enter the café, almost lost the tray, had the door held open for him, went inside the café, placed the tray on an empty table, opened up the bag withdrew the AR-15 and started the massacre.

The shooting has now started in the Broad Arrow Café.  I would now like to go back to what the gunman said to Gaye Lynd and her friend Vicki at the broken down van outside Seascape Cottage.  “I’m going to the Isle of the dead to kill some wasps.”  What did the gunman say to Rebecca McKenna?

“There’s a lot of wasps around.  There’s not many Japs.”

So now in the Broad Arrow Café, where the shooting has started and once the patrons realised what was going on they all dived for the only cover they could find.  For most, it was on the floor under their tables, except for one man, Anthony Nightingale, a loans officer from the Commonwealth bank at Noble Park.  He jumped up and called out to the gunman, “No, no, not here!!!”  Apparently Anthony Nightingale was also aware that the ferry was to have been the target.  For his actions, Anthony Nightingale was shot in the neck and was killed, and the gunman simply walked around the café shooting his victims in the head as they lay on the floor.

Another of the victims was a former South African Cape Coloured by the name of Tony Kistan, who was a devout Christian, and after fleeing South Africa in 1984 where he was 2IC of the NCA, Nelson Mandela’s Communist Party under the Lithuanian Jew Joe Slovo.  After Joe’s wife was killed by a letter bomb, and Nelson had decreed that there would be no Cape Coloureds in the NCA, Tony Kistan migrated to Sydney where he joined the Salvation Army.   By the way his sister is still a spokeswoman for the South African Gun Control Lobby.

The third member of this team, which was killed, was Andrew Bruce Mills, a local who was not a local, but had moved down from Sydney, and resided with his boyfriend in Mornington, outside of Hobart, and his parent’s resided in Mornington Victoria.

The only American who was wounded inside the Broad Arrow Café was Dennis Olson, who was with his wife, Mary on their ‘honeymoon’.  Dennis received shotgun pellet wounds to the face chest and arm.  Dennis told a media interview held in the Royal Hobart Hospital that when he returned to America he would be jumping on a soap box to talk about his passion, gun control.

Thus we have two ASIO operatives killed inside the Broad Arrow Café, and a South African Communist Party member. And an American anti-gunner wounded.

Now the gunman on completion of the shooting inside the Broad Arrow Café, reloaded the weapon he was carrying, took his sports bag which contained his other weapons, the AR10 and the Daewoo shotgun, and left Martin Bryant’s ‘Prince’ sportsbag and video camera on the table inside the café, and then left the café, shooting in the air to dispel any nearby persons.

Wendy Scurr was told by Ashley Law that as she and her companions fled from the Information Centre the gunman fired over their heads.

The gunman then went down to the bus parking area and continued to shoot at persons within that area, killing another four victims.  The gunman then left the carpark, in the Volvo, driving towards the tollbooth, where he saw Nanette Mikac with her two young daughters.  The gunman stopped the car and when Nanette Mikac approached the car with her two daughters, he shot them with the AR15.

Mrs Mikac, who was carrying her three year old daughter, with the six year old beside her, and had already fled 600 metres, would have believed that they were being offered assistance, instead they were being lured to their death.  What this means is that they had been deliberately selected as murder victims.  Why deliberately select a mother and two young daughters out of all the fleeing survivors, why?

Consider this Statement made by CNN’s John Raedler based in Sydney.  He attended at Port Arthur along with another CNN employee, Hugh Williams of Sydney, but based in Berlin and at home at the time on leave.

Johnston’s (Superintendent Jack Johnston) explanation of the fate of the Mikacs was the classic ‘win-win’ sound bite.

This demonstrates that the murder of Nanette Mikac and her two daughters was evaluated as the most powerful tool to be used in the anti-gun propaganda by the media.

The gunman then drove the Volvo to the tollbooth where he parked the Volvo on the grass to the left of the carriageway.  Witnesses who had driven up to the tollbooth totally unaware of what had occurred inside Port Arthur saw the BMW and the Volvo parked on either side of the tollbooth.  They also saw Mrs Helene Salzmann seated in the front passenger seat of the Volvo, and Mr Robert Salzmann seated in the rear right passenger seat of the Volvo.  This is not an error.  The witnesses saw the Salzmanns seated not in the BMW but the Volvo.  They then saw Robert Salzmann get out of the rear passenger seat of the Volvo and start arguing with the driver of the Volvo, an unarmed person with long blonde hair.  They then saw the driver of the Volvo walk around the front of the Volvo, and emerge from the rear of the Volvo carrying a rifle.  This rifle could only have been collected from the rear left passenger side of the Volvo, right next to where David Salzmann was seated.  They then watched the gunman shoot Robert Salzmann.

The driver of the BMW, Russell Pollard then left the driver’s seat of the BMW and walked over to the gunman as if to challenge him, and the gunman then shot Russell Pollard.  Mrs Salzmann had by this time got out of the front passenger seat, and simply stood at the rear left passenger door, and the gunman walked up to her and shot her, the bullet passing through her body and then smashing the rear left passenger door window.  The gunman then walked over to the BMW dragged Mrs Rose Nixon out of the BMW and then shot her.

Now why did the BMW after the people inside this car witness the murder of Mrs Mikac and her two daughters drive to the tollbooth, and stop at the entrance to the Port Arthur Historic Site?  Why didn’t they flee for their lives as other people had done?  Why did the Salzmanns leave the BMW and get into the Volvo sedan with a known killer?  They had seen the gunman kill the Mikacs, so why did they get into the Volvo?

Could it have been that since they were ‘Intelligence’ agents, and were part of the plan that they thought they were invulnerable?  Apparently so.

The Port Arthur Massacre as a planned anti-terrorist exercise was a major cock-up.  The original plan called for the killing of American tourists on the ferry, and then beaching the ferry at Seascape Cottage.  They didn’t take into account that the ferry schedule had a fortnight prior changed from the summer schedule to the winter schedule.  This would have left the Volvo at Port Arthur with all of it’s clues intact, such as Martin Bryant’s passport.

But there was also a required ‘hostage’ to explain the presence of ‘Rick’ at Seascape Cottage with Martin Bryant.  So how could the gunman steal the BMW and thus leave the Volvo behind at the tollbooth without murdering the occupants?  He couldn’t, and thus they had to die.  Did it matter to the gunman and his controller that these people were part of the ‘anti-terrorist’ exercise?  Not on your Nellie.  They were expendable.

Thus whoever it was that ran the Port Arthur Massacre, and to make it easy for everybody to understand, I shall call them ASIO, though it could have been any Federal Government Intelligence Body, had a major catastrophe on their hands.  Not only had things not gone according to plan, but they had now lost 7 of their operatives.

One of the video-tapes released to the media after Martin Bryant’s sentencing hearing showed a person running down to the bus car-park outside the Broad Arrow Cafe whilst three men were having a chat on the verandah.  Joe Vialls pointed out that this was a fake video because it supposedly showed Martin Bryant running towards the buses and that Bryant’s head had been super imposed on the running figure.

On a careful examination of this video-tape we were able to identify the three men on the verandah, once we realised that they were part of the exercise.  The first to be identified was Hans Overbeeke because of his white Wellington boots he was wearing.  The second to be identified was Constable Justin Noble of the BCI (Bureau of Criminal Intelligence) that most corrupt Federal Police Body, and the third man puffing away on his cigarette was identified by ‘shooter’s news’ as Joe Vialls.

This also explains just how Joe Vialls knew that the gunman’s pitted face was caused by smallpox scars.  Joe Vialls knew and trained Ben Overbeeke, for the part of the gunman for the Port Arthur Massacre.

What I have given you all here tonight is just a scant run-down on the Port Arthur massacre.  There are so many facets of this event that I have not touched upon, the planning and preparation of the massacre, the many people involved with the massacre from police, bureaucrats, intelligence operatives, including the professional witnesses, the lies and the media manipulation.

I hope I have raised the level of awareness, and to demonstrate that awareness, I hope that you will now ask some questions of me, so that I can address some of your concerns about the Port Arthur massacre.

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