Port Arthur massacre survivor, Maitland mayoress, speaks out | PHOTOS

Mrs Blackmore has spoken for the first time about the events of April 28, 1996 and how she thought she would be killed along with her elderly parents, Jean and Bob Pritchard.

The trio sat terrified, huddled under a window at the Broad Arrow Cafe crammed between a brick wall and a small garbage bin, listening to screams and gunshots echo through the packed Port Arthur cafe.

Bryant stood just a couple of metres away from the trio, wielding a gun but focusing on scores of tourists milling around cars and buses in a car park.

“He just looked straight ahead, if he had turned he would have seen us,” Mrs Blackmore said.

“Mum gasped as he walked onto the verandah where we were eating lunch. I had to try and silence her but Bryant was totally focused on the people in the car park.

“He took off and just started shooting them, in a bus, near their cars, there were bodies on the ground.”

Mrs Blackmore took her parents to Port Arthur for a short holiday. They had never been on a plane and were excited to visit the historic site.

Mrs Pritchard is now aged 92, Mr Pritchard passed away 18 months ago aged 94.

“We went into go into the cafeteria for lunch but inside was full so we walked out onto a verandah and found a table,” Mrs Blackmore said.

“We were eating lunch when we heard a couple of bangs and thought there may have been a re-enactment of some kind going on at the ruins.

“We saw people moving around and then heard more bangs. The noise seemed to come closer, from inside the cafe but we still didn’t know what was going on,” Mrs Blackmore said.

She looked inside the cafe and could see Bryant inside shooting people.

“We just got down on the ground. I was worried about mum and dad. We kept hearing the shots.”

Mrs Blackmore said Bryant came out onto the verandah about three metres from where she was hiding with her parents.

“He had a gun, and if he had turned sideways, we wouldn’t be here today.”

“At one stage he must have run out of ammunition. He walked to a his car and I don’t know if he reloaded or got another gun.”

Mrs Blackmore said Bryant open fired on more people before he got in a car and drove off. 

She said it was hard to say what she was feeling but said it was like watching a movie of which she was part.

“I tried to think this is not happening but it’s in front of you and it’s real.

“I ran down to the coaches and saw a woman on the ground face down. She had been shot and I didn’t know if she was dead.

“I took off my coat and put it over her. I didn’t know whether to roll her over but I did with the help of another woman. The injured woman let out a sigh. She didn’t make it.

“Police asked us to gather at a nearby motel. There was a woman there with a baby. 

“Her husband was shot and killed in the cafeteria,” Mrs Blackmore said.

Still grappling with nightmare she said there were no counsellors at the time who had dealt with any event of this scale.

“Every year it comes all flooding back. I’m nervous in crowds, I don’t like loud noises.

“I suppose I have become bitter to an extent but then I think there are people worse off.

“I went through the trauma but I’m still alive.”