NEED TO KNOW
- Jane Scholefield has shared her powerful story of surviving the 1996 Port Arthur massacre.
- Still lives with PTSD and grief.
- Jane has offered heartfelt advice to survivors of the recent Bondi terror attack.
Jane Scholefield can vividly recall every detail about the day that changed her life forever – a day that left 35 others dead.
It was April 28, 1996, and Jane was visiting Port Arthur in Tasmania.
What began as a carefree day trip ended in carnage after a 28-year-old man named Martin Bryant arrived at the historic penal settlement and opened fire.
This week marks the 30th anniversary of the massacre.
A day of quiet reflection has been planned at the site, which Jane was asked to speak at.
Ahead of the memorial service, Jane, now 51 and based in Sydney, told New Idea, “It was an honour” to be asked to speak.
In the wake of the Bondi terror attack, she planned to talk about how important gun laws are, but said: “The message of the day is about love”.
The day Australia changed forever
It’s the absolute opposite of what was on display 30 years ago when Jane and her friend, Michael, found themselves running for their lives as Bryant pulled out a semi-automatic rifle in The Broad Arrow Café at the popular tourist spot.
Horrifically, Bryant, now 58, killed 20 people there in just two minutes.
“We hid behind a wall in the penitentiary building and then put our heads around a corner to see what was happening,” Jane says.
She recalls that Bryant had eerily stared at her earlier in the day.
“I saw him in the car park shooting. One person dropped,” Jane continues.
“He fired three or four shots into the penitentiary.”
There was a baby crying in a pram, and I remember telling the parents they had to shut it up, or he would find us.”
It was hours later before they could come out of hiding, horribly shaken but amazingly, unharmed.
“We had no idea of the scale of what happened, but there were bodies with jumpers over their faces on the ground … I remember seeing a lady with blood splattered on her jeans and wondering how that could have happened,” Jane says.
Jane’s life was never the same again
The following hours and days were filled with phone calls to family and the police.
Adrenaline and shock kept Jane upright, but then it was time to go back to “real life”.
“I slept on my parents’ floor for four months. I didn’t go out. I was 21, and I lost friends because they didn’t understand what I’d been through,” Jane says.
She and Michael received counselling but dealt with the trauma differently, leaving them to part ways.
“I learnt I’m never going to get over it, but I can get through it,” Jane says.
“PTSD and grief are like the ocean – some days it can be rough and awful, other days peaceful and calm.”
Returning to Port Arthur
Returning to Port Arthur in 1997 for the one-year anniversary was particularly triggering for Jane. But after more visits in subsequent years it’s become somewhere she can be at peace.
“The people deserve to be remembered there and it’s an honour to sit there and reflect,” she says.
“To lose someone in such a brutal, unfair and unkind way – it’s hard to fathom how people can go on but love can come in the aftermath,” Jane adds, pointing particularly to the Alannah & Madeline Foundation.
Founded by Walter Mikac and named in honour of his two daughters killed in the tragedy, the charity has raised millions of dollars.
Jane also credits the bipartisan agreement to tighten gun laws after Port Arthur as having kept Australia from another such tragedy these past 30 years.
However, the 15 deaths at Bondi on December 14, 2025, serve as a brutal reminder that there is always more to do.
To those people, who, like Jane 30 years ago, experienced the horror on Bondi Beach first-hand, she advises: “Be kind to yourself. It feels now like it will never end, but give yourself time. I didn’t want to hear that at first, but time really is the biggest healer.”
