Grieving dad's heartbreaking reaction after wife and daughters killed in massacre

A devastated father has spoken of the heartbreaking moment he found out his wife and two young kids had died in a mass shooting .

Walter Mikac, 56, admitted he felt suicidal after Nanette, and kids Alannah, six and Madeline, three, were killed in the Port Arthur massacre in Australia.

During a moving interview in Anh Do's Brush With Fame, an Australian TV show on ABC yesterday, the pharmacist said: "Couldn’t he have even left me one?"

He added: "My initial thought was, 'I just want to go as well. I don’t want to be here if they’re not here.' My instinct was to actually run out into the site and hopefully die with them."

Crazed gunman Martin Bryant killed 35 people on April 28, 1996, in one of Australia's worst mass shootings.

The pharmacist comforts a young mourner at the funeral in May 1996 (Fairfax Media via Getty Images)

Mr Mikac was playing golf when he first heard about the shooting. He rushed to the Port Arthur Historic Site where he knew his wife and kids were going that day for a picnic.

But he was faced with scenes of devastation, which he compared to a "war zone".

Speaking ahead of the 23-year anniversary, the heartbroken dad added: "I was looking around the site and I found our car in the car park.

The mum and two youngsters were three of 35 people killed (Fairfax Media via Getty Images)

Mr Mikac is pictured at the Hobart Supreme Court, Tasmania, ahead of Martin Bryant's trial (Fairfax Media via Getty Images)

"It was like a war zone. It’s hard to describe really. People were in shock. It was just an awful place to be at that time."

And Mr Mikac was soon told the tragic news his family had been murdered.

"Pam, the local doctor who was friends with Nanette, came in and told me that Nanette and the children had all been shot and were all dead," the tearful pharmacist said.

Tributes were left near the shootings in Port Arthur (Fairfax Media via Getty Images)

Nanette had pleaded with the gunman not to hurt her kids.

"She pleaded with the gunman for the childrens’ lives. She said, 'Please don’t kill my children.'

"He shot her and then he shot the children. Alannah was hiding behind a tree and he actually went up to her and shot her there," Mr Mikac added.

The dad came face-to-face with Bryant when he appeared in court.

Mr Mikac is accompanied by police officers after the shooting (Fairfax Media via Getty Images)

The dad recently spoke of his grief as the 23-year anniversary of the massacre approaches (AFP/Getty Images)

"To sit at court have the person plead not guilty to all those charges, I remember thinking as I was sitting there, 'I just want to jump that dock and I just don’t want him to be here anymore.' But that wasn’t going to bring them back," he said.

"Let’s not let an event like this happen, and if it does, let’s minimise the possibility that it’s going to be as bad as this."

Mr Mikac established the  Alannah and Madeline Foundation in 1997, which has since helped two million children and their families nationwide.