On Tuesday Sydney marks one year since Man Haron Monis walked into the Lindt cafe in Martin Place and held 17 people hostage for more than 16 hours.
In the horrifying end to the siege Monis murdered 34-year-old cafe manager Tori Johnson, and Katrina Dawson, 38, was killed by a bullet ricochet when police stormed the cafe. Monis was shot dead amid a chaotic hail of gunfire and flash grenades.
Thousands are expected to gather at Martin Place for a public twilight memorial at 8.15pm, followed by five nights of projected light tributes. A permanent memorial has been designed and a coronial inquest examining the siege continues. Victims continue to deal with their trauma.
The Monday morning siege shut down Australia’s largest city as scores of police closed block after block in a widening exclusion zone around the site. Monis, a notorious self-styled sheik, forced some hostages to call media or post videos to social media on his behalf, while others managed to contact friends and relatives. Later in the afternoon some hostages managed to escape, before the abrupt and violent culmination in the early hours of 16 December.
Several hostages were brought out with gunshot wounds. Paramedics performed CPR on Dawson, who died before she reached hospital. Johnson was pronounced dead at the scene.
A few hours later, as the dawn light crept over Sydney, the NSW premier, Mike Baird, stood before reporters and TV cameras “with the heaviest of hearts” to say “we have lost some of our own”.
“Sydney has been shamed by a tragedy none of us could imagine,” Baird said.
In the days that followed, thousands of flowers carpeted Martin Place, left by mourners and well-wishers. That tribute has inspired the design of a permanent memorial which will incorporate floral symbols in hundreds of small cubes inlaid into the pavement of Martin Place.
“This enduring memorial is intended to pay tribute to the victims and survivors who, by sheer chance, were caught up in that dreadful day,” Baird said last week.
The design, like the original floral tributes, “said to those that want to bring hate, we’re going to respond with love, we’re going to respond with peace”, Baird said. “And those that come and try and divide this city, this state, this country, well you won’t, we’re going to unite.”
The surviving hostages have given numerous interviews detailing their ordeal. Recently Harriette Denny spoke of the joys of a new baby with her partner Jorge Bonora. Jarrod Morton-Hoffman urged people not to be driven by fear towards religious intolerance and anger. Johnson’s mother has spoken of her “hero” son.
In March the Lindt cafe reopened its doors, an event attended by hundreds who lined up around the block. Inside two plaques honour Johnson and Dawson.
The details of 15 and 16 December are being painstakingly examined by a coroner’s inquest into Johnson and Dawson’s deaths. The inquiry, the first in Australia to examine a potential act of terrorism and one of the largest ever carried out, is due to finish before the second anniversary is reached.
The legal team has spent more than 10,000 hours combing through evidence, spoken to more than 14,500 individuals, viewed more than 1,200 hours of CCTV and media footage, canvassed 250 businesses, completed 9,300 investigative notes and taken more than 1,000 statements from police officers, experts and civilian witnesses.
Despite progressing through strictly segmented topics in hearings scheduled months apart, the inquest has proceeded extraordinarily fast. Rarely is an investigation by a coroner begun within a year of the death.
Some siege survivors have put life plans on hold awaiting the end of their involvement in the inquest, which for some will include giving personal testimony in March.
Coroner Michael Barnes will make recommendations on lessons from the response to the siege, and how NSW should try to prevent similar attacks.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Barnes acknowledged the continued trauma for victims in having to relive last year’s events.
“In the days following the siege, we saw a monumental outpouring of emotion as thousands of people paid their respects to Katrina and Tori at Martin Place,” Barnes said. “One year on, we need to remember these feelings will not have subsided, particularly for those directly impacted by the siege. In some instances, it could be worse.
“Often people are expected to get on with their lives after losing a loved one, but you cannot put time limits on grief. Everyone processes loss in their own way and we need to support those who are grieving no matter how long it takes.”
Steve Loane, the chief executive of Lindt Australia, paid tribute to the “remarkable strength and resilience” of the Lindt team and said proceeds from the Martin Place cafe on Tuesday would go to the Katrina Dawson Foundation and Beyond Blue, the charities nominated by the families of Dawson and Johnson. “We would like to thank the people of Sydney and everyone in Australia for their overwhelming support in the past year,” he said.
