A permanent memorial for six people killed in the Bondi Junction massacre is still to come, after the first anniversary of the tragedy.
Dignitaries and community members commemorated victims of one of Australia’s worst mass killings in Sydney’s east on Sunday, one year on from the April 13, 2024, mass stabbing.
Ashlee Good, 38, Dawn Singleton, 25, Jade Young, 47, Pikria Darchia, 55, Yixuan Cheng, 27, and security guard Faraz Tahir, 30, were killed in the attack during a busy afternoon at a suburban shopping centre.
“You’re forever in our hearts,” read a card attached to one bouquet left at the memorial.
“We will always be thinking of you.”
Another expressed the “deepest sympathy to all who have lost their loved ones on this tragic day.”
Tahir—the security guard killed working his first-day shift at the centre—was remembered by family wearing his Westfield name badge.
NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb paid tribute to emergency services and civilians involved in the initial response.
“First responders, wherever they came from, will never forget,” Webb said at the scene.
Webb accompanied Inspector Amy Scott, who brought the rampage to an end, in laying bouquets and saluting at the scene.
Premier Chris Minns joined Governor-General Sam Mostyn and other dignitaries who paid their respects.
A permanent memorial is being planned, which Minns has said will not be rushed to ensure it does not add to the pain of families who lost loved ones.
Memorial visitor Raymond Khan told AAP he felt it was important to mark the anniversary and allow people to reflect.
“It could happen to any of us, any of us could have been in there,” he said.
Khan suggested a similar commemoration to one in Martin Place, where flowers have been inlaid in the ground to mark 2014’s deadly siege at the Lindt Cafe.
“I don’t think it has to be a big thing, people will come and go, and people will stop and remember,” he said.
Local woman Alicia spent about two hours at Sunday’s memorial and said it was disturbing to see some people walk by without a glimpse.
“They forgot? That could be you, that could be me, that could be their mother or them,” she told AAP.
An inquest will begin examining the massacre later in April.
It will probe 40-year-old attacker Joel Cauchi’s mental illness and treatment, his past interactions with police and the response from centre management and emergency services, among other issues.
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