As tributes flow for victims of last Friday’s Bourke St rampage, official talk has turned to creating a permanent memorial for people to pay their respects and grieve in private.
The news comes from Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle, who stressed that while plans for a “reflective, contemplative [and] respectful” memorial outside the immediate mall area could be announced sometime next week, he would need time to discuss with Premier Daniel Andrews.
Doyle also wants to give people time and space to actively grieve in the mall area, which he described quite touchingly:
“Something very personally uplifting for me is the word I’ve heard most often this week — love”.
“I think that’s what we’re seeing here in the Bourke Street Mall.”
“…People are still laying flowers here, so it’s still a very active scene of grieving and it will remain so until that slows down and stops.”
“But we will probably make some announcements once I’ve had some more discussions with the premier.”
As Doyle mentions, people in the area are still visibly reeling from the car attack that killed five and injured roughly 30 pedestrians.
Reports of people laying flowers, post-tramatic stress counsellors supervising the area, and pedestrians brought to tears in the area are still pouring in.
Messages and flowers outside the lotto mart on #BourkeSt for Jess.
Everybody pauses. pic.twitter.com/cRVwJi6GFX— Deborah Staines (@DeborahRStaines) January 25, 2017
#bourkest paying my deepest respects & condolences with kindred spirits with grieving tears RIP dear lost souls & god speed all healing pic.twitter.com/vA8HmuEhIx
— Claire Seppings (@claireseppings) January 25, 2017
A city in mourning. Please thank the roaming counsellors if you see them. Amazing people, and a tough job. #bourkest pic.twitter.com/lUXVi3AyUK
— Jodi Braszell (@JodiBraszell) January 23, 2017
Following days of tributes, vigils and incredibly successful fundraising campaigns, the idea of a permanent memorial honestly sounds like a terrific, fitting way of remembrance.
Doyle has reportedly been in discussions with his Sydney counterparts, who were in a similar situation following the 2014 Martin Place siege.
He also urged parents to reconsider bringing children to the Bourke St area, and, for those who do, to contact nearby counsellors to assist in discussing the event with minors.
Finally, Doyle said that he’d like the memorial to be outside the mall area itself, in order to give people a quieter place to grieve, and to commemorate both the victims and the human decency that’s shone in the wake of the horrific event:
“I’d like to see it [Bourke Street Mall] returned to being the centre of Melbourne.”“But I’d still like to see something that commemorates not only the lives lost … but the hope and support that we saw from the kindness of strangers here on that awful day. And that’s going to take time.”
Source: The Age.
Photo: Getty / Scott Barbour.
