‘Broken’ after the deaths of three women, Ballarat embarks on an Australian-first trial to combat gender-based violence

Mourners pay tribute to Samantha Murphy during a candlelit vigil at the Eureka Stockade Memorial Gardens in Ballarat in March last year. Photograph: Jeremy Bannister/AAP

In the weeks after the deaths of three women in quick succession in Ballarat last year, the principals of three of the regional Victorian city’s high schools brought their students together for a joint forum.

“The community was feeling pretty broken,” Stephan Fields, the principal of Ballarat high school, says.