Hours after police tramped out of the bushland where they hoped to find Samantha Murphy’s body, the sound of footsteps in the heart of Ballarat grew louder.
Gathering to march through the city’s streets in the Victorian central highlands on Friday evening, locals called for violence against women to stop.
The rally came a week after the body of Hannah McGuire was found in a burnt-out car in a nearby state forest, and within 48 hours of police launching a new and unsuccessful search for the body of Murphy, who was last seen by her family at their East Ballarat home in February. That same month, 42-year-old Rebecca Young was killed in a suspected murder-suicide by her partner, in the small Ballarat suburb of Sebastopol.
Scores of locals were expected to march from the Ballarat train station on Friday evening before gathering at nearby Camp Street to unite under candle light.
Rally organiser Sissy Austin, who was allegedly bashed while running in the Lal Lal state forest last February, says local women hope to “reclaim what’s been taken from us”.
“Reclaiming the narrative of the town, reclaiming the streets and the bushlands that have become known as places where men’s violence has been perpetrated on women’s bodies,” she says.
“We’re feeling sadness, loss and shock, but there’s definitely a feeling of solidarity.”
Police and volunteers spent countless hours traipsing through the vast bushland surrounding the regional city searching for clues into Murphy’s disappearance. When police laid charges over Murphy’s death last month, they launched new efforts to find her body.
All of these searches have punctuated months of anguish for Murphy’s family, but the answers are yet to come.
The latest was launched on Thursday, in the Enfield state park, about 30km south of Ballarat. Announcing the search, police said it was “intelligence derived from a number of sources” that had led them to the area.
Six days earlier, and about 10km away from the search area, emergency services found McGuire’s body.
McGuire, a 23-year-old teacher’s aid, was the 18th woman to have allegedly been murdered in Australia this year, according to the research group, Counting Dead Women Australia. After Young and Murphy, she was Ballarat’s third woman allegedly killed in recent months.
A visibly emotional Mick Murphy, tells Channel Nine before Friday’s rallythat the loss of his wife has been hard.
“The march … just shows the respect that the community has … not only for Sam but for the other women that have lost their lives in this last few weeks,” he says.
Austin, whose alleged attacker has never been found, says gendered violence must not be swept under the carpet.
“We’re determined to change the narrative of our town. We’re also being very clear that there is an issue of men’s violence both in our town, in the state and in the country,” she says.
Austin was allegedly brutally bashed by a man while running along a motorcycle track in the Lal Lal state forest, about 20km from where Murphy had planned to run, on 11 February 2023.
Patty Kinnersly, chief executive of Our Watch – the national body for preventing violence against women – says while there has been a succession of alleged murders in Ballarat, it is a crisis mirrored across Australia.
“We all have a role to play to contribute to preventing it. We know that means promoting respect and equality for women everywhere,” she says.
“Every person in the community needs to crack through our fear to have the conversation about respect for women.”
• In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123 and the domestic abuse helpline is 0808 2000 247. In the US, the suicide prevention lifeline is 988 and the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org
