It began as a trickle. By late morning on Sunday, the flowers had multiplied. On Monday, the pile of floral tributes became a small sea of bouquets and messages of solidarity from – and to – a reeling community.
The Sydney suburb of Bondi has been rocked by the fatal stabbings of six people inside Westfield shopping centre on Saturday. In the aftermath has come bewilderment that a place “of love, of fun, of peace” – as former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull put it – had been “shattered by this incomprehensible act of cruelty and violence”.
The eastern suburbs resident was one of a steady stream of people paying their respects on Monday, as stories emerged of children hiding in storerooms and shop assistants scrambling to pull people to safety while Joel Cauchi wielded a large knife, attacking mostly women.
Turnbull’s words were echoed by the governor general David Hurley, who, with his wife, Linda, left flowers and a note of condolence at the site.
“This is a place you came to, brought the kids, happy memories, where you bought your Christmas presents and so forth,” Hurley said. “So when something like this, just so abrupt, changes the pattern of what you feel – of course, we all feel it.”
Among the hundreds of bouquets left at the corner of Oxford Street mall and Grosvenor Street, was a pair of boxing gloves, a painting and a balloon. One message read: “My heart breaks for all the families and our community … our hearts are with you all.” Another: “For all the victims and their families – who could have been any of us.”
Some of those leaving flowers knew people who died. Others were entangled in the chaos on Saturday, including seven staff members from Westfield’s Country Road store who were working that day.
“We wanted to make sure we could be together today. I feel very protective of the younger team,” Katie Spencer, 52, from Bellevue Hill, said.
Her colleague, Lucy-Rose Doyle, 19, from North Bondi, said she “wanted to have a hug with someone who was there and be with people who understand it.”
Georgio Racheh, 28, and his colleagues walked from their office on Bondi Road to leave three bouquets at the site.
“This happened so close to home. We need to stand together,” the director of Gerain Group said.
“When you see the amount of effort people have put in to show they care … it’s emotional,” Racheh said.
Mourners came from further away, too. Ivy Tang, 35, travelled from Wolli Creek, in Sydney’s south. Her two-year-old son, Ryan, added a bouquet to the mass.
“I told my son it’s a sad story – and he feels that. As a mother, I feel the desperation that mother [Ash Good] would have had,” she said.
Beside the flowers, a concrete security block has become an unlikely dais, topped with a dozen or so lit candles, its base propping up six colourful wreaths. Nearby, the New South Wales premier’s department has set up a table for condolence messages. By midday on Monday, the online version had more than 1,800 entries, a staff member said.
The tragedy’s centre may be Bondi, but it unfurls into Australia’s refugee, Chinese, Muslim and migrant communities. One condolence message was from the Ahmadiyya Muslim community, of which victim Faraz Tahir was a member.
Less than 2km away, at Bronte beach, where victim Jade Young was an active part of the lifesaving community, a lone bouquet sat at the entrance to Bronte Surf Lifesaving Club early on Monday morning.
Hurley said that he had told victims’ families that “Australians are behind them and with them.” He gave his “best wishes to the community of Bondi and the surrounding area of Bondi Junction as they try to get through this”.
Turnbull said: “It’ll take us a while to process this as a community.”
With that comes a realisation for some that a place of work, leisure and daily life has forever changed.
“Bondi Junction won’t be the same for us again,” Spencer said, her colleagues quietly nodding.
