Siege shrine grows as Sydneysiders quietly pay their respects | Australia news | The GuardianSiege shrine grows as Sydneysiders quietly pay their respects | Australia news | The Guardian










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Sydney siege



Siege shrine grows as Sydneysiders quietly pay their respects









Floral tribute bursts its boundaries and peace messages are written in chalk as people of every possible age and race gather in the summer sun • Tori Johnson’s family visits sea of flowers

















Phoebe Finlayson, who took chalk to Martin Place. Within an hour scores of people had written condolences beside her original #illridewithyou message. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian




Brigid Delaney


Wednesday 17 December 2014 01.17 EST







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Thousands of people queued for more than hour on Wednesday afternoon to place flowers on the makeshift memorial in Martin Place in central Sydney, the scene of the fatal siege.
The floral tribute became so large, as the day went on, that it burst its boundaries. Police said they would be extending the memorial west to Pitt Street.
It’s hard to know what something means in the moments of its unfolding. Looking out on to the sea of people at Martin Place in the midday sunshine, as they queued in their summer shirts and dresses, flowers in hand, many weeping – it was easy to imagine this was some kind of turning point for Sydney. That if there is a reckoning to Monday’s siege it is that these events could make us softer, not tougher.
People queued quietly in lines that coiled up and down the block. There was the quality of hush usually felt only in churches.
When people reached the head of the queue they placed their flowers with the others, many making the sign of the cross as they did so, others pausing to take photos, some arm in arm with friends, crying. Some people left coffee cups with flowers in them, others blocks of Lindt chocolate.
In the queues were men and women of every possible age and race; men in suits (some with the white ribbon protesting against family violence on their lapels), men and women in biker jackets and sleeve tattoos, young mothers who had caught the train in from the suburbs with their prams, retail workers still in their work shirts and name badges, those who had collected money at their offices and arrived on behalf of others with heaving bouquets of bottlebrush and wattle.



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Sydneysiders file past a makeshift memorial in Martin Place.
Photograph: Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images


There was no one type of person at Martin Place on Wednesday – instead there was every kind of Sydneysider.
Who were all these people? What were they doing here? What is it that galvanises ordinary people to forgo their Christmas shopping or office parties, to spend money on flowers and queue for more than an hour to place them on a pile?
Brian O’Toole, a 43-year-old lawyer who works in the city, decided to spend his lunch break buying flowers and queuing to place them at the makeshift shrine. He watched the events unfold on television and couldn’t sleep on Monday night. He woke up the next morning, heard the news and “felt sick”.
He didn’t know the hostages but felt an empathy and connection with them. “It could have been me – or my colleagues. [The victims] were office workers just like me. 
“I get the whole coffee thing, just going out in the morning to get a coffee with your workmates then back to work. That time of the year, in the city, winding down, being relaxed. Then this … ”
Right now “the feeling is just sadness. That’s it, really, overwhelming sadness that this happened in our city.”
Marian Robins, 64, said: “I am here because I have a daughter the same age as Katrina Dawson. I felt like I had to come here to show that I care. But I look around at this – at all these people – and it’s really hard not to be affected by it. And all these flowers… doesn’t it smell nice?”
A couple next to me had come 45 minutes on the train to place flowers on the memorial. They now stood at the barricades and watched other people leave their tributes.
“[The hostages] were just normal people. I don’t feel fear or anger, just sadness and disbelief this happened,” said Peter, who did not want to give his surname. As the bagpipes behind us played Amazing Grace he choked up and started to cry. “It’s too much for me. I have to go.”
There were Red Cross chaplains comforting people who looked upset or disoriented, plus a man with a sign that said: “Free Hugs.”
Phoebe Findlayson, 17, from Bronte, watched the siege play out on Twitter and was energised by the anti-racism hashtag #illridewithyou. She came into the city and joined thousands of others at Martin Place, but instead of dropping off flowers she started chalking the hashtag around the precinct.
She handed chalk around and in an hour a large section of the block near the Lindt cafe was marked with peace slogans. “I love the idea that something so beautiful, peaceful and hopeful could come out of something so terrible,” she said.
Over and over again, people with flowers in the queue said they were here to “pay our respects”.



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