Australian homicide victim. Three-year-old Madeline, her six-year-old sister Alannah and their thirty-six-year-old mother, Nanette Mikac, were shot to death along with 32 others on 4/28/1996 at Port Arthur in Tasmania by Martin Bryant. It was Australia’s worst massacre by a single gunman. In February 1997, their Father and husband, Walter Mikac, established the Alannah and Madeline Foundation (http://www.buddybear.com.au), aiming to provide financial and other support to child victims of violent crime or the sudden loss of family.
Walter Mikac (b. 4/29/1962 Melbourne), the son of Croatian immigrants, married nursing sister, Nanette ‘Netty’ Patricia Mikac (nee Moulton, b. 4/08/1960 Shepparton, Victoria) on the afternoon of 12/08/1985 in Melbourne. After Alannah ‘Lani’ and Madeline ‘Maddie’ were born, the family moved to the town of Koonya, near Nubeena in Tasmania, 8/01/1994) where Walter became the local pharmacist and Nanette occasionally helped behind the counter. The couple bought a house and were living an idyllic life with their daughters and pets. On Sunday morning 4/28/1996, Nanette and her two daughters went to picnic at the picturesque Port Arthur Historical Site, only ten minutes by car from their home, while Walter went to play golf nearby. In the early afternoon, Walter and his golf friend heard gunshots
from the Port Arthur site but continued playing their game, thinking that the gunfire was due to a reenactment of some historical event. After a carload of tourists told Walter and his friend that there had been a real shooting at Port Arthur, Walter phoned Nanette at 2.10 PM to check if she had returned home, but there was no answer. It was not until 7:00 PM, after a family friend had identified their bodies, that he was told that his wife and daughters had died in the shooting, Madeline, Alannah and Nanette Mikac all had died about 1.30 PM after each had been shot at close range within moments of each other by the demented gunman.