In this series, I meet extraordinary Australians...
This is what I do. This is who I am.
It's so exciting to be here.
(LAUGHS)
..who tell me their fascinating stories...
It was like someone had just given me gold.
..while I paint their portrait.
Like, I would sleep with my bat as a kid.
My challenge is to capture their character...
That's not what you've got the power of the microphone to do.
..and put it on the canvas.
I was born this colour for a reason.
The portrait is theirs to keep, so I want them to like it.
Oh, my God! Heavens above.
Oh, my God! Wow!
Gee! That's incredible!
Wow! Oh, my God.
She's hot! (LAUGHS)
Welcome to Anh's Brush With Fame.
Walter Mikac was an ordinary man
who became a powerful voice for change,
thrust into the headlines when his wife and two young daughters
were tragically killed at Port Arthur.
(GUNSHOTS)
MAN: There's somebody going crazy, shooting people here.
I can't believe it.
(SIREN WAILS)
I'll do everything in my power to try and ensure
that another person doesn't ever have to be in the same situation
as what I've had to be in.
He took up the battle for tighter gun control,
and created a foundation to keep kids safe.
How did he rise above his personal tragedy to create so much good?
I love Anh's work, I mean, I love art in general.
So, I'm quietly enthusiastic and optimistic
about how it's gonna look.
I hope Anh captures my enthusiasm for life
and my ability to bounce back
and look at life from a positive point of view
rather than from the negative.
From the depths of grief,
Walter somehow found the strength to keep moving forward
and impact the world in such a powerful way.
It will be this paradox that will challenge me today.
How do I portray such vulnerability alongside such resolve?
Walter. Hi, Anh.
Welcome, welcome. So glad you could make it today.
Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here.
Take a seat. Thank you.
So you live in Byron Bay these days? I do.
Yeah, yeah. Is that why you're wearing thongs?
Most people in Byron Bay don't wear any thongs.
Perfect for TV, you know, especially when they're out of shot.
Yeah, exactly.
It's like the newsreaders without any pants on.
Walter, you're the son of Croatian immigrants,
and they're strong people
but they've gone through some tough times.
They arrived in Australia with nothing -
as you can probably relate to -
yeah, not... just a suitcase with nothing in it.
My mum spoke minimal English
and it used to be just a case of pointing at things in shops
about what she wanted.
She wasn't even aware that there was kindergarten
so I ended up going to... with my dad to work for a year
before I went to school,
which is not necessarily a bad thing, I think.
And your parents were really encouraging
of you to study hard, yeah?
Oh, my dad particularly, yeah.
So he always kept reiterating, "Just stay at school.
"I don't want you to be a painter like me.
"It's hard going."
And, you know, in the early days he used to work seven days a week.
I went and completed my pharmacy degree.
I still work as a pharmacist today.
How did you meet Nanette?
Nanette and I met at the hospital where I was doing my internship.
I was the ward pharmacist.
She was working as a nurse there.
We bumped into each other in the corridor,
and sort of, like, looked at each other and she said something like,
"Maybe you should bring me some flowers or something."
I thought, "I'm gonna take her up on that."
So I came up and I actually had a little bunch of flowers
and gave them to her, and she was gobsmacked -
one of the few times in her life I think she was speechless -
and just spun about three times,
and just walked off, and didn't say anything.
She was a real practical joker, wasn't she?
She was, yeah.
Just so funny.
She always used to be just pulling little pranks.
There was always a little bit of frivolity
and a little bit of laughter in each day.
And that's one of the things
that, you know, I really did, and do, admire about her.
Walter didn't take long to propose.
They married, and eventually left Melbourne
to raise a family in Tasmania.
And then a few years later,
you find yourselves the parents of two beautiful girls.
Yep.
Yeah, becoming a father for the first time is...
It's the biggest thing in your life, I think.
Alannah was, yeah, very much like Nanette.
I loved spending time with her.
She was a beautiful soul.
I would go and run this beach called White Beach,
and she would actually come with me,
I'd say to her, "Come on, honey, run with me,
"and when you can't run anymore, stop,
"and I'll keep going and come back,"
and, you know, such a safe place to be that it was no problem
and she'd just sit on the root of a tree, on the beach.
And then I'd pick her up and we'd go home.
You wouldn't really do that in the city,
so, there was... those elements of being somewhere
that's quiet and rural and... which was fantastic
as far as, you know, being with your children.
And Madeline, little sister. Gorgeous.
Maddy, yeah. She had this huge lock of curls.
She always wanted to be following in what Alannah was doing.
It was always, "Me too."
Me too! I'm coming! I'm doing this! I'm doing that.
Yeah, I mean, just a short life, really.
That's the sadness in it.
'Cause you just think, you know,
what they could have been capable of.
The family loved their new life in Nubeena,
a peaceful little village
near the historic convict site of Port Arthur.
Tell me about the days leading up to the event.
So the day before, I'd stayed home with the kids,
and then Nanette went to work, she worked as a ghost tour guide,
at the Port Arthur Historic Site.
I stayed up till as late as I could,
but I knew she'd be coming home
so I actually got a hot water bottle,
and put it in the bed with her pyjamas sitting on top of it,
and, like many times, I'd go...
Like, I would actually go and sleep in the trundle bed with Alannah
so, you know, she would be a bit scared,
I'd say, "Oh, it's alright, I'll sleep in there."
And we'd often go to bed actually holding hands,
I'd be, like, on the ground level and be holding her hand.
That's the night before? That was the night before.
You were a good husband and father.
I try my best, I mean, you know,
I think I've had a pretty good example from my dad.
So take me back to that morning.
Uh, so I was going to play golf.
I'd sponsored this golf day, and I remember thinking at the time,
I don't really want to do it on that day
'cause it's my birthday next day, we just wanted to go...
But it was the only date they had available, and I agreed to it.
And a friend of mine came to collect me.
Nanette came out... all the kids, they all came out in their pyjamas,
and I gave them a big hug and a kiss,
and said, you know, I'll see you later on in the day.
Just very innocently,
not expecting that things were gonna be any different that afternoon.
Talk me through the playing golf and the events that happened.
We would have been probably about 14th hole
so, you know, it was, like, early afternoon,
and we heard shots happening across the bay,
because Port Arthur Historic Site was close by,
and we were joking,
we said, "Oh, well, they must be having a re-enactment,"
was the logical assumption.
I mean, we're... it's not like you expect anything bad to happen
in such a quiet peaceful place.
So it wasn't really until after we finished
and we're sitting there maybe having some lunch,
three o'clock in the afternoon, where these people rushed in
saying, "There's someone shooting at the historic site,
"and there's people been killed."
Straightaway, obviously, the alarm bells started ringing
'cause I thought, well, I need to go and check this out.
I drove home first, and there was... there was no-one home.
Did you write a note for Netty?
Yeah, I did. Yeah.
Um...
Just saying, oh, hopefully I'll see you a bit later.
You know, not... still not knowing, not being aware
of... of what actually happened on that day there.
Yeah.
Did you know that your family was going to be there?
The plan was that they were gonna go there for a picnic,
and spend the day there, which we often did.
They had done that, and that was really confirmed
when I was looking around the site and I found our car in the car park.
Yeah.
It was like a war zone.
It's hard to... it's hard to describe, really.
And people were in shock.
It was just a... an awful place to be at that time.
And, you know, the gunman still hadn't been apprehended
and there was still all this uncertainty
about the whole... the whole event.
REPORTER: The nightmare unfolded around 2:30 this afternoon.
A lone gunman armed with a high-powered rifle
entered the Port Arthur Historic Site and began firing randomly.
In my heart, I had a sinking feeling which wasn't good,
about the whole day.
I was expecting something bad,
but you can never expect it to be that situation.
Yeah.
We were all kept together in one of the houses there,
where... which was supposedly safe, with a few of my close friends.
What was that like, to sit there and have to wait?
Oh, it was...
I just kept moving the whole time,
so it was... just pacing around,
wanting to do something, wanting to find out information
but there wasn't a great police presence there yet,
and we were told we... very strictly,
we had to stay in this building
so it was like an eternity waiting for that, to find out.
It would've been... it was dark
and I remember starting to get really cold,
so it would've been around 7:30, 8 o'clock.
Pam, the local doctor, who was friends with Nanette,
came in and... and told me that, you know, Nanette and the children
had both been... had all been shot and were all dead.
Mm.
It was like a primal scream of... of someone had actually...
..like someone had stabbed me.
I...
My initial thought was I just want to go as well.
I don't want to be here if they're not here.
My instinct was to actually run out into the site,
and hopefully be ended with... you know, die with them.
Um, but my... yeah, obviously my friends were all there,
they were holding me,
they were trying to comfort me in whatever way they could.
Yeah, it was just a complete disbelief, you know,
and your body just going into this spiral of adrenaline
and shock and just disbelief.
And I had to keep saying to her, "Couldn't he have even left me one?"
The car with the gunman came up the hill.
Nanette was running with the kids,
she was carrying... she was carrying Maddy.
There was people... other people around who overheard her saying,
"We'll be safe if we just keep running,
"and we'll get... we're away from here."
The car stopped, and the gunman got out,
and she pleaded with the gunman for the children's lives.
She said, "Please don't kill my children."
And, um, he shot her,
and then he shot the children, and, um...
And he actually went... he actually went to...
Alannah was hiding behind a tree
and he actually went up to her and, um... and shot her there.
That plea, for the children's lives, you know,
well, that's... that's parenting, that's nurturing at its best.
You know, that takes more courage
than anything else you ever need to do.
Um, it's just unfortunate
that, you know, her pleas didn't... didn't save them.
Yep. Yep.
REPORTER: All Australians tonight share the horror
of the Port Arthur massacre.
It's believed to be the worst mass shooting in Australian history.
The saga of bloodshed at Port Arthur came to an end today
in the capture of the gunman.
Before he was arrested,
the 29-year-old gunman killed 35 people.
You know, you wake up sometimes,
you're wishing what's actually happened
is like a... like a nightmare
and you wake up and the next morning it's all changed
and it's all back to normal.
I woke up and I was in the bed on my own,
and I thought, "This is not normal."
It was my birthday.
I reached into the bedside table,
and there was a little card
of a father holding a little baby, in its arm here,
and when I opened the card, there was nothing in there,
there was no writing,
and I thought, "No, this really has happened."
Doctor Pam, the lady who discovered, you know, the children and Nanette,
came around and she said, "Look, I'm gonna take you to the site."
The police were really uncomfortable,
and they... they just did not want to allow that
but she said, "We have to do it."
And we went with a police escort, to the site
where I was able to hold them, you know, witness what had gone on
and at least say my goodbyes.
I had to summon up every bit of courage I could,
but by the same token,
you know, there's this lingering little part inside you
that wants to believe that it hasn't happened.
I think that was crucial, that if I hadn't seen them,
it still leaves things in your imagination as to what happened.
But actually seeing it... Yeah.
..it's clear cut.
And I think it's a pivotal part
in whether I... whether I continued on or not.
I know I thought straightaway,
I didn't really want to have anything
to do with the world anymore.
Like, I felt let down, I felt...
..I just... this whole swirl of emotions.
I want to do justice to Walter's incredible dignity
after such unimaginable tragedy.
I also need to capture his phenomenal courage.
Walter said his final goodbyes at the funeral,
held at the very place he and Nanette first met.
His speech that day was a reminder to appreciate each moment.
It was basically, don't take the people around you for granted.
Don't take today for granted.
And most of all, don't take tomorrow for granted,
because no-one's assured that we'll be here tomorrow,
and to make the most of each single day.
Every single day. Yep.
How did you... how did you sort of will yourself to keep going?
Well, I had to keep hope, hope that if today was terrible,
that tomorrow... there's a chance tomorrow might be a bit better.
And if tomorrow's a bit better,
then the week after's gonna be... something's gonna happen
that's gonna give you, you know, the impetus to keep going.
Do you think you'll see Nanette and the girls again one day?
That is my hope, yeah.
Yeah, I hope and I pray every single day that I do get to,
you know, just give them another cuddle
and, um... and hold them.
Um, and, you know, you think about all the things that you miss out on
over their lifetime
but, you know, I just keep thinking,
well, look, if I just...
Some other... some other element that's created
through the foundation that's named after Alannah and Madeline,
you know, that it helps more children, it helps kid...
It helps put, you know, programs into school
that's gonna save other kids from cyber bullying,
then, you know, hopefully they're gonna be looking down, if they are,
and gonna be saying, "Dad, thank you.
"I'm still being remembered."
You know, "22 years on I'm still being remembered,
"and I'm helping other children.
"Our names are being remembered in that way."
Yep.
If things are not going that well, or you're struggling on some days,
and that still happens regularly,
you know, the kids' birthdays, the... you know, her birthday,
various different things, there's little tricks, songs on the radio,
that's so closely aligned to when they were born,
or that you used to sing with them or dance with them
and do things with them,
those sort of things do trigger it,
so I often will say to them,
"Girls, you know, give me some strength.
"I hope I'm doing the right thing.
"I'm just doing my best, you know, I'm just making it up day to day."
As Walter grappled with his grief,
shock waves reverberated around the country,
and Australians were asking, how could this have happened?
Gun ownership suddenly became the national conversation.
REPORTER: There are shops in Tasmania
where you can buy food and even ice-cream
in the same room as you buy your gun.
So, Walter you're this knockabout football playing guy,
and then suddenly you become the face of a national tragedy,
one of the greatest tragedies in our history.
What was that like, to be thrust into that position?
I wanted to make change happen as a result.
That was the pivotal thing, is like, let's not let an event like this,
you know, happen,
and if it does, let's minimise the possibility
that it's gonna be as bad as this.
You know, after the funeral, that became my main focus
and trying to give meaning to, you know, 35 people dying
by creating some gun laws
that were gonna mean that we... you know,
that we don't have semiautomatic firearms,
that we have sensible checks on people,
that we have... just all the sensible, logical things
that you would do in a caring society.
I will do everything in my power to try and ensure
that another person doesn't ever have to be in the same situation
as what I've had to be in.
700,000 guns were returned, and burnt and destroyed.
And burnt.
So we had the gun buy-back, which was funded by the government.
To remove those guns from society was a huge step.
Those gun laws had been enacted, you know, within two weeks.
It was swift action.
What happened in the circumstances of Port Arthur
was enabled to happen
because we really didn't have very good laws in place to prevent it.
Mm. Now we do.
So let's hope that that situation, you know, continues.
Following the gun law changes,
Walter then decided to face the man
responsible for taking the lives of his family.
Walter, you decided to attend the trial of the gunman.
Was that... was that difficult to sit through that?
You know, to sit in court and have the person say...
..plead not guilty to all those charges...
..you know...
Yeah, I remember thinking as I was sitting there,
I just want to jump that dock and I just want to...
I just don't want him to be here anymore.
But that wasn't gonna... it wasn't gonna bring them back.
You know, there's times you have to go against
what your heart's really saying.
What would have been the ideal scenario
is that either he had... he died in that... in the whole event,
and that there wasn't that trauma.
This would've been so much better
if that hadn't had to be all, you know, re-lived.
But Walter proved his resilience,
finding strength to not just carry on, but to keep making a difference.
A short while after,
you started the Alannah and Madeline Foundation.
I had thousands of letters after,
you know, coming from all over the place, from Australia, from...
You know, I had one letter that came to my...
All it had on the letter
was, "To the pharmacist who lost his family in Tasmania."
That was it.
And it arrived at my pharmacy.
One of the letters I did get was from a father in Melbourne.
And he said, "Look, I've got two daughters,
"and I think - you know, same age as yours -
"that you maybe should set up a foundation in honour of them
"that's gonna help other children,
"who have suffered from violence or loss."
And so that was born in April 1997.
A pretty proud day.
We had the... John Howard come on board
as the national patron.
We've been blessed to have every PM since then take that mantle on.
And Princess Mary's a patron as well.
So she's our international patron,
so I mean that is... it is a huge thing.
Initially it was set up to help children who have witnessed violence
or, you know, loss,
and we've done a lot of that,
you know, and we've helped over 2 million children
over that 20... you know, 21-year period.
2 million children? Yeah.
Fantastic.
I could never have imagined the foundation
being where it is at this point in time,
so I hope, and I truly believe,
that, you know, that's gonna be around helping children
well beyond my lifetime.
In 2000, Walter married journalist Kim Sporton.
Their daughter, Isabella, was born the following year.
Was it hard to let yourself find love again?
Yeah, in some ways.
In some ways you think about the hurt
of loss... the loss, I suppose,
and you sort of grapple with putting yourself in the situation
where that... of losing again.
But, I mean, you've got to take that leap of faith.
I think, I met Kim at a time which was... which was right.
Things blossomed, we liked the same things,
you know, we were into tennis.
She was a sports reporter.
Our first date was running the Tan in Melbourne.
So I'm thinking, any girl that wants to... you know,
that's happy about going to do a run, as our first meeting,
is pretty cool.
Meeting Kim, you know, having another child,
you know, came back to Melbourne, moved to bayside suburbs,
building a differ... a new... a different life.
You know, a lot of people didn't even know what had happened to me,
so it was, I was able to be Walter Mikac,
not Walter Mikac the person who this event...
..who's been involved in this event.
And that... and that's important, to have that anonymity,
especially when you haven't chosen to... you know,
to be thrust in the limelight.
Although Walter and Kim have separated,
Walter's relationship with Isabella,
which has given him a second chance at fatherhood,
is a very big part of his life.
Do you think human beings by nature, are we good people?
You've had such a tragedy happen.
Yeah, I've thought about that question a lot over the years.
But what was very evident after it happened
is the outpouring of help from the community.
People, from the very next day,
the letters that I received, the...
You realise that there's... the world...
There's so many more good people in the world than there is bad.
Tell you what, Walter, you are certainly a good bloke.
You're a... you're a good egg, mate.
Thank you.
Um, I just need another 20 minutes or so
to really finesse it and...
And I'll bring you back and show you the Walter Mikac.
Sure.
Thanks very much. Thank you.
I think the chat will have a bit of a bearing,
I mean, those overtones with some very heavy emotional parts to that.
I'm hoping that my positive side and my zest for life
is the part that wins out.
I'm sure he's done a great job. I'm very excited.
At Walter's lowest point,
he was the public face of the nation's grief,
and he chose to harness that sentiment
to make our country a safer place.
Extraordinary.
He's so strong, yet also incredibly gentle,
and I've got to get this balance right.
I hope he likes it. Let's bring him in.
Alright, Walter, I'm all done. Come on back.
Wow.
So I'm a little bit nervous.
You know, despite everything that's happened,
you've got an incredible... a love of life,
and there's a real energy there
that I wanted to capture that... you know, in your eyes.
Um, but also just to have a little bit of a hint of sadness as well.
Mm. Are you ready?
I'm ready. OK. Close your eyes.
And don't open them till I tell you to.
OK.
Alright, Walter, go for it.
Oh wow.
Oh that's fantastic.
Wow, those eyes are just jumping out.
(LAUGHS)
Just a little bit of a hint of sadness in the eyes, Walter.
There's this mysterious thing about the eyes
and it is, it's a reflection of all those life events.
They're all there.
You know, as soon as you walk in, you know, there's an energy.
Yeah, I think you've captured it beautifully, mate.
(LAUGHS) No, really.
And I love the fact 'cause, you know,
there's a bit of a smile there.
I love it.
Well, thank you very much for coming on the show.
Thank you. Yeah.
It's been a... it's been a real honour to have you on.
Thank you. Yeah. Really appreciate it.
Personally, it feels like he's captured the essence of me.
I think the eyes have got the dichotomy of sadness and happiness,
and my... you know, that... my positivity.
I'll be very, very happy to have that, you know, to look at.
It'll be brilliant.
What I find extraordinary about Walter
is how much he gives,
how generous he is with the way he interacts with the world.
That was truly an honour.
Next time...
She's an Australian showbiz icon.
Dannii Minogue's star shines bright.
There's something that Mummy's done!
She's appeared on Playboy.
My challenge is to not only capture that sparkle
but also reflect her tenacity and vulnerability.
Oh, my goodness!