For many new mums, the local shopping centre is a place of safety – and community – at a time when they might feel most alone.
Westfield Bondi Junction, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, should have been that sanctuary for Ashlee Good and her nine-month-old daughter on Saturday afternoon.
Instead, the 38-year-old’s life was senselessly ripped from her in one of the worst mass killings Australia has ever seen.
About 3.30pm, Queensland man Joel Cauchi went on a stabbing rampage at the busy shopping centre, attacking at least 17 people – six of whom, including Ms Good, died. After “hours” of surgery, Ms Good’s baby daughter, who was also stabbed, is “doing well”, her family said in an update on Sunday.
Amid the outpouring of grief on social media in the wake of the tragedy, one heartbreaking sentiment has cut through the rest: that for any new mum, like Ms Good, who has sought a bit of comfort or company inside their shopping centre, this just as easily could have been them.
“I spent two hours wandering around Westfield Bondi Junction while my daughter slept the other day, a safe and comfortable place for a new mum,” Sydney court reporter Kelly Fedor wrote on X.
“Can’t stop thinking about another mother and baby who thought the same, only to be attacked today.”
“New Mum’s (sic) often go to Shopping Centres w/baby. It’s one of the things you do,” actor Christie Whelan Browne wrote.
“Grab a coffee, food, feel part of society. Beyond heartbroken for the Mum who went today & whose life was taken. & that in her last moments all she could have been thinking was ‘I hope my baby is ok’.”
To which another woman responded: “I couldn’t sleep tonight thinking about exactly this. I do it multiple times a week with my 8 month old … I did it today. Her only thoughts would have been protecting that baby.”
“Can’t erase thoughts of that poor mother and 9 month old baby at Bondi Junction,” the ABC’s Louise Milligan shared on X.
“I remember with my first baby, spending hours wandering aimlessly around there, adjusting to new motherhood, feeling somehow less alone. It felt like a safe place. How can anyone stab a baby?”
In a lengthier post on LinkedIn, Milligan continued: “Every mother who has felt the rays of warmth in the sympathetic glances from other mothers or grandmothers when baby is in a crying jag, who has sighed with relief at the chance to get out of the house when she is feeling maybe lonely and overwhelmed, to feel part of something approximating community on one of those days when it is all too hard.”
“Every mother who has sat in one of these overlit places, glad for the caffeine hit because she hasn’t slept again, glad to stretch her legs, even if it is in a place with slightly soulless muzak,” she wrote.
“Who has maybe bought tat or an outfit she will never wear because she’s bored but doesn’t want to tell anyone.
“Every mother who glances down into the pram and there is her squishy bundle. And he or she is laughing or making eyes at a stranger, who is making peekaboo signs at baby.
“And she picks up that squishy bundle in that overlit place with its sensory overload of harsh lighting and muzak, and she holds baby to her, and everything is right in the world.
“Every single one of those mothers is just heartbroken tonight for a nine-month old baby and the baby’s mother. And for the other women out in that shopping mall, going about their business, who lost their lives because a man decided, again, to do what he did.”
“It hits too close to home, Eliana will be 9 months next week and weekly I get out for a walk at the shops thinking it’s a safe space to clear my head,” one woman responded to Milligan on Instagram. “It’s cruel and heartbreaking”
“Exactly where we took our son on his first outing when he was a few months old, and were in that exact spot,” another commented. “I can’t fathom it. So damn heartbreaking.”
While a third said: “Same. I walked aimless kilometres with my baby in a pram in that building.”
NSW Police said Cauchi does not appear to have been driven by any particular motivation in the lead up to the attack.
Given, however, that five of the six people killed were women (as were all but three of the 17 people he stabbed), NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb was asked on Sunday if she believed Cauchi had targeted the gender specifically.
“That’s been reported to me as well, and obviously that will be an obvious line of inquiry,” Commissioner Webb told reporters.
“And that’s concerning, but that will form an obvious part of the investigation. I mean, anyone seeing that footage can see that for themselves.”
In their update today, Ms Good’s family said they “are reeling from the terrible loss of Ashlee, a beautiful mother, daughter, sister, partner, friend, all round outstanding human and so much more”.
“We appreciate the well wishes and thoughts of members of the Australian public who have expressed and outpouring of love for Ashlee and our baby girl,” they continued.
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The family also thanked the two men who “held and cared for our baby when Ashlee could not”, adding “words cannot express our gratitude”.
“We can report that after hours of surgery yesterday our baby is currently doing well. We are so grateful for the expert care and attention of the medical team at Sydney Children’s Hospital.”
“We are struggling to come to terms with what has occurred. We would appreciate peace and privacy while we work through this as a family.”
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2024-04-14 20:22:36Z
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