How Bradley Murdoch's murder of Peter Falconio changed Central Australia forever

Australia Broadcast Center

2 days ago

Twenty-four years ago, the murder of British backpacker Peter Falconio and assault of his girlfriend Joanne Lees sent shockwaves through the Central Australian community of Alice Springs and its surrounds.
The mystery left locals wondering "how something so evil could happen" on their doorstep — and almost a quarter of a century on, the event continues to haunt this remote part of Australia.
Convicted killed Bradley John Murdoch died last week, at the age of 67, while serving a life sentence in prison for fatally shooting 28-year-old Mr Falconio in an attack near Barrow Creek in July 2001.
He never revealed the location of the backpacker's body, taking the secret to his grave.
Murdoch was also convicted for assaulting and attempting to kidnap Mr Falconio's girlfriend Ms Lees, whose wrists he tied with cable ties before she managed to escape into bushland.
Mr Falconio's family in the UK still holds out hope the backpacker's remains will be found, and a $500,000 reward for information that could lead police to answers is still active to encourage members of the public to come forward.
Three hours south of Barrow Creek, the town of Alice Springs felt some of the strongest impacts in the aftermath of the crime that made headlines across Australia and the world.
Robyn Lambley, the MLA for the Alice Springs electorate of Araluen and a long-term resident, said the cold case "changed us forever".
"It had an instant impact of just horror — how could something so evil happen on our doorstep?" she said.
Consumed by "a lot of panic and fear", she said the killing sent a "dark veil" over the unsuspecting community.
"It changed our psyche — we went from being fairly innocent, I guess, to having some sort of psychopath commit this terrible crime just up the road from Alice Springs," Ms Lambley said.
She said she was an avid bushwalker before hearing about the case, but afterwards, like many others, her outdoor jogs became weighed down by "this feeling that Peter Falconio could be buried just over there and you wouldn't even know it".
Ms Lambley said Murdoch's death last week had only "sent more tremors" through the region, reopening the wound and serving as a reminder of "the terrible nature of things that can happen in the middle of nowhere".
"The whole chapter … hasn't gone away," she said.
Ms Lambley said, with the young couple visiting Australia at the time of the attack, "a sort of frenzied media" from both Australia and abroad had descended on Alice Springs in search of answers.
Locals were caught up along with the rest of Australia, she said.
"There was so much speculation around what happened, who actually did it, what part did poor Joanne Lees play in it."
She said Barrow Creek locals were also dragged into the saga, called to give evidence due to their proximity to the crime.
Speculation quickly fell onto Mr Falconio's girlfriend, who had escaped Murdoch and flagged down a truck driver for help, and Ms Lambley recalled her being "put under the microscope" because Ms Lees hadn't grieved how some believed a victim should.
Ms Lambley said the fact it was "so difficult to find any sort of body in Central Australia", and that authorities believe Mr Falconio's remains could be anywhere between Alice Springs and Broome, had only fuelled speculation.
Former NT parks ranger Shane Bloomfield met Ms Lees on a 2003 tour around Alice Springs Telegraph Station, when he taught her about the region's history.
He said at first he did not know who she was, but after learning she was back in the area as part of Murdoch's trial, he told her it was a privilege to meet her and that he was sorry for her loss.
"It was very hard to pinpoint any sort of feeling or understanding of who this person was — she had sort of grown this rockstar status overnight — but then the feeling in Alice Springs, the territory in general, was just this eerie sort of feeling," he said.
"I didn't really feel she was enjoying her time there … it just looked like she wanted to get in, do what she had to do, and get out of the place."
Mr Bloomfield said he guessed the British tourist was consumed by the unknown, having lost "someone special to her".
An NT Supreme Court jury found Murdoch guilty in 2005, with enough evidence to convict him beyond reasonable doubt, and Chief Justice Brian Martin sentenced him to life behind bars.
Ms Lambley said the crime had put everyone in Alice Springs — locals and tourists alike — "on alert" in the years following Mr Falconio's death.
Mr Bloomfield reflected on his own experience camping on a swag at Barrow Creek a year before the murder, and said he couldn't believe he'd been so trusting in the open outback.
He said locals locked their doors, people on the road resolved to never pull over for anyone, businesses suffered a drop in customers, and the region was clouded by a surreal sense of "unknowing".
He said Alice Springs, the town where "everyone knows everyone", was left with a lingering sense of eeriness.
Mr Bloomfield doesn't think the remote town will ever totally return to normal, but hopes it will bounce back eventually.
Tourism Central Australia chief executive Danial Rochford said the news of Mr Falconio's murder had "sent a chill through the whole of outback Australia", stretching into western Queensland where he'd been working at the time.
He recalled the mass media coverage across television and radio, with rumours about Murdoch's whereabouts heightening concerns on his side of the border.
After a vehicle breakdown during a trip to Mount Isa with colleagues, he remembered being suspicious of the first car that approached the group — a LandCruiser with a canopy, similar to the vehicle police were looking for at the time.
"That was kind of the sense that a lot of people had in outback Australia at the time, [that] there was a killer on the loose — 'Where are they and who could they be?'" Mr Rochford said.
He said backpackers became fearful of travelling in the outback, resulting in a decline in overseas tourists hitting the road in Central Australia for the next few years.
Even now, visitors still ask Mr Rochford about the Falconio case and travellers continue to stop on the side of the Stuart Highway to pay respects to the cross marking the spot where he died.
Mr Rochford said the attack had polarised the nation in 2001, but the immediate scare was followed by an outpouring of love for the victims.
"Our hearts are with the family … The tourism impact is completely insignificant compared to the other impacts," he said.
"Ultimately, we've grown stronger. We're starting to see that international drive market rebound, [though] it's taken a good decade or so."