Six months since Samantha Murphy disappeared, feelings of anger and fear remain (2024)

This Sunday, it will be six months since 51-year-old Samantha Murphy went for a jog in bushland on Ballarat's fringe and never came home.

Just 12 days on from Ms Murphy's disappearance, mother of five Rebecca Young was found dead in a Sebastopol home, the victim of a suspected murder-suicide.

Then, on April 5, the body of 23-year-old Clunes woman Hannah McGuire was found in a burnt-out car in bushland south-west of Ballarat.

Her ex-boyfriend Lachlan Young has been charged with murder over her death.

A 22-year-old man, Patrick Orren Stephenson, has been charged with the murder of Samantha Murphy.

The accused in both cases are yet to face trial.

It was a series of tragedies that had Ballarat residents feeling like their city was cursed, as if violence was lurking just beneath the surface.

The alleged murders of Samantha Murphy, Rebecca Young and Hannah McGuire were highly publicised, their faces plastered across newspapers, websites and on TV.

But the dark times have led many in the Ballarat community to shine a light into the darkness, to expose the monster of gendered violence and try to find a way to banish it for good.

A fight for safety

According to an ABC count, there have been 41 deaths across Australia this year where a man has been charged with or convicted of murdering a woman.

Ballarat was one of dozens of communities that hosted rallies at the weekend, begging for the violence to end.

Chants remembering their names, and calls for respect and change rang out in Ballarat on Saturday, as one of 25 communities joining the nationwide What Were You Wearing-run rally.

Dozens of locals shivered through icy rain and single-digit temperatures to prove that despite the passing months since the three deaths, the collective feeling of anger, fear and determination had not wavered.

"Other generations have been fighting for a long time, and the fact that we are still fighting for the same things now says a lot," rally attendee Bella Charlson said.

"It still hasn't changed, and that is why we need to stay angry. Because if we don't, there won't be any change."

Katrina Bevelander is the operations director of Ballarat Centre of Sexual Assault, a local agency providing the central Victorian community with sexual violence support and education.

"I think women in Ballarat are feeling tired, angry, scared. I think they're feeling unimportant because women keep dying," she said.

Ms Bevelander said in the 12 months to March, there had been 557 reports to police of recent and historical sexual assault in Ballarat.

"Our service has serviced double that number of people in that time period," she said.

"That shows that the reports to police are only the tip of the iceberg in terms of gendered violence."

Not just up to governments

DV Collective founder and chief executive Kylie Johansson said it was up to the community as a whole to be part of the solution, and it was not just up to governments.

"I think the local message should be it's not just about getting angry," she said.

"It's about all of us as a community supporting [each other].

"We all have to do something. That needs to come through."

Libby Jewson from WRISC Family Violence Support Ballarat said providing support to the sheer number of people who needed assistance was challenging.

"What we see is an influx into our service, increasing demand, and we have just really noticed people who are fearful about their safety," Ms Jewson said.

"I think we are doing the absolute best we can."

In May the state government announced a saturation model in Ballarat to tackle gendered violence.

It is hoped the campaign, which will look to start conversations in businesses, institutions and clubs across the city, will disassemble the root of the issue and create a culture of respect.

"What we are looking for there is a change in attitude from the whole of the community on people's choice to use violence," Ms Jewson said.

Plan for change from the next generation

Last week, two representatives from each secondary school in Ballarat attended a forum to meet with several members of the Victorian government.

In a passionate exchange of ideas, the next generation sat with the representatives as equals to discuss how to create a culture of respect.

The young leaders spoke of having improved and strong curriculum on consent earlier in their education, while one student raised the need for an app in school to anonymously report concerning behaviours.

Phoenix College school captain Charlie Peters said the highly publicised cases in Ballarat this year had been a rude awakening.

"Some of the other issues [we discussed] were things like relationships and the stuff that is being normalised, stemming from saying stuff like boys will be boys," Ms Peters said.

"The stuff we plant in our young people, it is being normalised and made to be seen as OK, when it is actually not."

Co-captain Kyle Burnett said he believed it was up to them to be part of the vital conversation about the culture of violence in Ballarat and Australia.

"Having our input and views about this I hope will broaden the views of the stuff that is around this," he said.

The forum ended with the young adults saying they wanted to continue to work with governments and local leaders to be part of the conversation about creating meaningful change.

Legal road ahead

Ballarat will have to continue to reckon with the events of the first half of 2024 for years to come.

The ongoing court cases and investigations into the disappearance of Ms Murphy and death of Ms McGuire may be triggers, as questions linger in the minds of the Ballarat community.

Ms Murphy's phone was found on May 28, but her body has not been found.

Both matters will return to court in the coming months.

The journey towards understanding what really happened to these women will be a long one, as will Ballarat's recovery and its ongoing reckoning with gendered violence.