Australians rallied against the devastating incidents of violence against women and alarming rates of domestic and family violence incidents that were occurring around Australia in 2024, with crisis talks being held between politicians, police, courts and support services.
Here’s how the dire issue rose to prominence in 2024 and how the community campaigned against it:
Community health service EACH offers qualified family violence counselling throughout the Outer East and EACH’s Head of Service Design and National Practice Lead for Family Violence Olivia Sinn said government funding needs to increase so support services can help women and children live free from violence.
“EACH’s Family Violence Program supports people affected by both past and current family violence, but ever-growing demand for this program far exceeds our capacity,” she said.
“We need to provide services to meet community needs, including flexible and extended services to reflect the long recovery journey.
“When a child or young person reaches a different developmental stage, or an ex-partner is released from prison, people should not have to go back to the start.”
By the time of the Star Mail’s office closure on 18 December, the death toll of women killed by violence for the year stood at 76 according to Destroy the Joint, already much higher than the already alarming 64 in 2023.
Victoria Police’s Family Violence Command Assistant Commissioner Lauren Callaway fronted a press conference on Friday 26 April to discuss the issue and said it seems like there’s another terrible news story every day.
“Those of us who work in family violence are equally disheartened by the statistics and they’re not just statistics, they’re people who have suffered the most tragic circumstances of family violence,” she said.
“I do think that some of the conversations we need to really think about is that it shouldn’t be on women to change everything, we know who is committing the violence and we know what needs to change and some solutions, I think, place too much emphasis on women to do the changing and we know that that’s not the long-term solution,”
“We need to really remember that the majority of violence committed against women is done by men who are known to women and it’s in places where they’re expected to be safe like their home.”
The outrage at domestic violence throughout the country ended up with a powerful video born in the Yarra Valley resurfacing.
In 2015, former Warburton-Millgrove footballer Brendon Murphy created a video to raise awareness of domestic violence with two more mates, Rick and Bill starring local footballers from the Yarra Ranges Football Netball League, now known as Outer East Football Netball League.
“About nine years ago, there was a surge in domestic violence, it felt like every time you picked up a paper or turned on the TV, you were hearing about another woman being killed,” Murphy said.
The video Yarra Valley Domestic Violence PSA is available on YouTube at: youtube.com/watch?v=jtAjHiYrn90.
Murphy is still frustrated that there are not enough efficient actions to reduce domestic violence.
“We’ve done a lot of research and investigations at a political level, and the actions that come out of those things are what we’re waiting for next, but we don’t actually start implementing the actions that we’ve already found out from past investigations,” he said.
“We also need to reform our bail laws, so we keep violent offenders better managed until their case is heard. How many times do we hear them out on bail?”
In May, an otherwise fiscally conservative Victorian Budget for 2024/25 prioritised investment in addressing family violence.
$269 million was committed to initiatives designed to prevent family violence and improve safety for women;
$42 million was directed to ‘deliver timely and individualised interventions and continued support’
$39 million was set aside for schools and early childhood services to continue to deliver the Respectful Relationships program,
$24 million aimed to bolster the information-sharing capabilities of police, courts and agencies through a Central Information Point
$16 million was dedicated to providing community-led and culturally safe responses to family violence in Aboriginal communities with Aboriginal women anywhere between 35 to 45 times more likely to experience violence than non-Aboriginal women.
A Victorian Government spokesperson said Victoria leads the nation with our work to strengthen how we prevent and respond to family violence and violence against women.
“We know we have more work to do for a future where women, children and young people are safe,” they said.
In early November, the Star Mail reached out to local domestic violence support service Free From Family Violence (FVREE, formerly EDVOS/Eastern Domestic Violence Service) and chief executive Christine Mathieson said ongoing investment from both Federal and State Governments is essential across all aspects of the family violence continuum, particularly in primary prevention and recovery.
“For example, our organisation does not receive sustainable funding for our primary prevention initiatives and relies solely on grants, donations, and fee-for-service work, while we recognise that achieving prevention outcomes requires time, violence rates will not decrease without supporting initiatives that tackle the root causes of violence – gender inequality, at the systemic, community, and individual levels,” she said.
“Additionally, securing long-term recovery services is challenging, as many survivors struggle to access the therapeutic support necessary for their healing,”
“Another critical area is holding perpetrators accountable for their actions, as the incidence of
murders continue to rise, we must shift our focus as a society from questioning the behaviour of victim-survivors—asking ‘Why doesn’t she just leave?’—to examining why perpetrators choose to use violence.”
FVREE advises victims of domestic, family, and sexual violence to contact 1800RESPECT, the national counselling, information and support service. If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic or family violence, you can call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732, text 0458 737 732 or visit their website: 1800respect.org.au.
The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence also brought the issue back into the spotlight, including the second annual Walk Against Family Violence organised by Boorndawan Willam Aboriginal Healing Service (BWAHS) at Lillydale Lake on Tuesday 26 November.
BWAHS chief executive officer Adam Frogley said it was under the awful circumstance of women killed by violence in Australia that brought 150 people from the community together.
“One woman is killed every 11 days, and one man is killed every 91 days. It’s not acceptable,” he said.
“We need to stand up as a community and make sure we’re putting our best foot forward, if we can use that term, to ensure that family violence remains a very high focus particularly for government, and to ensure we’ve got the ability and the resources to do the jobs we do working with community.”
Walking 560 metres to the first stop, Mr Frogley said it was representative of the estimated 56 women killed by family violence at the time of the event.
“In other spaces, you would hear that that was someone’s daughter, wife, sister or mother, and all of that is true, but they’re also the woman from your neighborhood who could grow the best tree, who was always kind, that lit up a room with her smile,” he said.
“Who fought all of her life, a warrior to the end. Someone who could have cured cancer, taught others to read, a role model for her community…she should have been safe.”
The Star Mail also reflected on over a decade of reporting on the issue during the 16 Days, including the work of a team of reporters at Mail News Group in 2011, Mara Sowden Pattison, Casey Neill and Kath Gannaway who ran a six week series sharing the stories of women who had fled such violence but also the remarkable people who had dedicated time to supporting these women through horrible circumstances.
Reflecting on the intention and catalyst for this series, Ms Gannaway said it was very much the story of one woman in 2010, Jeannie Blackburn, which prompted the need to bring gendered violence to the fore.
“Her partner had been jailed for abusing her and the abuse was horrific, she lost her eyesight in one eye. She came to us with that story, and he’d already been jailed, so there were no impediments to reporting on the story, and she just wanted to get that out there about abuse,” she said.
“The same issues that were written about then, about the controlling nature, about all the reasons behind it, and the indicators like isolating people from their families, all those things are still relevant.”
Sadly, the ongoing scourge of gendered violence was driven home by the tragic and senseless death of a former Yarra Ranges woman, Isla Bell, who had been missing for over a month prior to the discovery of what is believed to be her remains at a waste management facility in Dandenong on Tuesday 19 November.
Isla, who had moved to Brunswick and would have turned 20 on 22 October, was last seen in her new suburb on 4 October and last heard from on 6 October.
Isla hailed from the Dandenong Ranges and worked at a Kallista based nursery before moving to live with her uncle, and on a press conference on her daughter’s birthday, her mother Justine Spokes said her heart just aches.
“Isla, you’re deeply, widely loved by so many people, and your family and friends are just so distressed, darling,” she said.
“Me and your dad, and your sister, we just can’t wait to hold you, bub. We love you so much. We just want to know you’re safe.”
53-year-old Mariat Ganiev appeared in Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday 20 November charged with Isla’s murder while 57-year-old Eyal Yaffe from Hampton, faced a charge of assisting an offender with murder.
A Victoria Police summary alleged Ms Bell was seen entering the apartment for the last time on October 5 and was never seen to leave again. Two days later, police allege a fight can be seen through a gap in the front kitchen window of Ganiev’s apartment.
“Investigators observed what appears to be Bell’s head whipping around as if she has been struck,” the summary said.
“She falls to the ground and Ganiev can then be seen striking her on the ground of the kitchen.
“What appears to be Bell’s head can be seen rising up before being pushed back down by Ganiev’s arm.”
Ms Bell was captured on CCTV through the same window up until 2am on October 7.
On 7 December, there was a planned then cancelled vigil, flags at half mast, ribbons dangling from trees in the hills and a charity fund raised in her honour – Isla Bell will rest in power.
The date was supposed to be a vigil for the young woman whose brutal murder sent shockwaves through the nation.
Organisers instead requested people hold their own private vigils and to tie red and orange ribbons around the hills in her memory.
Australian Femicide Watch run by Sherele Moody posted to social media on 7 December that instead a secret vigil was held for Isla, alleging the event was cancelled due to threats of violence from men.
‘.. because abusive men threatened to harm anyone going to the public event,” she wrote.
On the same day the vigil for Isla Bell was to be held, her family launched a charity in her name.
In honour of Isla, the Isla Bell Charitable Fund has launched an art award celebrating creative excellence and created a scholarship for young women pursuing studies that reflected Isla’s passion for art, animals, and nature.
The Isla Bell charitable fund was founded by Isla’s mother, Justine Spokes, her dad, Sean Ryan, uncle Kieran Dionysus and Dr Atalanti Dionysus and you cand find out more at the-isla-bell-charitable-fund.raiselysite.com.
Other tributes further afield have been made in Isla’s name, a group of young RMIT art students decided to withdraw their works from their university’s end-of-year showcase to pay tribute to her and the other women who lost their lives in Australia in 2024. The showcase, held from November 19-24, was considered the ‘biggest event’ of the students’ three-year course.
Instead of displaying their art, the students turned their canvases away to conceal their works and painted the name ‘Isla Bell’ across the walls.
