When Lizzie Pearl looks back to the Sydney siege it’s not the long hours, or blurry 2am phone call that’s engraved into her memory.
Instead, the seasoned Nine journalist can still envisage the sea of flowers at Martin Place.
“I was there the first morning and one lady came to drop off some flowers, then there were two bunches, and then a few hours later it just got so big,” Pearl recalls.
“People would come by and drop their flowers, wait a few seconds and move on.
“It was beautiful and it was just so sad. I remember sitting there in tears.”
Pearl was on the scene for 9News covering the 16.5-hour Lindt Cafe siege as it unfolded on December 15 a decade ago.
She spent long hours reporting on the nightmare situation, watching it happen in real-time along with the rest of Australia.
In the aftermath, she was stationed at the flower memorial at Martin Place to honour Katrina Dawson and Tori Johnson.
“It just grew to this absolute sea of flowers, and it was quite traumatic as a journalist,” she recalled.
“Every day I would be sent back there, and I wanted to go back but it was a lot. Grown men in their business suits would be crying, politicians would be crying… mums with their kids would be crying.”
It was beautiful and it was just so sad. I remember sitting there in tears.
Pearl has reported on countless horrible events in the 10 years since, including gun massacres during her time in the US.
But it’s the flowers which still prick tears in her eyes every time.
“When I was a correspondent in the US, there’s always those flower memorials. Even now, whenever I go to a flower memorial, I just… I don’t like it,” Pearl said.
“I just have to get away. It’s a necessary part of grieving, and it’s beautiful for the families of people who’ve been lost in tragic circumstances. But it’s not something I like going to.”
Pearl was a state politics reporter on the Sydney in 2014 and it still takes a lot to shake her stoic professionalism.
Among the other cases and stories she’s covered, though, the reporter said the siege had a very different, chilling effect on the city she loves – and on herself.
“I have covered awful tragedies that affect people on a smaller scale. For that individual person, it’s probably a bigger tragedy for them, but in terms of the effect it had on a city.
“It’s had the most impact on the most people,” she said.
“In terms of the scale and the impact and just the shock that people were in, I’ve never really seen anything like it in Australia.”
Pearl remains proud to be one of the voices who guided Sydney through the siege.
When talking about and sharing memories about the day since 2014, she realised everyone had a story to tell.
“It’s kind of like that Princess Diana or JFK moment, everyone wants to tell you what they were doing when it was happening,” she said.
“That’s when you know an event has had an impact.”
