11 Conspiracy Theories and Shady Rumours

9. The Port Arthur Massacre

Martin Bryant killed 35 people and wounded 21 others in a shooting massacre at Tasmania’s Port Arthur Historic Site in 1996, after which, he was apprehended following an overnight standoff. He is now serving a 1,035-year prison sentence without parole.

In the aftermath, new gun control laws were enacted across Australia, banning semi-automatic and self-loading rifles and shotguns, making it more difficult to obtain a firearms license, and removing and destroying over 60,000 guns through a buy-back program.

Conspiracy theorists believe that it would have been impossible for untrained and mentally challenged Bryant to kill so many people and that the massacre was actually committed by a professional assassin, with Bryant used as a patsy in a frame-up orchestrated by the government to restrict gun ownership.

The unprecedented long prison sentence and Bryant’s first eight months in lock-up being spent in solitary confinement are seen as evidence by conspiracy theorists that the government did not want him to spill the beans. The more likely story is that Bryant was placed in solitary for his own protection, having killed small children at close range.

Prison is notoriously unpleasant for child-killers. Whatever discrepancies may exist in physical evidence are easily explainable as the results of a police investigation, and there is no doubt that Bryant is guilty as charged.

10. Schapelle Corby

In 2004, an Australian woman, Schapelle Corby, was arrested at Bali’s Denpasar Airport when Indonesian customs officials discovered 4.1 kilograms (9 lb) of marijuana in her bodyboard bag. She maintained her innocence, and her defence team argued she was the victim of a conspiracy between international drug smugglers and Australian police and baggage handlers. Sentenced to 20 years in prison, she was released on parole after nine years but required to stay in Indonesia.

According to a group known as the Expendable Project, Corby was sold out as an unwitting sacrifice by a complex conspiracy involving the Australian and Indonesian governments, as well as the police, media, and Qantas. They point to the fact that the marijuana was highly unlikely to have been able to pass through Sydney and Brisbane Airports without being detected, and Corby was a nondrug user without a motive to import marijuana into Bali.

11. Perth Bell Tower

The Perth Bell Tower is an iconic landmark of Perth, Western Australia, which contains 12 St Martin-in-the-Fields bells””the only royal bells to have left England.

According to conspiracy theorist Ellis C. Taylor, however, the bell tower was actually designed by a Freemason to represent the penis of the Egyptian god Osiris. He claims the site of the tower is known by the aboriginal Nyungar people as being an energy vortex and that the Freemasons have been using public funding to tap this energy through occult architecture.

He also says the Freemasons have a worldwide plan to recreate the body of Osiris through monuments centred around Perth, with the Underworld being ‘Down Under’. Perth huh? Wow!