Hundreds of mourners have gathered on the Mornington Peninsula to farewell slain 11-year-old Luke Batty on Friday.
A thick curtain of early-morning rain eased into a light spray as classmates, teachers, friends and family filed into the small chapel of Flinders Christian Community College in silence. Hundreds more packed the gymnasium.
A sprinkling of yellow was worn by mourners, among the checkered school shirts, police uniforms and football tops. Yellow was Luke’s favourite colour.
The small coffin was yellow. On top of it were bright yellow flowers, and on either side were projection screens showing a school photo of a bright-eyed 11-year-old with a wide smile.
“Yellow is the colour of sunflowers and daffodils,” said a note at the front of the funeral booklet. “The colour of Sponge Bob, the Tour de France winner’s jersey, happy faces, post-it notes … it’s the colour of happiness and optimism, of enlightenment and creativity, sunshine and spring.”
Luke, a grade 6 student at the Tyabb school, was killed by his father, Greg Anderson, after cricket training on Wednesday last week. Anderson was shot by police shortly after, and later died in hospital.
Luke’s grandmother, Josephine Batty, who travelled from England, remembered happier times when Luke and his mother Rosie came to spend holidays with them.
She said Luke had been fascinated by outer space after studying it at school. Luke would now “never get to orbit the earth as an astronaut,” she said, but as a “diamond in the sky”.
