What the 60 hearts at Bondi ask of the people who walk past them

Sixty pastel concrete hearts, each hand-polished and inscribed with a phrase most Australians will recognise, are currently standing at Marks Park between Bondi and Tamarama. They represent sixty women killed by a current or former partner in Australia so far this year. The installation is called Sweethearts, and it is part of the annual Sculptures By The Sea event.

The artists behind it, long-time friends Philippa Lysaght and Omi McCurdie, were deliberate about every design choice. Lysaght spoke to 7NEWS (https://7news.com.au/lifestyle/sculptures-by-the-sea-why-60-pastel-hearts-are-haunting-an-iconic-sydney-beach--c-23062410) about returning to Australia in 2020 after years of UN humanitarian work in conflict zones, and her disbelief that a wealthy, well-resourced country was still losing women at this rate. The phrases etched into the hearts were drawn from workshops with women's shelters and community groups — the actual words people say to excuse, minimise, or dismiss what is happening. Not slogans. Not statistics. Sentences you have heard, or possibly said.

That specificity is the point. Generic awareness campaigns about gender-based violence tend to slide off people. Hearing the exact phrase that was used to rationalise harm to someone you know lands differently. Lysaght described the artwork as living or dying on whether those inscriptions felt gut-wrenchingly familiar. By most accounts walking past them, they do.

The number is almost certainly low

Sixty is the count at time of installation. It is also, almost certainly, an undercount. Coronial findings take time, and some deaths are initially classified as accidents or suicides before the full picture is established. Advocacy groups including Destroy the Joint, which runs the Counting Dead Women Australia tracker, have consistently flagged the gap between official figures and the real toll. The Australia's National Research Organisation for Women's Safety (ANROWS) estimates that intimate partner violence costs the Australian economy more than $21.7 billion each year across health, justice, and lost productivity. The individual cost is not measurable in those terms.

White Ribbon Australia defines violence against women as any gender-based act causing physical, sexual, or psychological harm, including coercion and threats, whether that act occurs in public or private. That definition matters here because a significant share of these deaths do not begin with visible physical harm. They begin with patterns of control that go unreported for months or years, often because the person experiencing them does not yet have the language to name what is happening.

What the crowd can do

Sculptures By The Sea draws hundreds of thousands of visitors to the Bondi-to-Coogee coastal walk each year. Placing sixty hearts in that corridor puts the number in front of people who might otherwise scroll past a headline. But public art can only do so much. It changes a conversation. It cannot change a situation. The question worth sitting with, after you read the inscriptions and feel the weight of them, is what the people around that installation are prepared to actually do.

Bystander behaviour in public spaces is one of the more under-discussed angles in safety conversations. Research into bystander intervention consistently shows that most people want to help when they sense something is wrong but do not act, either because they are unsure whether their read on the situation is correct, or because they do not know what an appropriate response looks like. Neither of those is a character flaw. They are gaps that can be closed with specific, practical information.

If you are at a public event or crowded space and you notice someone who seems distressed, controlled, or afraid, a few principles apply. First, approach the person when they are not directly beside the person causing concern, even briefly. Second, keep the opening simple: "Are you okay? Is there somewhere you need to be?" leaves space for them to respond on their own terms. Third, do not push for details in that moment. Your job is not to conduct an investigation. It is to make clear that someone has noticed and that help is available. Fourth, know the number: 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) operates 24 hours a day across Australia and can also advise a third party on how to support someone else.

What event security staff can do

XGuard operators and guards working public events are trained to identify escalating tension between individuals and to de-escalate before situations become critical. That includes recognising the behavioural markers of someone in distress that are not always loud or obvious: a person who defers every question to a companion, who flinches at physical contact, or who makes eye contact with staff in a way that seems like a request. A trained guard can create a natural moment of separation, offer a private space, and make a calm, non-pressuring check-in. Detailed, contemporaneous observation notes from security staff also carry real evidentiary weight if a matter later reaches police or a support service.

Pro tip: If you manage security at public events, add a gendered violence awareness component to your pre-event briefing. Every staff member on the ground should know the 1800RESPECT number, understand that someone in distress may not identify their situation as "violence," and feel equipped to offer a quiet space and a non-judgmental question rather than a formal confrontation. That single preparedness step costs nothing and can change everything for someone in the crowd.

Sweethearts is not a vague memorial. It is a count, built by someone who spent years documenting harm in conflict zones and came home to find harm being counted just as inadequately here. Walking past it and feeling something is a start. Knowing what to do next is the part that matters.

If you or someone you know is experiencing family or domestic violence, contact 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732, available 24 hours a day. In an emergency, call 000.

Need protection where you are? XGuard connects you with licensed, vetted security operators in minutes — for events, residences, retail, executive protection, and fire watch. Available globally.

Source: au-7news — 2026-10-25