Twenty-five years ago the tight-knit community of the Tasman Peninsula was thrust into the international spotlight. Kelly Spaulding was working on a farm at Saltwater River as a 19-year-old on April 28, 1996 when he heard low-flying helicopters pass overhead. He didn't know it then but they were carrying people from the Port Arthur historic site where a gunman had gone on a rampage. 'The communications were pretty non-existent,' Mr Spaulding, now the region's mayor, told AAP. 'It wasn't until I knocked off work and went to the local shop... they said there'd been a shooting at Port Arthur.' Martin Bryant (pictured) killed 35 people and injured a further 23 when he went on a rampage in Port Arthur in Tasmania almost 25 years to the day