The Margaret River tragedy was a bone-chilling and blatantly violent attack, allegedly by a grandfather who killed his wife, his daughter, and his daughter's four children before killing himself.

The hushed horror that follows such a tragedy takes me immediately and painfully back to the day I turned 33, when four members of my own family were senselessly ripped from my life at the hands of someone who was once part of our family.

Bas, 20 months, and Malee, 4, in 2003. They were killed by their father.

My four-year-old niece, Malee, and my one-year old nephew, Bas, were killed by their father - my brother-in-law, Neung, who also murdered my own father on that day, Peter Poulson. My father fought to his death trying to protect his grandchildren.

Neung died later that day from self-inflicted knife wounds.