Four in four days, a number that should shame us all. That's how many women were allegedly murdered in just one recent spate of violence across Australia. Their names: Lavanya Chappa, Jana Armstrong, Layla Jeffrey, just 13, and a 17-year-old Yolngu girl from a remote community in the Northern Territory.

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So far this year - and this number will in all likelihood be out of date by the time you read it - 30 women have been killed, according to the Counting Dead Women Australia register, too often by men known to them.

Partners, husbands, sons.

The victims' names make fleeting headlines and too quickly are forgotten. So here's a reminder of others we have lost in recent weeks.

Last Wednesday, 27-year-old Djuarn Baker-Adams, found dead in Logan south of Brisbane.

The week before, 23-year-old Julia Brunsdon, found dead in Charleville, victim of an apparent murder-suicide.

On June 28, on the Gold Coast Mallorie Roberts was declared dead from a gunshot wound police allege was inflicted by man believed to be her partner.

I was urged to write about the deaths of women at the hands of violent men by Leanne, an Echidna reader responding to my column about the PM and the melongate imbroglio.

"I read no genuine outrage in the media and definitely see no real action from politicians about this issue." Leanne wrote. And she makes a valid point.

Every now and then, there is a flare-up in the media. Sometimes, the names of victims are remembered because their deaths have exposed our collective failures to address violence against women. Molly Ticehurst and Hannah Clarke spring to mind.

But as the months roll on, our attention wanders elsewhere until the next spate of murders sparks another outpouring of anger. In the background between these spasms of outrage, the deadly toll mounts.

The Australian Institute of Health and Wellbeing estimated that in 2024-2025 one woman was murdered by an intimate partner in Australia every 11 days, compared with one man every 26 days. The disparity should haunt us all.

National plans and strategies, state-based funding for domestic violence support organisations, helplines, education and intervention - they've all been thrown at the scourge yet it persists.

It's tempting to shrug and say, "There's nothing I can do about it."........

© The Examiner