"Here we stand at the epicentre of grief and reflection, compassion and love. Now it's time to gather up these tributes," said Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle on Tuesday morning as the removal of the mountain of flowers that made up Melbourne's Bourke Street memorial began.
"It's a monument to life, not a monument to tragedy."
The makeshift floral memorial had been "Melbourne's beating heart" after the events of January 20.
For those who lost someone, those who witnessed the ongoing drama, or those who were trying to come to terms with what had happened to their beloved city, for 11 days the memorial had been the epicentre of their grief.
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"Melbourne was a happy place with laughter and kindness. But what happened to all you happy people was a disgrace ... I wish I could have helped, I would do anything, you didn't deserve it," a water-stained note, in blue and orange Texta, from a nine-year-old boy named Tyler, said.
But by lunchtime it was all gone. The Premier, the Lord Mayor and the Victorian Governor all called it the next stage in the city' grieving process.
Teddy bears, candles, wreaths, cards, notes and then the flowers, hundreds of fresh and wilting flowers, were all removed one by one by Red Cross, SES, and other volunteers, and placed carefully in the back of two trucks.
Smoke hovered in the air following a traditional Aboriginal smoking ceremony, which blessed the land before the removal began.
There were framed photos of four of the six Bourke Street fatalities hung above the mountains of tributes, but pictures of the latest victim, a 33-year-old Blackburn South woman who died in hospital on Monday, were missing.
Some people embraced, and wrote notes on the notepads sitting atop the sculpture of a purse that stands outside the old GPO building.
But it's not the only makeshift memorial that had sprung up in the days since the tragedy, Cr Doyle said there were a total of nine sites where people had left tributes for the victims, scattered around Bourke Street.
This, he said, meant it would be difficult to decide where a permanent memorial would be placed.
"One of the difficulties we have is there is not a single site," he said.
"Arguably this is not the central site, there are nine sites that we will deal with on Bourke Street today, and each of them is important.
"So I think something that is far more general is what's in my mind at the moment, but I'm very happy to take people's views," he said to the crowd of mourners and media gathered at the mall.
"The Premier and I will take our time because we want to [get it] right and we want people to be comfortable with where we land."
The organic material, the flowers and wreaths, will "take some months to compost" before it is added to the Victims of Crime memorial near State Parliament, Cr Doyle said.
"We will preserve the cards separately, we will preserve all the other mementos – the teddy bears and pictures – and work out in coming days what we do about permanent memorialisation."
Premier Daniel Andrews said his latest advice was that seven victims remained in hospital and one of those was "in a grave condition".
"There are fears for that patient's wellbeing," Mr Andrews said.
He said the memorial was a celebration of the "Victorian spirit" as much as it was a place of grief.
"We've had, in many respects, the eyes of the world on us, because of the terrible nature of the crime, but also how the community has responded," Mr Andrews said.
"What we have here is a very powerful statement of love and compassion and it's now appropriate that this floral tribute is gathered up and that we find a permanent home."