One week after Bourke Street was terrorised by that man in the maroon sedan - with the noise of his engine and wailing sirens, gunshots and the screams of people hit or scared – the mall fell silent. Just for a minute.
Trams rattled through, though. Babies in prams cried. It was 1.39pm. Tourists stopped and stared at the people gathered for a silent vigil holding hands, and at the huge and ever-growing bank of flowers outside the GPO.
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It wasn't a huge crowd for the minute's silence, but it wasn't tiny either. It felt poignant and affecting, as it should.
However, normal Melbourne life seems to be returning to this dark corner of the city, in a glimpse of what is to come as time goes on, buskers play on, and the flowers disappear.
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What happened last week will never be forgotten but the sense down there on Friday was of a city trying to move on, but having much on its mind holding it back.
The event was organised by a group called Forget Me Not foundation, a victims-of-crime advocacy group. It was pulled together on their behalf by Hume city councillor Steve Medcraft, a long-time campaigner for stricter bail conditions and more punitive sentencing – a stance which has seen him accused of populism.
He had with him George Halvagis, father of Mersina, who was murdered in a cemetery in 1997 by Peter Dupas; Janine Greening, whose mother was murdered in 2000; and Maria Aylward, whose sister was murdered three years ago.
"We want to make Victoria safe again," Mr Medcraft said. "We are united in grief and anger. It is one week since this town was turned upside down. Grief. Anger. Shock. Disbelief. Everybody here feels the same pain."
The minute's silence was supposed to be about Bourke Street and the dead and injured from that day. But it became about more than just that as speakers focused on what they consider to be Melbourne's wider crime crisis, in particular youth crime.
State Liberal leader Matthew Guy spoke. Premier Daniel Andrews was not in attendance. Mr Guy said he was there as a Melburnian not a politician.
"This is the city I love, where I was born, where my wife was born, where my children were born. This is our city. This is the start of taking back Melbourne for us," he said.
Mr Guy said the tragedy of Bourke Street should not be politicised.
But then he handed the microphone to new Victorian senator Derryn Hinch, whose first comment was: "You have to politicise it. Thirty thousand people marched up Sydney Road after Jill Meagher and nothing happened. Daniel Andrews could recall parliament next Thursday and change the bail laws. Maintain the rage".
In the crowd, people were talking about the prison break this week from Malmsbury and the alleged aggravated assaults committed by the escapees. They were talking about the Apex gang, about homeless people on the streets and how it makes them feel unsafe.
"Enough is enough," said Mr Guy. " It (Melbourne) is not as safe. It is not as confident. Don't let our city become something that it doesn't need to be."