It was at about 2pm on Friday, May 29, 1998, that Adele Smith, 16, was shot while she lay in the bed on the first floor of the hospital.

She later died from gunshot wounds. 

The tragedy prompted calls for tighter security at the hospital and other health facilities across the state. 

This week, her father Alan Smith said it “only feels like yesterday” that Adele was here and that her loss was something he felt every day. 

“You don’t get used to it but you have to put up with it. Life goes on,” Mr Smith said. 

“It has been 20 years now. That time seems to have flown by...sometimes it still seems like yesterday that she was here and there are other times when it seems like a million years away.

“I miss her every day. We all do. I am still in contact with a lot of her friends and they all miss her too. 

“It is comforting to know she is still missed and still remembered every day.”

He said Adele was a talented horse rider.

“She was an exceptionally good horse rider. She won a lot of prizes at big shows,” Mr Smith said. 

“This is why we like to keep her memory alive with the two trophies that are named in her honour - for the Rodeo Rideathon and for the Goulburn Show. The Rodeo Club and the Goulburn Show Society have been very good about it over the years.”

Mr Smith and his mother Gloria were on hand last Saturday night at a function at the Workers Club to mark the 50th anniversary rodeo, held in February. On the night they presented the 2018 Adele Smith Memorial trophy to Shana McLean.

Mr Smith said he still had Adele’s horse.

“I still have her horse, a pinto mare named Maud. She is 36 years old now, which is very old for a horse and that is the same age that Adele would have been this year,” he said.

“The mare, Maud is going very well for her age. She is a paint mare, which is a breed that the American Indians used to ride.”

On May 29, 1998, Adele was in hospital recovering from a horse riding accident when she was shot with a sawn-off .22-calibre rifle by her ex-boyfriend Paull Francis McLaughlin. He had hidden the rifle inside a coat he was wearing. McLaughlin was later convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to a period of imprisonment. 

There was a massive outpouring of grief in the city over the shooting, with over 2000 people attending her funeral in St Saviour’s Cathedral. 

In November, 2001, a large crowd attended a rally held outside Goulburn Base Hospital demanding the upgrading of hospital security.