{"id":192241,"date":"2025-10-05T21:58:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T21:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/192241\/"},"modified":"2025-10-05T21:58:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T21:58:08","slug":"today-in-history-october-6-fashion-choice-helped-aussie-teacher-and-students-escape-kidnap-ordeal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/192241\/","title":{"rendered":"Today in History – October 6: Fashion choice helped Aussie teacher and students escape kidnap ordeal"},"content":{"rendered":"

O\ufeffn October 6, 1972, in a small isolated Australian town, two armed men stormed its one-teacher school, triggering an infamous kidnapping.<\/p>\n

Teacher Mary Gibbs was preparing for home time with her six students when the pair barged through the door of the school at Faraday, about 100km north-west of Melbourne, wielding a shotgun, knives and chains.<\/p>\n

Initially, the 20-year-old teacher thought the dramatic entrance was part of a prank, but she and the children were abducted by the men, Edwin Eastwood and Robert Boland.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Police sketches of the two kidnappers, Edwin Eastwood and Robert Boland. (Nine)<\/p>\n

The pair told them to get into the back of a van and drove them to an isolated hideout about 50km away.<\/p>\n

When parents arrived at the school to collect their children, all they found was a note left by the kidnappers demanding a $1 million ransom be delivered to them by Victorian deputy premier and education minister Lindsay Thompson.<\/p>\n

The ransom note ended with a chilling warning.<\/p>\n

“Will not waste time making threats, but any attempt to apprehend will result in annihilation of hostages.”\ufeff<\/p>\n

\ufeffAssistant Police Commissioner Mick Miller said in The Age at the time of the unfolding horror: “It’s the gravest situation of this kind in the history of the Victoria Police force”.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/The ransom note demanding payment of $1 million. (The Age)<\/p>\n

Media outlets described the brutal kidnapping as the “crime of the century”.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Thompson said the ransom demands would be met, while police launched a huge manhunt around Faraday.<\/p>\n

Before dawn the next day, police drove Thompson to a bush location for the drop off, with Miller hidden under a blanket in the car, armed with a high-powered rifle.<\/p>\n

Thompson was ready to personally deliver the cash, in two suitcases – as requested – but it was never collected.<\/p>\n

When the kidnappers left their hostages in the van to make the rendezvous with Thompson, Gibbs and the children seized the opportunity to escape.<\/p>\n

\ufeffThe teacher kicked the door of the van repeatedly, and, helped by the heavy-soled knee-high boot she was wearing, she eventually broke a panel.<\/p>\n

“I’ve got a strong right foot,” she later told media.\ufeff<\/p>\n

She and the children were able to crawl through it and flee.<\/p>\n

Eventually, after hours trekking through the bush, Gibbs and the shocked students met a party of hunters who took them to safety.<\/p>\n

For her courage, Gibbs was later awarded the George Medal, the highest civilian bravery award.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Eastwood and Boland were arrested in Melbourne before being tried and sentenced to long prison terms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"O\ufeffn October 6, 1972, in a small isolated Australian town, two armed men stormed its one-teacher school, triggering…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192242,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-192241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}