Two In The Think Tank - 440 - The Faraday Kidnapping

Episode Date: March 27, 2024

On the 6th of October, 1972 Mary Gibbs was teaching at her small country primary school when two armed men entered and loaded up the class into a van. This is one of the most infamous crimes in Austra...lia's history!This is a comedy/history podcast, the report begins at approximately 07:42 (though as always, we go off on tangents throughout the report).Support the show and get rewards like bonus episodes: patreon.com/DoGoOnPodSupport the show on Apple podcasts and get bonus episodes in the app: http://apple.co/dogoon Live show tickets: https://dogoonpod.com/live-shows/ Submit a topic idea directly to the hat: dogoonpod.com/suggest-a-topic/ Twitter: @DoGoOnPodInstagram: @DoGoOnPodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoGoOnPod/Email us: dogoonpod@gmail.com Check out our other podcasts:Book Cheat: https://play.acast.com/s/book-cheatPrime Mates: https://play.acast.com/s/prime-mates/Listen Now: https://play.acast.com/s/listen-now/Who Knew It with Matt Stewart: https://play.acast.com/s/who-knew-it-with-matt-stewart/Our awesome theme song by Evan Munro-Smith and logo by Peader ThomasDo Go On acknowledges the traditional owners of the land we record on, the Wurundjeri people, in the Kulin nation. We pay our respects to elders, past and present. REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING:adelaidereview.com.ausmh.com.autrove.nla.gov.aumedium.com/of-misdeeds-and-mysteriesuniqueestates.com.auweb.archive.org Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey mates, just Matt here in the year 2024 and we've just sold out our first two shows at the Melbourne Comedy Festival so we've added an extra show on the 14th of April at 1.45 with special guest Nick Mason and there's still a handful of tickets for the 3.30 show on the 21st of April as well and on top of that this week the festival starts and I'm doing my show Dryer Dryer with Sir Anjaya M Mana and on opening night this Thursday you can get tickets and if you're there you get a free pin with my face on it. It was, I sold them as merch a few years ago, ten bucks a piece. If you come along with your ticket you get a free badge and hang around we'll have a drink after the show to really get the, get the whole
Starting point is 00:00:44 festival kicked off right. Anyway, now on with the show. Introducing Uber Teen Accounts, an Uber account for your teen with always on enhanced safety features. Your teen can request a ride when you can't take them. You'll get real-time notifications along the way. Your teen feels the sense of independence.
Starting point is 00:01:04 You can follow their entire route on a live tracking map. Your teen will get assigned a top-rated driver. You'll get peace of mind. Uber Teen Accounts. Invite your teen to join your Uber account today. Available in select locations. See app for details. Hello and welcome to another episode of Do Go On. My name is Dave Warnocky and as always, I'm here with Matt Stewart and Jess Perkins. Hello boys. Hello girls. Hello ladies. Oh. Yeah, pretty good. Do you think that could be my cat race? Yeah, could you do it again? Hello ladies. How hot are women and how good is it to be alive?
Starting point is 00:02:01 Okay. That's great. You know what I haven't said for a while, but it has been true the entire time. I wish I was never born. Okay. You were just saying that off air as well. Someone, have I said this on pod, but someone reminded me recently where that comes from. It was the guy who made the film in the Qantas hijack. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The bomb heist.
Starting point is 00:02:21 Yep. So it was a bomb heist that was based on a movie when the film writer and director was asked. It inspired a few real life events. How do you feel about the fact your movie's inspired? And he said, I wish I made a cowboy movie. In fact, I wish I was never born. Which is like the funniest overreaction.
Starting point is 00:02:37 So funny. It's so unnecessary and it caught us by surprise. And I'd love to pay homage to that man. And I think it's good. I think it's good that we could relive it now. Yeah. Cause how else could we? It's not like it was caught on tape.
Starting point is 00:02:52 It's not like we could go back and listen or anything. I'd also like to say a big hello to anyone who's reading along with this podcast right now. Do you know that on Apple podcasts and a few other places now, podcasts are automatically transcribed? I did not know that. Including a website called podscripts.com. This has come to my attention.
Starting point is 00:03:07 Episode 430 about the sinking of the Costa Concordia. I've just got a bit of the script here. I'd just like to read it to you. Do you remember this happening? Well, I remember the script that we wrote. Yeah, we're reading it now. We read all of our episodes off podscripts.com. Yeah, well now we are, yeah, podscript.
Starting point is 00:03:22 We are podscripting podscript. Even, and it's tricky. It's a bit like, I've heard, I've seen actors interviewed after appearing, it was Florence Pugh. I've seen her interviewed after rehearsing for Little Lemon. Imagine you say my name Pugh. Pugh. Oh, Pugh.
Starting point is 00:03:38 No, that would have been tough at primary school. Yeah, but she's okay now. Florence Punged off. Oh, Pugh. Oh, Pugh.. But she's okay now. Florence Ponged off. Oh, pew. Oh, pew. Oh, she smells like poo. Florence poo. All sorts of stuff like that.
Starting point is 00:03:50 Yeah. I don't know if they would have gone that clever. Probably not. They're kids. Yes, I am riding the year eight level. But she's talking about like Greta Gerwig's writing style and being it that like, characters would be speaking at the same time or coming in at precise spots and stuff.
Starting point is 00:04:04 That is how our scripts are written out. So when we're interrupting each other, that's scripted. That's good stuff. There's a lot of ellipses. Yes. That's the dot dot dot. Yeah. So this is how apparently we started that episode.
Starting point is 00:04:15 Okay. My name is Dave Warnke with a weird symbol in the middle of Warnke. Sure. And there's a place on me with Matt Stewart. I'm Jess, I'm Jess Berkins. Hello, Dave. Hello, Dave. That was a nice touch. A little point of Jess.
Starting point is 00:04:28 A little. No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Hello. Hello, Dave. That was a nice touch. Little point of Jess. A little. No, I'm sorry. Oh, that was a good app. That sounds right. God, AI's good.
Starting point is 00:04:44 A little point of Jess. A little pointy, Jess. A little point? Yes, a little pointy. Great. It was scripting the things we were doing. Pointing. Gosh, it's good. So anyone reading along on Podscripts.com, thanks for listening and reading along. They won't understand any of those words you just said because it would have come out as,
Starting point is 00:05:00 Hey, Jess, Blip. Blip. I'm pointing at you, Blip. Blip, I'm pointing at you, Blip. Blip, Jess Berkins. Hello. Hello, Jess Berkins. It's I. All right.
Starting point is 00:05:09 How do we do this show Jess? What do we do? What do we do here? Look, if you're just joining us, welcome. And thanks for joining 440 episodes in. That is a bold choice. Very confident first time listeners did not get through this first bit. Yes. Yeah. you're absolutely right.
Starting point is 00:05:26 Where we relive two other classic episodes, one with a joke and a second one with reading out a weird script. If this is the first episode, just remember that trying out a new podcast is like watching a new sitcom. You got to give it three episodes, okay? You got to get to know the characters and trust me, we grow on you. But what we do here is one of the three of us. And then you got to get to know the characters and trust me we grow on you But what we do here is one of the three of us and then you got to go check out young Dave The prequel series that we did. That's right. I'm saying we're as good as the Big Bang Theory agreed And Dave is just as good as young Sheldon. He's as good as old Sheldon I think I don't put that on him award-winning role. That's huge. That's huge
Starting point is 00:06:02 That's too much pressure for the little shoulders on the little man. So one of the three of us research as a topic usually suggested to us by our listeners, they go away, they look it up, they write a little story, they come back, they tell the others all about it, who sit quietly, never interrupting and never going on dog shit riffs. And it's Matt's turn to enlighten us with a, with a tail. And Matt, we usually start with a question. That's right. It's weird that we've already brought up the topic. I want to talk about the Big Bang Theory. Okay.
Starting point is 00:06:30 Wow. The TV show. The TV show. Thank God. 50% of our audience love the Big Bang Theory. So I don't want to let them know that I haven't really seen it. And it doesn't seem like it's very good. Here's my question.
Starting point is 00:06:40 What year is this? All right. I'll give you a few things that happened that year. Oh, okay. I nearly buzzed him with 2024. Me too. Oh my God, that would have been embarrassing. Do we wait for all the clues or should we buzz him? I had a concern that he has finally lost it.
Starting point is 00:06:56 You there, boy, what year is this? I don't know. Not even what day is this. What year is this? What year is this? Okay, here we go. Okay. The Brownlow medalist was Len Thompson for Collingwood. Okay. Your team, Bopper.
Starting point is 00:07:10 Yes, of course. Jess, you know the history of your club. Of course. Do you need any more info? I'll let Dave have a go. Okay. So, keep going until Dave can get it. Anset Airlines flight 232 from Adelaide, Dallas Springs was hijacked.
Starting point is 00:07:22 Oh, bloody hell. And that's not the report? That's interesting. Yeah, I know. When did ANSIT close? Nineties. Yeah. What's this? I'm going to say 74.
Starting point is 00:07:31 Oh, you're really close. But you've gone over and this is process right rules. So Jessica just locked in the year one. And kept between one. Oh yeah, I did it wrong. I did it wrong then. You said the same as him.
Starting point is 00:07:44 I said 74. We're both locked in. All right, I did it wrong. I did it wrong then. You said the same as him. I said 74. We're both locked down. All right, we're both back in. Did you say 74? Yup. Oh. Gough Whitlam became Prime Minister.
Starting point is 00:07:53 Oh, I don't know. The Munich or Munchen Olympics. 72. Correct. Sucked in, Dave. Well done. Sucked the fuck in, Dave. Was it Gough Whitlam that got you there?
Starting point is 00:08:04 Yes. Yeah, you're a big Gough. Gough Whitlam got everyone there, if you know what I mean. But... He was a hot Prime Minister. He was a hot Prime Minister. My final clue was going to be Whitlam was elected in the 1972 election. Okay, okay. So this topic was suggested by Sandy Tire from Wadarung Land in Ballarat, Kelly Clark
Starting point is 00:08:22 from Perth in Wadjuk Country in Western Australia and Matt Arnott from Ringwood in Melbourne. Okay, I'm going to guess it's an Australian story. Yes, it is. 1972, was that the Eastland Shopping Centre was built in Ringwood. Yes, I'm going to talk about the pretty smooth construction of the Ringwood Shopping Centre. Cool, this should be done fairly quickly then. Yeah. Much like the construction on that flawless piece of architecture.
Starting point is 00:08:49 Fantastic. The way they laid that slab. Oh my goodness. Beautiful. So smooth. Exactly. Not a single blemish in that slab. Gorgeous. It's disappointing that then you build on top of a slab because it was such a beautiful slab. Exactly. You never get to see the slab. Oh my God. Pristine. You could glide across that slab. So we're in 1972.
Starting point is 00:09:06 It's the 6th of October. What was it like then, Matt? Oh, well on this day it was rainy in the morning, quite wintery even though it was in the middle of the springtime. Was Goffy in yet? Goffy, I think Goffy wasn't quite in yet. Okay. Wow.
Starting point is 00:09:22 Building up for a Goffy? I actually don't know. I had a stab, it was a 50-50. Actually, less than 50-50 because October's beyond halfway through the year. Anyway, it's, so it's a wintery day. Rain has cleared. It's after 3pm. Sorry.
Starting point is 00:09:42 I was still thinking it was about Eastland. I'm sorry. 3pm. I've got to really stop thinking about the shopping centre. Yes, after 3pm. Sorry, I was still thinking it was about Eastland. I'm sorry. 3pm. I've got to really stop thinking about the shopping centre. Yes, after 3pm. We're not at Eastland, we're at the Faraday School and it's nearly home time when teacher Mary Gibbs, 20 years old, is busy with a game of musical chairs with her six students. This is the entire school.
Starting point is 00:10:02 It's a very small country school. How many students are there? Six. Wow. In the whole school? There's 10, but four of them are off sick. That's a lot. 40% of your kids are off sick.
Starting point is 00:10:13 Four have already lost. Must be a bug going around. Well, yeah, if there's a bug going around, you're gonna wipe out a bunch of the kids, aren't you? I mean, it's hard to get excited in a game of musical chairs with six. It is a bit. At its peak.
Starting point is 00:10:24 Right. Yeah. Right. Yeah, I would have thought that. How many do you need, do you think? I reckon you need a double figure for it to be exciting. Otherwise, it's over too soon. Well, you'd be furious with the sick kids, wouldn't you? Yeah. All right. Guys, we talked about this musical chairs Thursday.
Starting point is 00:10:37 And the teacher herself is not much older than a kid. She's only 20, but playing musical chairs with the six students in attendance, Robin Howarth, 11 years old, as well as her sisters, Gillian, who's eight, and Denise, five. OK, so that family's making up half the class. Yeah, that's right. They have a bit of a pull in what happens in school. They get a bit of a veto. They have a wing.
Starting point is 00:10:59 No maths today. No, no. Yeah, but also, like, siblings rarely work together, you know, they're going to work against each other. True. They might be the three different factions. But there's also the other sister faction of Linda and Helen Con, nine and six years old, as well as the outcast 10 year old Christine Ellery. So three families make up the, the whole class, the whole school. Yeah. Wow. Cause you see their ages are ranging from five to eleven. Basically the whole breadth of primary school.
Starting point is 00:11:29 Yep. And yet, like I said, there were two boys and two girls who were luckily off with the flu that day. It's not good if you're lucky to have the flu. Yeah, that's true. I think there's going to be some sort of musical chairs based accident. They forgot, they accidentally had one more chair than required. Right, everyone went, oh, we all win. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:11:51 That was boring. It was as boring as the construction of Eastland Shopping Centre. Yeah, boring but beautiful. Beautiful, but yeah, without interest because everything went according to plan and ahead of schedule. Especially that goddamn slab. Such a beautiful slab. Imagine if your job was laying slabs and you are really good at it.
Starting point is 00:12:07 So you've got these beautiful slabs you're laying and then nobody ever gets to see it or appreciate your work. No, you are the foundation of nearly everything. You're really important. But I think you'd be loving the trend of polished slab floors. Finally can see it. Yeah. Finally.
Starting point is 00:12:22 The handiwork. Is that a trend? Back when I was selling air conditioning, that was becoming a bigger thing. People are doing a lot of polish concrete. We put heating in the slab. Oh yeah, underfloor, love it. Yeah, just heats up that whole slab. Or in screed heating. No more cold tootsies. Yeah, but I wonder if you're pouring a slab if you really feel it's a real slap in the face. Yeah, that they're chucking pipes down inside of it.
Starting point is 00:12:43 Yeah, pipes, and usually it's a solid slab. Yeah, you'd be like, oh, it's just uncomfortable. It's not face. Yeah, they're chucking pops down inside of it. Usually it's a solid slap. Yeah. You'd be like, oh, it's just uncomfortable. It's not perfect. Yeah. All right. So that's the setup. OK.
Starting point is 00:12:52 Six kids and a teacher playing musical chairs in this tiny town. She's the only teacher at the school as well. OK. And she's a principal and the janitor. And she graduated the year before from Bendigo, teachers, college, whatever. Yeah. Really thrown in the deep end there. Yeah. Well, that's how it used to be.
Starting point is 00:13:09 Yeah. Like my parents, they get chucked out to the country to start and they start working at smaller schools to learn the ropes, I guess. Maybe they're just hard at positions to fill sometimes. Yeah, that still happens a bit, I guess. Anyway, in his book, The Fierce Country, True Stories from Australia's Unsettled Heart,
Starting point is 00:13:29 Stephen Orr writes, he takes up the story from here, the door opens and two men, one wearing a balaclava and holding a rifle and the other in a floppy hat and dark glasses. They enter the room and one says- Checking out a fight about who's going to get the mallet clapper. Yeah, like, floppy hat. What the?
Starting point is 00:13:48 This is a terrible disguise. It covers a bit of my forehead, I guess, with the floppiness. Maybe he has really distinctive hair, so covering up the hair is actually a good idea. Oh, yeah, that's good. But dark glasses too, it's hard to see inside. Okay, sorry. Protects his eyes though. Dig on.
Starting point is 00:14:03 So they enter the room and one says, school's over for today, sorry. Protects his eyes though. Dig on. So they enter the room and one says, school's over for today kids. Christine, one of the children, thinks it's some sort of a joke. Maybe someone's dad or brother trying to scare them. But soon she realizes from the look on the teacher's face that this is the real thing. The two men usher them out of the school room and into the back of a red van. Oh gosh. The young ones are scared, but Mary and Christine, so Mary the teacher and Christine,
Starting point is 00:14:30 one of the older students, do their best to comfort them. The kidnappers have left a note which reads, ransom will be one million. 500,000 and $20 notes, three suitcases, and the other 500,000, $10 notes, six suitcases. All currency must have been in circulation at least 12 months. Pick up details. At 7.25pm, we will contact Lindsay Thompson, who was the state education minister at the time, at Russell Street Police
Starting point is 00:14:58 headquarters and make arrangements with him. We are not going to waste anyone's time by making idle threats. So we will cut it short by saying that any attempt to trace us and apprehend us will result in the annihilation of every hostage." That's a full on choice of words. Yeah. Annihilate. What's the word you're talking about? Kids. Yeah, exactly. We're going to annihilate. That sounds like something you do to a, like a building that
Starting point is 00:15:22 needs to be knocked down. Yeah. Beautiful concrete slab. Yeah. Get it back to be knocked down. Yeah. Beautiful concrete slab. Yeah. Get it back to where it belongs. It's a beautiful slab. I was going to say something. I was going to say something else, but I'll still tell you later.
Starting point is 00:15:33 Oh, it's a bit, it's a bit naughty. Okay. Sealed section. Yeah. Save it for the very end post credits. Yeah. I'll forget. When all the kids have gone to bed.
Starting point is 00:15:41 I'll forget. Yes. Um, uh, where did you say this tiny town, what was the name of it? Faraday? Faraday? No, that's the name of the school. Is that the town? Yeah, that's the name of the town.
Starting point is 00:15:52 Faraday. I'll talk about it shortly. But have you heard of it? The story rings a bell vaguely, but I don't know any of the details. But it is in Victoria. Yeah, okay. I was going to say it's Country Vic. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:16:03 Yeah. So yes, kids have been taken and the teacher. That's scary stuff. Million dollars. That's a lot of money then. Yeah, a lot of money. Yeah, that's a lot of money now, but back then that's, that's huge money. Serious cash.
Starting point is 00:16:17 But I guess that's what he's not, or the, the kidnappers aren't asking for the money from the school or the parents. They're asking for it from the government. Yep. Who probably should have it. You'd hope. You'd hope they'd have a mill. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:16:31 Probably just like, like just check your pockets and like empty your office drawers and let's all just do a bit of a collection. Yeah. You have a million in like 10 minutes. Yeah. And then stop looking. Just leave the rest. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:16:43 There's heaps more. And then there's someone at the back going, oh no, I'm looking. Oh, you've already got it. You got it. OK. Well, I'm sure I would have found something. I would have. I'm sure. Yeah. No, I could have sworn there's something. I just keep finding thumbtacks. Anyway, I'm off to get a new switch. Yeah. Oh, OK. Rub it in. I just gave my switch money away. Yeah. And that's all that was a lot in 1972. Really?
Starting point is 00:17:06 The 72 Switch. They're all saving up for Switches. You gotta save up for the Switch. The Switch still the latest in gaming technology? It's the best in gaming technology, yes. I don't wanna sound like I'm saying something with the out of date. No, no, no, no.
Starting point is 00:17:18 People are gonna find this very cute in seven years when they're listening to this guy. They don't even know about the Schmeidel. It'll be. The Nintendo Schmeidel. The'll be Nintendo Schmidl. Nintendo Schmidl? The Switch will be nostalgic by then. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:17:29 It's fine. It'll come back around. Yeah. Like the SNES? SNES. Yeah. And like DOS. Oh, how, MS DOS, how, how nostalgic we are all for DOS.
Starting point is 00:17:43 DOS. I miss DOS every day. You know what I miss? Printing on really thin, weird feeling paper that had like little perforated bits. So that you could pull off in a line. Yeah. Oh, that was a satisfying sound. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:17:55 Oh. I miss that stuff. The sound of the printer in my primary school. We are so old. Yeah. Are you guys aging up into my sort of nostalgia bracket? You are. I mean, you're not as old as we were when I started,
Starting point is 00:18:07 because I was already as old as the wind, but you know, you're getting your way towards it. There was a Patreon conversation the other day in the Patreon group on the, in Facebook, um, where people were sort of like, how old is everyone? Cause I, I feel like I'm older than the demo and there were quite a few that were 70, 50 to 70. Yeah, there's quite a few people in there. And I was like, oh, this is great.
Starting point is 00:18:29 Like I'm stoked to hear that. But then also realized how insufferable we must sound sometimes. Cause I feel like me in particular talk about Dave and my age a lot. Or go like, oh, we're getting old. That must be so annoying. So I'm very sorry.
Starting point is 00:18:43 And I'll stop that. You will not. I won't, I'll forget. But I remembered today. Oh, that's cool. I'm very sorry and I'll stop that. You will not. I won't, I'll forget. But I remembered today. Oh, that's cool. I wonder if any of them are Aussies, they'll probably remember this story because it was big news.
Starting point is 00:18:52 It has been billed by some as Australia's crime of the century. Whoa. Shit. What about the Southern Hemisphere's crime of the century? I think that also counts. Cop that. Antarctica. Antarctica. Well, yeah, there's a few other countries Cop that. Antarctica. Antarctica. Well, yeah, there's a few other countries.
Starting point is 00:19:07 I'm yours, Argentina. I reckon Jakarta's probably had some pretty good crimes as well. So we've got kids in the back of the van. We've got someone wearing a balaclava, another one dresses the Australian fast bowler with a floppy hat. Zinc on the mouse. Oh, you're looking at the baggy green.
Starting point is 00:19:22 Is that what you think of the baggy green hat as a floppy hat? Oh, you're wide brim floppy hat. The big wide brim that you know, like Dennis Lilly on the outfield. Do you think it could be Richie Richardson? Yeah. Okay. I think of that as a dad in the garden hat, but okay. Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 00:19:37 Good one. What about a beekeeper hat that's got that thing, a bit of mesh? That would be better for disguise. That would be a less silly name for a fielding position than some of the real ones. Dad in the garden. You gotta field down a dad in the garden. I'll be at silly mid-off. Which one of these is real?
Starting point is 00:19:53 Silly mid-off? Yeah. That's silly. There's also silly mid-on. Wow. Yeah, no, dad in the garden. Cow corner? Okay, they're just having fun.
Starting point is 00:20:02 Down the gully? Down the gully. I'll be down in the gully. Must have originally been a gully. I like it. We're just looking over with a bit of a gully. Yeah. So the first news of the kidnapping came through when a journalist from the Sun newspaper named Wayne Grant took a call at 4.40 PM. So an hour or so later on. Wow. The man said to Grant, I'll say this once. I've kidnapped all pupils and the teacher from the Faraday State School.
Starting point is 00:20:31 The ransom is $1 million. The details are in a note in one of the front desks. According to an article appearing in the Sydney Morning Herald the next morning, the man was believed to be Australian and sounded about 20 years old. He spoke in a high-p pitched voice and did not sound nervous. This isn't important at all.
Starting point is 00:20:49 I know in previous episodes we've done saying the high pitched voice, you go, oh, hang on, something's there's a twist here. There's nothing like that. OK, I just thought what a funny detail. Putting on a high pitched voice, do you think? I don't think so. I think I'll obviously see this once. Yeah. Oh, I think I went what a funny detail. Well, they're putting on a high pitched voice, do you think? I don't think so. I think it was just his voice. Oh, I've only seen this once. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:21:07 Oh, I went on Mark Bills. I've kidnapped every single kid. Okay. Okay. I'm not one of the students in a jacket with the other students below me. I'm a real adult human, about 20 years old. That's all I'll say.
Starting point is 00:21:21 That's all I'll say. Mate, always sounds Australian. Yeah. All right, mate. But you can imagine him reading that in the paper next morning, That's all I'll say. That's all I'll say. Mate. Oh, he sounds Australian. Yeah. All right, mate. But you can imagine him reading that in the paper next morning and to his like, his accomplice mate like, what is this? What is this?
Starting point is 00:21:31 What have I got a high pitch voice? What are you saying I've got a high pitch voice? I don't have a high pitch voice. Why have you never told me I've got a high pitch voice? You don't? Do you think I've got a high pitch voice? No, mate, I don't think I've got a high pitch voice. I've got a very normal pitch voice, to be honest.
Starting point is 00:21:49 According to Orr, who wrote that book, I referenced earlier and I'll reference a bit in this report, Grant later said, I couldn't, this is the journalist, I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It was in such a high-pitched voice, he said, I couldn't believe what I was hearing. He said the- He was so girly. Mate, are you taking the piss? Come on! Are you yanking my phone?
Starting point is 00:22:09 You are not a real person. This is a character. No, mate, don't piss on my leg and tell me it's Ryan. Come on, alright? I've been around the block a few times. He said the ransom was a million dollars and that there was a note in the front desk. Then he hung up. I didn't know what to make of it for a little while.
Starting point is 00:22:23 Granted, sounds pretty straightforward there. Yeah, that's- He couldn't have spelled that out. I didn't know what to make of it for a little while. Granted, sounds pretty straightforward there. He couldn't have spelled that out. I didn't know what to make of it. What could all this mean? Yeah, just trying to put it all together. There's some sort of cryptic message here. It's always $143,000 per hostage. That's yeah. I hope the government weren't doing those sums. I just want to say that Jess has not pulled out a calculator. That was off the top of your dome. Yeah, I've been thinking about it the whole time.
Starting point is 00:22:50 And it's finally got there. It's a slow computer, but it gets there. You've made a lot of notches in this wood, wooden table. Do you think Evan will be mad about that? I think he could be. I'll send it back. For listeners who don't know, Evan owns this table. He lends it to us.
Starting point is 00:23:04 No, we're at the Stupid Old Studios. Don't tell them where we are. Evan and I- They're listening to this a week later. They'll know where we were. You guys talk about Evan like he is Stupid Old Studios. I'm an equal part of this place as he is. Don't make us laugh. You couldn't even keep a straight face saying that.
Starting point is 00:23:22 You're an equal part. In terms of, you know, contracts and stuff. Sure, sure, sure, an equal part. In terms of contracts and stuff. Sure, sure, sure, sure. In terms of legal liability. Yeah, legal liability, yes. On the paper, that's true. But in terms of productivity. Oh no, sorry, no.
Starting point is 00:23:34 If I was trying to find something in this building, I wouldn't go to you. Be like, hey Matt, do you have masking tape somewhere? I'd go to you. No? Yeah, no, that's fair. And it's been less and less with every year. I reckon there would have been a time
Starting point is 00:23:49 you would have been able to come to me. I agree. But that time has passed. Maybe when I first met you about 10 years ago. Yeah. In the first stupid old. And then I got to know you and I went, oh, he's fucking useless.
Starting point is 00:24:00 I'm going straight to the boss. I wouldn't go to him for a bloody. Mate, like tits on a ball this guy. He's fucking useless, but he's good fun. I'll do a podcast with him. So Grant... I'll never ask anything of him ever. Sorry, you wanted to move on, go for it.
Starting point is 00:24:14 Grant the journalist is going, what do I make of all this? And then he also had to be like, and where's Faraday? Yeah. Because he's in Melbourne. Faraday as it turns out, I mean, I think that gives you an idea of how small of a town it is. Did you, had you heard of it, Dave? No.
Starting point is 00:24:30 And just vaguely remembers it, but probably from this story. Yeah. And I'm, I'm guessing it's out Ballarat Way. West? Ah, yes. Northwest. Yeah. So it's closer to more Bendigo than Ballarat. Yeah. Okay. Yep. It's about an hour and a half northwest of Melbourne today.
Starting point is 00:24:48 Maybe when he looked it up, he would go, oh, maybe this is serious. Because if someone said to me, I've kidnapped an entire primary school, I'd say, well, there were 800 kids at my primary school. Good luck, mate. Yeah. How have you done that? What have you got to? Cruiseship? What are you doing? Teachers can't get them to bloody line up at the end of lunchtime. And you've managed to get them all in a bus.
Starting point is 00:25:05 You've got them all in the back of a red van. Okay, so we're looking for a fleet of buses. Okay, that'll be difficult to find. Yeah, so you look it up and go, okay, well, it only has 10 students. Yeah, that's right. And like that whole town, I think had a population around 50 at the time. Now it's about 194, the most recent census. Still small.
Starting point is 00:25:23 Yeah, wow. But it's small. I don't even think there's like a town, like a city centre or anything. There's not, you know, it's homesteads on farms kind of. Quick history of the township, which of course will just be the white history. Yeah, of course, yep. I'm not gonna go through the whole 60 odd thousand years,
Starting point is 00:25:44 but it is on Jarja Warrong country and that history goes back tens of thousands of years. But let me take it at 1851. This is according to unique estates. That was when gold was found in the Mount Alexander area, which is nearby. And within a year, tens of thousands flocked to the region. The historic townships of Chuten. Historic, remember, I'm talking about hundreds of years old.
Starting point is 00:26:09 Yeah. Chuten and Castle Main. Oh, yeah. I've heard of Castle Main, I've never heard of Chuten. No. No, Chuten's fun. Chuten, Chuten. They were created by the Mount Alexander Gold Rush.
Starting point is 00:26:19 Faraday was settled as an agricultural area and quickly grew supplying farm produce to the gold fields. Oh. Although Faraday was close to the goldfields, its granite soils were not gold bearing, but it did have a good rainfall and its position close to Mount Alexander was favored by the settlers. So a few people sort of stuck around. Stuck around. Stuck around. But like I say, it was-
Starting point is 00:26:39 Bit of farming. Tens, not tens of thousands. Yeah, yeah, yeah. In the late 1860s, the Faraday Schoolhouse was built using locally quarried granite and with a shingle roof. It was completed in 1969. Nice. And the following year had 84 students enrolled. Wow.
Starting point is 00:26:56 So it was kind of bustling at the time, but I guess this says something about children of the 1860s. Yeah. But the average attendance was only in its 30s. So. Is it percentage? 30 odd kids.
Starting point is 00:27:10 Oh, right. On average came each day out of 84. You know, kids of those days. What were they doing? You know, playing on their switches probably. Probably, yeah. God, they just. Gen one switches probably.
Starting point is 00:27:20 Oh, yeah, good, yeah. Playing bloody snake or something. Yeah. Definitely no LED on that one. No. It's a cute little townhouse though, I gotta tell you that. Townhouse is not what it is. It's a cute little house. Schoolhouse. Schoolhouse. Yeah, they're cute. Made from local granite.
Starting point is 00:27:34 I've stayed in an Airbnb that's a converted schoolhouse. Yeah. And it's like, yeah, you can't, it's crazy. Having grown up in the city as we have, or the suburbs and the size of schools, and that pupil-wise and also just building-wise and land-wise, and then being like, oh, this is a cute little one-bedroom place. Yeah, it becomes a one-family house. Yeah, that the whole, not even, it was like, it was a studio essentially, and you're like, this was the whole school.
Starting point is 00:28:01 Yeah, it's interesting how those kind of, I love those old buildings, churches as well, as they sort of fall out of favor a bit. They become more and more of them become houses, especially in smaller towns. Or cafes. They have restaurants and you're like, okay. As a Melburnian, coffee is my religion and cafes, that's my altar. You'll find me kneeling down and supping on the cup. Please may I have a soy flat white.
Starting point is 00:28:28 That's where I go to worship. Okay. Praise bean. Praise bean. That's a bit blasphemous, but also beautiful. And you've got to remember 50% of our audience. Love bean. Bean lovers and the other half love Jesus.
Starting point is 00:28:42 So that's going to make. Praise bean is so funny. I wanna put that on a little- Especially from a heathen child. Yeah, it's pretty fun. He didn't even grow up in the face. I'd love a little print of that. I don't drink coffee either.
Starting point is 00:28:54 I'm gonna put that above. That's what I meant. Thank you. All right, anyway, so that's the school. Built in 1869 by the following year, has like 84 students enrolled, but we're jumping forward a century. It's already a hundred years old, the school at this point, yeah, wow. That's a much more interesting game of musical chairs,
Starting point is 00:29:16 can I say? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You get the piano out, and the kids walk around. It goes like not only a hundred years, but to the old west. Get the piano. How would they even have enough chairs? Well, they probably don't need to.
Starting point is 00:29:28 They probably only have like 40 because most of the time. It's called musical chair back then. But it was made of gold. Oh, so. Cause a golden throne. Musical throne. That's the dream. Golden throne.
Starting point is 00:29:41 So we're jumping back to present day 1972. According to the Herald, this was from an article from the Times. So this was like being written about the next morning. The three mothers of the children had arrived at the school at 3.30 to pick them up. Of course, there's only three families. Yeah, that's right. Not only, but you know what I mean. Like, yeah.
Starting point is 00:30:04 It took me, that's why I explained it a bit more earlier because when I read that, I'm like, why are you saying three mothers? Yeah. Oh, there were only three mothers. They became alarmed when the children had not come out at 3.50. Come out, come out, come on.
Starting point is 00:30:20 I'm right on the edge of being alarmed. They don't go in, they just stand in the game. At the moment I'm alert, not alarmed, but I'm about to be alarmed. Because the alarm hasn't gone off, which will alarm me. Come out at the alarm or I'll be alarmed. Yeah, do you bother ringing your bell at the end of the school day if there's eight kids in the room? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:30:38 Or six kids in the room? Well, you could just go around and bell them right in their own faces. Yeah, you probably don't have to disturb nearby farmhouses. So they became alarmed when they hadn't come out. Mrs. Thelma Conn said she and Mrs. Howarth and Mrs. Ellery went into the school and quote, we thought the children and Miss Gibbs were probably out walking, but after we had searched around nearby roads, we got worried and phoned our husbands. So what are they they gonna bloody do? Yeah, they're as useless as tits on a bull. So yeah, so they're being interviewed while this is all still fresh going down. This is them talking to the media like
Starting point is 00:31:21 we don't know what's happened. So it's hectic. It's awful. It's so scary. In the meantime, journalist Wayne Grant has been called, who we spoke about before, and was told by the kidnappers what had happened. Then he's had to pull out a map obviously to figure out where Faraday is. Oh yeah, he couldn't just Google it. No, that's the thing back then. Google was still, at least I think in early development. I think it was still in beta mode. He then called the closest police station at Castle
Starting point is 00:31:52 Main, although someone else wrote Bendigo, which is not quite as close, but still. Bendigo's bigger at least. Yeah. After letting them know about the phone call he'd received, the police tell him that they just received a phone call from the student's parents 10 minutes earlier reporting that they were missing. So obviously the husband's relayed the message on. Yeah, good. I think that's the normal sort of...
Starting point is 00:32:20 When you're passing up the chain. Yeah. The husband. It goes mother. Yes. Husband. husband, coppers. That's right. Wayne. And then coppers back to Wayne.
Starting point is 00:32:30 And then Wayne's there going, all right, so I've had a reporting of kidnapping. Kids are missing. There's a story here. Yes. He's calling his editor in and being like, I don't know what it is, but I'm onto something. There's something here. Just let me think on it for a bit and I'll crack it. But there's something in this. Just give me a couple of days, bit and I'll crack it. But there's something in there.
Starting point is 00:32:45 Just give me a couple of days, editor. Come on, chief. I need this. I can do this. There's gold in these hills. I've got to just figure it out. You know what I'm like. I get my nose into a story and I sniff it out. I'm a hound dog for news.
Starting point is 00:32:58 At the moment, I've sniffed a big rock and it's caught in my nostril and I can't now can't breathe. I'm starting to panic actually. I'm going to need a couple of days and maybe an ambulance. So what are the kidnappers? Well, according to Orr, they drove their captives through Elphinstone or Elphinstone, uh, Kinton where I was born, Landsfield. Is this what this is about? Oh no, when I saw that I was like, whoa.
Starting point is 00:33:29 Yeah, like I get with Australia references, you get with Kyneton references. Well, I was just like, I didn't realise how close, I'd never heard of Faraday. And I grew up quite close there, like I was 25 minutes up the road or something. Yeah, amazing. But when I did read this, I messaged my mom and dad, I'm like, have you heard of this story? Two teachers. Oh, like a couple of teachers around, I think would have been all very similar ages to my
Starting point is 00:33:54 dad and, you know, similar area. I'm like, did you guys know anything about this? They didn't go back to me immediately, but that's all right. Still on read. Really? They haven't? When did you text them but that's all right. Still on read. Really? When did you text them? Because I was just talking to them this morning. I mean I texted them quite late, quite late at night to be honest.
Starting point is 00:34:12 So you know, they're probably, they would have gone to bed early, probably sleeping in. Yeah, now my group chat with them is going off today. So weird, they haven't texted you back from last night at 2.15 in the afternoon. They probably had an early one. An early one and a late sleep in. So they slept in and then they've gone back to bed already. Yeah, I think so. But in the meantime they've messaged Jess and I in our group chat.
Starting point is 00:34:33 Yeah, well, you know, I think, yeah, I don't know, that's just part of their routine. Do you want me to ask them now if they know, if they remember the Paradise story? If you could, yeah. Oh, they've responded. A lot of emojis here. Very positive. Very positive. Remember the Fado story? If you could. Yeah. Oh, they've responded. A lot of emojis here. Very positive. But in brackets, don't say anything to Matt.
Starting point is 00:34:50 Don't read this bit out. Oh, God. So, yeah, they've they've driven through those sounds and found a patch of bushland, isolated bush. At one point, they took Gibbs's driver's license and all the cash he had on her, which added up to about nine bucks. So still a long way from that million. She was bloody flush that day, wasn't she? Nine whole dollars.
Starting point is 00:35:13 Nine whole dollars? That's more than I've got on me, let me tell you that. Yeah. Me too, actually. In folding. Can't fold nine, to be honest. Although back then you could. It was all one dollar notes back then.
Starting point is 00:35:23 Yeah, true. A bit rough though. You've already kidnapped her, all one dollar notes back then. Yeah, true. A bit rough though. You've already kidnapped her. Now you're robbing her. Come on. Insult the injury. Leave the nine dollars.
Starting point is 00:35:31 And driver's license, they are such a pain in the ass to replace. Exactly. And she lives in the middle of nowhere. So like she's going to have to go to Bendigo to get her life. So forgeable. Where's the closest fucking Vic Rhodes? Yeah, I'm like ridiculous. Back then there was maybe a photo, but they were laminated. Yeah. It's
Starting point is 00:35:45 like you can forge these guys. What are you gonna do? What are you gonna do with it? You're gonna use this? High-pitched voice. You think he was 17? Oh. You're gonna use it to get into world bills. Which is obviously probably the coolest place to go. Real cool place to go. Yeah. So they find this patch of bush. One of the men leaves in his, they've got a sedan as well as the van. One of them leaves in the sedan, goes off to find a pay phone, makes a call to journalist Wayne Grant, as we heard before. Ah, right. Yes. Meanwhile, the other man let the teacher Mary Gibbs and her students out to stretch their
Starting point is 00:36:27 legs for a bit, but he followed them around with a knife saying basically don't do anything silly. That's a nice relaxing stretch to the legs. Yeah, yeah. Gibbs played it so cool though. She basically said to the girls, hey, we're going to go on a little nature walk excursion. Let's see what kind of leaves we can find. And she said, you know, that's this certain tree or whatever. She taught them how to make little boats out of the leaves and stuff. So she's just keeping their minds off it.
Starting point is 00:36:55 What a legend. She's 20, just turned 20. Yeah, she's a kid. Just, yeah, was able to, for the most part, as good as she could, she was able to keep their minds off things. Then when the first man returned, Gibbs and the kids were loaded back into the van, the doors were locked and they were told by the men that they were heading off in the other vehicle to collect the ransom and that they'd be back by dawn.
Starting point is 00:37:20 So this is now sort of in the getting into the evening. Right. And they're just locked in the van alone. Yeah. It's an old baker's van. So there'd be a little bit of room, but it's like seven people. Yeah. It'd still be... Bit squished. Yeah. They cracked a window.
Starting point is 00:37:35 Is there any bread rolls or pies or anything left over? I think there was pies and a bain-marie. Do you know what would be worse? Oh, potato cakes. I love it. You know what would be worse? That there isn't any food in there, but it still smells like freshly baked bread. Oh, you'd be so hungry. You'd be like, oh, I think they sold this at Easter.
Starting point is 00:37:50 It smells so much like- Something cinnamony. Cockroast buns. Oh my God. That would tell, isn't it? That would be worse. Yeah, that'd be much worse. Than having food in it.
Starting point is 00:37:58 That would be so much worse. I think that'd be the worst. Don't tell me that happened because I can't handle that. I'm imagining that. Yeah, I'd take the reverse. No smell, but all the food. I would, yeah, I'd take that. I mean, it be the worst. Don't tell me that happened, because I can't handle that. I'm imagining that. Yeah, I'd take the reverse. No smell, but all the food. I would, yeah, I'd take that. I mean, it's not ideal.
Starting point is 00:38:09 No, no, no, no, no. But I think for me- But imagine if there was no- My favorite thing about the food, and I know you eat with your eyes. Yes. So obviously seeing food is number one. And if the food's not there, no good.
Starting point is 00:38:20 Yeah. So that's why I think physical food, even if you can't eat it, seeing it, that's number one. That's number one. Smelling it number two, then eating it tastes probably number three. Yeah. So that's why I think physical food, even if you can't eat it, seeing it, that's number one. Smelling it number two, then tasting, eating and tasting is probably number three. Yeah, agreed. That'd be the order wouldn't it, though? That's your top three. That'd be my top three. Tenses with food, is that what I'm doing? Top three ways to enjoy bread. Yeah, okay, go, go. Dave, you drift off for half a second and none of this makes sense. I know.
Starting point is 00:38:45 That's true for people who are concentrating the whole time. That's right. Wait, what are we saying? Top three senses for food? That was such a great, like you just encapsulated how much this show is nonsense in one question. Because I think I- What are we doing here? I started it and by the end of it I was like, what the hell are you doing?
Starting point is 00:39:11 You have taken things too far my friend. So, so they're locked in, told that wait here, we'll be back by dawn, we're going to get the ransom money. If we get the ransom money, you'll be released. Then they drove off, leaving them all sitting there in the dark. We'll be back by dawn, we're gonna get the ransom money. If we get the ransom money, you'll be released. Then they drove off, leaving them all sitting there in the dark. We'll be back though to tell you a bit more about this after these quick messages. Unless you're on the Patreon ad free, then we'll just be straight back.
Starting point is 00:39:42 Introducing Uber Teen Accounts, an Uber account for your teen with enhanced safety features. Your teen can request a ride with top rated drivers and you can track every trip on the live map in the Uber app. Uber Teen Accounts, invite your teen to join your Uber account today. Available in select locations. See app for details. Okay, so the State Education Minister for Victoria, Lindsay Thompson, who was mentioned by a name in the ransom note. Oh yes.
Starting point is 00:40:08 Was called in and was following the investigation at the police headquarters. Is male Lindsay, female Lindsay? Male Lindsay. There you go. Are they spelled differently? Uh, I don't think so. I think it's a very versatile name. It is. It's a great name. Don't hear it enough anymore. I know. I had a, had a childhood family friend, Lindsay.
Starting point is 00:40:27 You got Lindsay the Dr. McDougall from Friends or Wrongs. Oh yeah, of course, yeah. The guitarist. And a- Triple J. Triple J alum. An absolute icon. The doctor. The doctor. Anyway, that's just double checking.
Starting point is 00:40:39 Had a feeling it would be a male because I was a politician in the 70s. Well, I evened this up a bit. Lindsay Davenport. Oh yeah. Grand Slam tennis champion. There we go. the 70s. Even this up a bit. Lindsay Davenport. Oh, yeah. President tennis champion. She was one of my favorites as a kid. I said, you know, as an adult or whatever. I was an I was already an adult when she played tennis.
Starting point is 00:40:53 You were a kid at heart. Kid at heart. That's right. Thank you. OK, Fab is tricky. You were a kid at heart. Poor, probably up until like mid 90s, I'd say. OK. A bit too late. Yeah, then you became- Late nineties. Or what do you count as a kid?
Starting point is 00:41:07 Ah, you know. Remember in the nineties, you became bitter and old very quickly. Yeah, very suddenly. Yeah, yeah. Well, actually in the 2000, but it's all right. The wildbills days. Anyway, so education minister, Lindsay Thompson, a man,
Starting point is 00:41:28 comes into the police HQ following along things. They've named him, so he needs to be there if they need him. Press conference was called and the politician told the media his government was doing everything in their power to ensure the safe return of Gibbs and the kids, saying that the most important thing was, quote, the welfare of those missing. Gibbs and the kids is a cool band name. That is good. Gibbs and the kids, saying that the most important thing was quote, the welfare of those missing Gibbs and the kids is a cool band name. Gibbs and the kids. Gibbs and the kids. It's the latest record from Gibbs and the kids.
Starting point is 00:41:51 Sort of like King Gizzard and the lizard wizard. It has that same sort of fun to say Gibbs and the kids. Yeah. Calling dibs on Gibbs and the kids. Oh, that's good. Yeah. That's something like, what is their first name? It rhymes with Gibbs.
Starting point is 00:42:04 Hibbs. Hibbs. Hibbs Gibbs and the Colin dibbs on the, no, you don't want to call dibbs on the kids. Yeah, yeah, that name, we all love that. We all know that name. Libby. Lib, Libby Gibbs. Libby Gibbs and the kids. Libby Gibbs. And the rock and roll kids. And the rock and roll kids. Yeah, I think that now we've got it. Jeez, we got to it quick though. Too quick? That's the thing, we got to it quick though. Too quick? That's the thing. We got to it really quick. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:42:28 What are we doing here? David, that's your new thing. What are we doing here? What's happening now? We're naming a band that doesn't exist? Is that what we're doing? Is that what this is? The then Victorian Premier Dick Hamer declared that the government would pay the ransom.
Starting point is 00:42:43 You can't just move on. Dick Hamer. Yeah, like Hamer Hall that the government would pay the ransom. You can't just move on. Dick Hamer. Yeah, like Hamer Hall. Like Dick Hammer. Like Dick Hammer. Only Hamer. Why do we call it Dick Hammer Hall? Dick Hammer Hall.
Starting point is 00:42:54 But Hamer Hall's named after him. There you go. Very big venue in Melbourne. Yeah, his name, funnily enough, isn't even Dick. If he says Richard, I'll lean over the table and just smack him. It's crazy. Yeah, it's crazy. His name's actually Richard Hamer. I don't know where it came from. No, his real name is Rupert Hamer. So I don't know how they got to Dick.
Starting point is 00:43:19 He really downgraded to Dick. His middle name was James as well. So as every man's middle name is. Yes. Every man. Every man I've ever met. Both of you. Brendan Fraser. And, Andy Matthews.
Starting point is 00:43:29 And now Dick Hamer. Evan Munro-Smith. One of his is James. Is that so? Pretty sure. Everyone is James. Every boy is James. Every girl is Anne or Louise.
Starting point is 00:43:38 Jimmy James Eaton. Jimmy James Eaton. So yeah, Dick Hamer comes in. I could have called him Rupert, but when his nickname's Dick, Dick Hamer, he says the government would pay the ransom. According to the Sydney Morning Herald article from the following day, the Victorian premier, Mr. Hamer said the government and the police were, quote, sparing no efforts to find the children. He was prepared to go to the scene if there was any point, he said,
Starting point is 00:44:06 but he declined to reveal what arrangements had been made to have the ransom available. I'll go to the scene. I'll go out there myself. Not many times. If there's any point. If there's any point. If the politician says, if there's any point, I'll do it. I mean, if it's pointless, I wouldn't buy it.
Starting point is 00:44:17 I'll get into my personal car and I'll drive out there. Don't you worry about that. But it was funny. I was in one of my frequent chats with mum and dad. Not as frequent as I was. Dad was like, he was a pretty good premier. You don't hear that much of people talking about. Oh, Dick Hamer. Yeah. And he sounded like he was like, you know, it was through gridded teeth. He's like, he was actually a pretty good premier. Yeah. So he was a a pretty good premier. Yeah. He was a Victorian premier.
Starting point is 00:44:45 Yeah. Yeah. Your dad does not give me a comments to premier. So that's right. Exactly. He's okay. Oh, he said he's a bit of a visionary actually. Wow.
Starting point is 00:44:54 Imagine if we had a, some sort of space named after Dan Andrews, Andrews hall or something. Andrews hall. Yeah. That could be good. He is his, um, his little, His little vanity project was the train station. That was him, wasn't it? Or was that before him? I don't know. The old metro channel. It feels like it's been going for
Starting point is 00:45:13 four million years. Changing Spencer Street station in Southern Cross. Was that him? Oh, that's got to be him. That's older than that. That was while I was in high school. But he probably claimed it. Yeah. So yeah. So Thomas is at the Russell Street Police Head headquarters at 7pm because the note said the call would come in for him there at 7.25. Okay, so he's early. He's like, I'll answer the phone if there's any point.
Starting point is 00:45:35 Yeah. I mean, he's like, I'll take calls in the meanwhile. Yeah. Everyone? Yeah. You go for police. He's just on reception. Hello, police. And you're the minister for education. Yeah, how can I help? How can I help?
Starting point is 00:45:47 Have you got any questions about- Somebody's been stabbed. In a school? No. Well, I probably can't help. Sorry, that's not really my portfolio. Yeah, that's my jurisdiction. Sorry, I've got another call coming in, so bye.
Starting point is 00:45:57 So, this was, I just, yeah, if it's anything about detention or, you know, yard duty, I can help you out. Yeah. I know where the band-aids are kept. 725 came and went without any call. Uh-oh. According to the Herald, Premier Hamer also went to the Russell Street headquarters about 8 p.m.
Starting point is 00:46:24 Still no call. He was there for about half an hour. He along with Thompson, as well as Deputy Commissioner Carmichael and Assistant Commissioner Miller discussed the terms of the ransom note. But the promised phone call still did not come. Later that night, Mr. Thompson and police chiefs were sitting and waiting still playing the waiting game. That's so stressful. And that's rude. It is rude.
Starting point is 00:46:50 Yeah. That is rude. You've made an appointment. You've made a commitment. Yeah. You have to uphold that commitment. That's right. Or people won't want to hang out with you again.
Starting point is 00:46:58 In 1972, a man's word is his bond. Exactly. That's right. Not anymore. I can't trust people these days. Word doesn't mean anything anymore. No. Now it's all about cash. Yeah. A man's right. Not anymore. I can't trust people these days. Word doesn't mean anything anymore. No. Now it's all about cash. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:47:07 A man's cash is his bond. Yeah. That's right. Also his bearer bonds. Yes. Whatever they are. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I've never heard of them. I've heard of Barry bonds. You know, like in action movies, ramsoms, they're always like, pay them in non-denominational bearer bonds.
Starting point is 00:47:24 I've never heard that. You watch a lot more action movies than me. I watch a lot of rum comms. I love them. They don't talk about bonds in- Not in rum comms. I am thinking of James Bond, I've just realised. Jess used to work at Bonds and hasn't heard of it. So- Yeah, that's crazy. She's heard of Jockey Briefs?
Starting point is 00:47:40 Well, that's Jockey. That's a different brand. Oh my God. What do you call, what do they call jocks there? Briefs? Well, that's Jockey. That's a different brand. Oh my God. What do you call, what do they call jocks there? Briefs? Briefs. Bonds briefs. That's right. Is that what you're thinking of Dave? Bonds briefs?
Starting point is 00:47:52 I am thinking of trunks. Non-denominational bonds briefs. I don't want them in a truck. And in a darker color, because my bladder isn't what it used to be and there's drips and it needs to cover that. So either there are some sort of a camouflage or a darker colour. No white, no tidy whiteys. No white, who's wearing white undies?
Starting point is 00:48:13 Come on. Confident people. Fucking irresponsible people. Bearer bonds were what they were stealing in Die Hard 1. Oh okay, a movie that Jess and I haven't seen. Hans, Bobby. Bobby, I can be your white knight. Man, I love that whole thing. Did I tell you about how I saw the dramatization of the making of The Godfather? And there's the head of, or one of the heads of Paramount Studios in it, is the best.
Starting point is 00:48:41 So great. This character is so good. I can't believe he's based on a real person. But he's like, he talks like this. Hey, come on. But he'd call everyone boobies. Hey, come on, boobie. You know what I mean? Hey, I look at you, don't I, boobie? Come on. Come on, boobie, have a drink. The real life person that... Please tell me that was Sidney Scheinberg. Imagine. I know. He was like, he had a bit of the Scheinbergs about him.
Starting point is 00:49:04 He was a real character. And he was, what movie was he making? He was making The Godfather. The Godfather. And did Marlon Brando base his Godfather on that man? Because that's all I was hearing from you. Me too. Well, I wasn't doing a good one then, because he doesn't say it all. That is not at all what he said.
Starting point is 00:49:21 You were doing a very good Brando. Yeah. All you got to do is do the producer of the God of the Godfather and you sound like you are in it as brando as well. And I did not sound like that's incredible. That's spot on. So who was that? Hey, Bobby. No.
Starting point is 00:49:39 Wow. I mean, my American accent though, that's the good thing about trying to do a specific thing is I forget that I'm trying to do an American accent, it just flows out of me. It just happens. So Americans then would have been like, what just happened? Yeah. But when you try to do an American accent.
Starting point is 00:49:53 It sounded like a Yankee Doodle Dandy just walked in, which is what they call each other. Of course. I haven't been out of the house this week, I've been sick. We can tell. And I'm drinking a coffee for the summer. You're losing your fucking mind. It's got coffee, orange juice and water. Well, classic combo. You're going to need to piss so bad.
Starting point is 00:50:08 Not only that. Gentleman doesn't do that, though. So what are we talking about? Who knows? It's a harrowing situation. Basically, the order's hanging out, waiting for a phone call that has not come. That's right. Yeah. And it goes into the night around 3am.
Starting point is 00:50:24 Come on, give up. By this point, the premier is long gone. Of course. So is Thompson. He got to bed around 3am and then the kidnappers finally called not long after that. Had they bloody broken down on the way or something? Yeah, what's going on? Had to hitchhike or something. Where are they going? Guys. Before, yeah, just like, I don't know.
Starting point is 00:50:50 I don't know. And they finally gave instructions to the cop who took the call. Police Commissioner, Assistant Police Commissioner Mick Miller. So the Assistant Commissioner is taking phone calls at 3am? Well, they're still they've got to have some people on the phones because of what's happening. Oh no, I know somebody was going to answer, but you would think it would be like a, you know, fresh, fresh out of the academy.
Starting point is 00:51:12 Oh yeah. Constable doing the overnight shift. Hello, this is Chris. Yes, I discharged my gun accidentally on day one and now I'm on phone duty. They haven't given it back to me yet. They said once I, if I can use the phone responsibly, then I can get the gun back. But I accidentally discharged his phone. I left on the hook for eight hours last night.
Starting point is 00:51:36 Yeah, a couple of buildings burnt down and no one's been arrested. Sorry, everyone. Anyway, what can I do for you? Well, I'm the kidnapper. Oh, hey! I didn't expect you to call, hey guys, they're calling. So, so Mick Miller takes the call, he gets the message, drop the money off on the steps of the Wood End post office at 5am and no funny business. In two hours?
Starting point is 00:52:02 Yeah, he tells... Well, yeah, maybe we could have done that, mate, but the bank's a bloody close champ because it's 3 a.m. And you want it in two hours? Come on. You're supposed to call at 7.25 p.m., very specific time.
Starting point is 00:52:15 Now you're calling me at 3 a.m. and you're giving me two hours to get this sorted? How fucking dare you? And how long is it gonna take to bloody get to Wodan? That's an hour drive. Let me tell you, there's no second date happening with this guy. OK. Somebody. Oh, he's blown it. Absolutely blown it.
Starting point is 00:52:32 Oh, I thought we had a connection. That was already one of the red flags, to be honest. No funny business. But said, be there in two hours. Uh, they also said they wanted Education Minister Lindsay Thompson to do the drop off alone. In two hours. Lindsay's in bed. Lindsay's asleep.
Starting point is 00:52:52 Yeah. This is so unreasonable. I know. Lindsay's already had a rough night. If I wake him now, he'll be in a terrible mood. I'm so sorry. You don't want to see Lindsay in a terrible mood. Lindsay has to get to Wood End with cash in two hours.
Starting point is 00:53:07 Why do they want it? With a million dollars. They want all of it in one? Yeah. You want Lindsay to get there in two hours with a million dollars? Look, I don't want to go back to my love of action movies, but usually in this situation, you drop the money somewhere remote and then they tell you to go away so they can come and collect it, but they want the Education Minister to be standing there so they can go up and say, hello, Lindsay.
Starting point is 00:53:27 Nice to meet you. I did all this because I just wanted to meet you. Yeah. Sorry. Here's the hostages. Yeah, it's fine. They've been having a great time. What end is an hour's?
Starting point is 00:53:37 I've been letting them smell bread. It's 71 kilometers out of the city. It's an hour's drive. And that's like on modern day roads too. Exactly. There would have been no traffic at this time though. What the fuck is he gonna get a million dollars and get in his car and drive? This is unreasonable. Ridiculous. He'll have to rob several 7-elevens on the way.
Starting point is 00:53:56 They have bloody thing open. Yeah. So Miller wakes up Thompson. How? And explains what the call that he received was. And according to Mark Whitaker writing for the Australian, this is how the conversation went. So Miller goes, they want you to personally drop off the cash. We'd have to leave like now.
Starting point is 00:54:18 The minister said, will it do any good? And Miller replied, I think it might. So Thompson said, right, I'll come. That's beautiful. What? Will it do any good? What's the point? I'll do it if it's got a point. Yeah, all these politicians that back in the day sound like they're like, I can't be bothered. Yeah, they cannot be bothered.
Starting point is 00:54:38 Is there any reason for this? If you think it'll, I guess if you think it'll do any good. Jeez. Widow Kate continues, there was no time to think. Thompson told his wife he'd see her at the VFL Grand Final that afternoon. I will not be missing the game. Who was in the final that year? Blues and the Tigers and he was a Tigers supporter. Later was the number one ticket holder for the Tigers.
Starting point is 00:55:03 Later? Yeah. Good news for him. He survives beyond this day. And did the Tigers win that day? I'll tell you later. Okay, great. I like that's actual sizzle.
Starting point is 00:55:15 The police car was out the front in minutes from his place to pick him up. And then soon they were speeding up the Colder Highway with a suitcase full of what might have been money, which it's never been specified if it was actually cash or it was, you know, just a fake. Whoa. But it had something for a drop. Wow. And it all like, like you say, how do you get that million bucks? But if he's being driven by cops, he's not alone, is he?
Starting point is 00:55:42 No. Well, according to Orr, Assistant Commissioner Bill Crowley was posing as his ministerial chauffeur. Crowley had a Derringer pistol hidden, while Mick Miller was under a blanket in the back of the car with a high-powered rifle. He didn't have to be under the blanket the whole drive. He could have just sat in the front for 95 percent. And then when they're 10 minutes out of town, he puts the blanket on. What if they've got a few steps?
Starting point is 00:56:11 He's in the boot the whole way. People are scouting out the whole of the Calder. Hmm. You know, you can never be too careful. But anyway, so he's he's in the back under a blanket, probably just before they get there. It's funny to imagine he's not though, the whole time. Thompson's in the front in the passenger seat and he's told that if there was any trouble or if they try to go for the bag or anything he should duck to give Miller a clean shot. Shit. That's kind of scary but also a bit badass. That is so badass.
Starting point is 00:56:43 Remember to duck because I'll already have them lined up. Yeah. Okay. Why is that blanket pointing a gun at me? It'd be so confusing. What a way to go. I got killed by a blanket. That would be embarrassing. I'd be so embarrassed if I got killed by a blanket. Blankets have always been friend, not foe.
Starting point is 00:56:58 Yeah. Oh, blanket. Why? So they got there quick. Like, it all happened really quickly. They got there and again, all happened really quickly they got there and again played the waiting game oh which we know sucks they raced all the way up there gotta bring hungry hungry hippos with you if you want to kill some time which we played recently we did and I was so confident I thought I'd
Starting point is 00:57:18 absolutely smoke yeah you're trash talking whilst you were bashing on the back of that hippo and then I had like four little marbles. It was so funny that it wasn't until we'd finished that you were like, hang on. I was sure I'd won. Yeah. I was so confident. I was like, this hippo is hungry. Apparently it was, you know, peckish at best. Had a big lunch.
Starting point is 00:57:38 Yeah. I'll just graze for dinner if that's all right. So they're sitting there at the front of the post office in Wood End, just waiting. At 5 a.m. 5 a.m., yep. According to Orr, an old car passed a few times before a man got out and walked towards them.
Starting point is 00:57:56 Thompson called out and he later said, in the meanest voice he could put on, what the hell do you think you're doing walking down the main street of Wood and at five a.m. That was me trying to a mean voice. I don't know if it came up. Is that one of the main. I felt uncomfortable.
Starting point is 00:58:10 So mean. Yeah. So he was like, he was obviously shitting himself. It was like, I'll sound tough. I'm a big tough guy. We've all done it. Which is funny because he had to get two guys with guns back in your mouth. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:58:24 You don't have to pretend you don't have to be tough. But, so he got close to the cops, took the guy in for questioning. Oh. But ended up letting him go. He's, they're like, what are you doing out here? He's much more normal. Sorry about that. Sorry about that.
Starting point is 00:58:42 What are you doing? What's up? Just being a bit gentle. And he told them he'd been waiting for a friend, which is so, I'm so glad that that story goes. You know that classic video from 10 or so years back? Was that Australian? Waiting for a mate, yep.
Starting point is 00:58:56 Just waiting for a mate. I love that we've got heritage. That's got a long lineage following along from at least back in 72. I'm so proud to be Australian. Cops have been given the great lie. Just waiting for a mate. Just waiting for a mate.
Starting point is 00:59:14 At 5am, that's a normal thing to do at 5am. You're driving up and back. It's pretty sus. We're waiting here for some criminals. No, no, that's not me. Just waiting for a mate. I'd say I was, I was buying drugs. Oh yeah. Good one.
Starting point is 00:59:28 Over the counter. But I didn't, but I didn't buy anything. So they can't get me for anything. What is it illegal to intend to buy drugs? Yeah. What are you going to, you're going to, now you're going to be the mine police? Yeah. Victoria. I can do anything up here. Nanny state. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:59:44 I can do anything. Right now Ianny's state. Yeah. I can do anything. Right now I'm tickling your toes in my mind. Yeah. Can't get me for that. Can't get me for that. Because it's up here. Yeah. Anyway, it's all feels like it's not going anywhere.
Starting point is 00:59:58 They're waiting. Again, they're waiting and waiting. These kidnappers. It doesn't impolite. You don't want to wait too long because then the post office will actually have to open. Yeah. There'll be people everywhere. Yeah, everywhere, because the post office would be the busiest thing in town.
Starting point is 01:00:12 Yeah, it would end, it's going to go off. Yeah. People lining up from 6am to be first. Yeah, that's right, first one to get a stamp. That's right. I need a stamp urgently. I've got my tongue ready to lick it. That's efficient.
Starting point is 01:00:27 If you got your tongue out already in the line. They can just, they just. Yeah, just go, one step please, the swallow on my tongue. The poster still comes at a set time, ma'am. You know, it doesn't matter when you lick it, it's still not being picked up till five. Stop slowing me down.
Starting point is 01:00:43 Oh great, now I've had to take my tongue back into my mouth to rehyd of it. It's still not being picked up till five. Stop slowing me down. Oh great. Now I've now I've had to take my tongue back into my mouth to rehydrate it. Oh my god. Thanks a lot. You've talked too much. Now I've got to slobber it up again. Here we go. So let's leave them there playing the waiting game and head back over to the van where the
Starting point is 01:01:00 action is starting to pick up. Oh no. With the kidnappers dragging their feet, Mary Gibbs was growing impatient as all writes, it had been a long day for the teacher, six hours of school and 15 hours of comforting her students, trying to convince them they'd all be fine despite her own fears.
Starting point is 01:01:17 So when Dawn was approaching and there was still no sign of them, she decided it was time to act. The van door was locked shut, so she started kicking it. She tried a few different ways, tried to bang her way out, whatnot, but eventually just started kicking it with a... She was wearing these chunky shoes, luckily, leather shoes with a bit of a heel and just started... Was there a key on the bottom of the shoe? There was a key on the bottom of the shoe and a laser.
Starting point is 01:01:44 I'm going to use my laser in my shoe right now. Meow. Meow meow meow meow. Oh no, she didn't use laser. She just bashed. Yeah, yeah. But she had this back then. I've got a laser.
Starting point is 01:01:53 Yeah, I can bash this against the wall. She was throwing the key against the door quite hard. No, she kicked it so much that bit by bit a gap opened up. That is awesome. Yeah, it's so good. And they and just big enough that she was quite small. She's about five foot and she was able to get through. And then the kids followed her out.
Starting point is 01:02:13 Get out. Well, they did. That's what she's yelling. Get out. Tim, get the fuck out. I know it's been fun in the van, but it's time to go. I like it in here. Whoa. So they're out. I know it's been fun in the van but it's time to go. I like it in here. Whoa. So they're out, they're free but they're lost in the middle of the bush. Yeah, they're in the middle of nowhere. No idea where they are but they're like, normally when you're lost in the bush you stay put and they find it but they're like we can't stay put because this is where the kidnappers are coming back to. And you'd be scared to like flag down a car in case it's them coming
Starting point is 01:02:44 back because you know that they say They're coming back around dawn or something. Yeah, that's right. So you'd be terrified to What if you get somebody down for help? Not that there'd be many cars at that time of day anyway But you are exactly right because of that They avoid the road. Yeah, because they're afraid of being bumping into the bandits again. Instead, they follow the creek bed. So they're exhausted, frightened. She gets the students walking a single file through the scrub and they're just knackered, scared. Two hours later, they hear gunshots ringing out. So they all they duck and hide behind bushes until they see a car and a couple of women get out of
Starting point is 01:03:28 the car and they go what's going on here and then for some reason they just realized they were safe they went up to the women and told them what was going on and it turned out the women so there were the gunshots were a couple of guys hunting rabbits and their wives were just sitting waiting in the car. So I was just two couples there and they, they took them back to safety. So they were, they made it. They, so no one was obviously traumatic, but physically they were okay. Yeah. That moment when you hear a gunshot, you'd be so scared.
Starting point is 01:04:01 Jesus. Yeah. They've caught up with us. You'd be so heightened the whole time. Cause you don't know that, you know, your brain goes to all sorts of scary scenarios of like, maybe the two guys who came together are just part of a bigger group. Yeah, you'd be playing out all sorts of things.
Starting point is 01:04:15 Of course, yeah. Whenever you leave, any blank spaces are left for your imagination to fill in all sorts of details. So they might have been safe to like flag down a car on the road, but yeah, you'd hear guns and be like, that's for us. Yeah, you would hear, what are the odds? Of course, yeah, so scary. But I'm so glad.
Starting point is 01:04:33 Who wants to take the chance either? Yeah. Gibbs later told the Sun, quote, when they didn't come back before dawn, I thought it's now or never and began kicking the door. But she also said, I must admit, I hadn't thought of escaping until dawn and the children were desperate to do you know what? She's basically like they all wanted a piss. Yeah I don't want to be in here with the piss. I don't mean a piss fan
Starting point is 01:04:56 It's gonna ruin the I have an idea the bakery smells. I'll save the day. Let's piss outside and then we'll get back at the van Pissing we may as well. Describing the escape later, Gibb said, first I got the children to charge the doors, but they were bolted from outside. Then I got Christine Ellery, one of the older kids, to hang on a small chain on the wall of the van. I supported myself on Christine's shoulder,
Starting point is 01:05:23 put one hand on the other wall of the van and kicked and kicked and kicked. God knows how many times, but then bit by bit things started to give. It was fantastic. I crawled out and the girls followed. Max Beatty wrote an article for The Age about Mary a couple of days later. I'll read the majority over here. It's not that long. And it's got a lot of fun quotes from Mary Gibbs. I've got a strong right foot, Mary Gibbs, the heroine of the Faraday school said soon after Saturday's rescue.
Starting point is 01:05:51 She said it with a grin. Somebody had remarked that only Carl Diderich ought to be able to kick a metal section out of a back of a panel van, Carl Diderich being in a St. Kilda footballing legend. Is that why we're doing this episode? Because there was a mention of us as a killer player. He might have been playing for Melbourne by this stage.
Starting point is 01:06:07 He was reported and missed the 66 grand final. Oh no. Yeah. Wow. Do you still get a medal if you've been? No. You've got to be in the... On the final day.
Starting point is 01:06:17 Yeah, you've got to be in the pick team on the day. Wow. Which I don't... I like the idea of anyone who plays that year getting a medal. Yeah, you've contributed. You can't make the grant. Exactly. You can't win it without making it there.
Starting point is 01:06:29 Other sports do that, like Super Bowl and stuff, I think everyone on the list gets a medal. Doesn't everyone in the stadium get one? I think everyone in the stadium gets a ring. You get a ring. They love to use that. Well, they've all paid tens of thousands of dollars to be there. You should get a ring.
Starting point is 01:06:40 You get a ring. And they're like gold in crust and stuff, but it's still not worth it. Gold in crust. Gold in crust. In gold we crust. In gold we crust. That's one of my bakery name ideas. I like it.
Starting point is 01:06:55 Do you think? Yeah, that's fine. In gold we crust. It sounds classy, but also makes me hungry. Yeah. Perfect. It makes you think as well. You're like, what does that mean? But I also kind of think,
Starting point is 01:07:04 like I'd shop there because I'm like, they seem quirky. Yeah. And I like that. Yeah. Perfect. I think as well. You're like, what does that mean? But I also kind of think, like I'd shop there cause I'm like, they seem quirky. Yeah. And I like that. Yeah. Quirky bread is fun bread. Oh, that's a good brand name too. Quirky bread. Quirky bread. No, I wouldn't shop there. No. Trying too hard to be quirky. Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah. You show it. Don't tell it. Yeah. Probably means it's just like green or something. But it's also not good bread. Yeah. Fuck off. Fuck off then. If you call these green rocks, maybe.
Starting point is 01:07:26 Yeah. That's a shit house. Yeah. Learn to bake. Hey, step one, bake a good bread. Step two, market yourself quickly. That's right. But subtle.
Starting point is 01:07:37 Yeah. These ones who jump in two feet first marketing. Oh, quirky. Shut up. Okay. Let's get the bread right first guys. It's been a very bread heavy episode. Bread heavy ep.
Starting point is 01:07:50 Bread heavy ep. Gib and the kids. Nah. Nah. It was worth a try. No bad ideas. You don't know it until you say it. That's right.
Starting point is 01:07:58 And I knew it. Anyway, back to this article by Max Beatty. Carl Dittrich should have been the only one to do it, okay. Yep. Mary Hardley, more than five feet tall, has more than just a strong right foot. She has an exceptionally strong mind, something she began to prove soon after the two bandits burst into Faraday School.
Starting point is 01:08:20 Miss Gibbs, only 20, and in her first year out of Bendigo's teachers training college, thought at first it might have been year out of Bendigo's teacher's training college, thought at first it might have been two friends of my boyfriend playing a joke, she said. Not a funny joke. Isn't that funny? Get a new boyfriend if that's what his friends think are funny. Is that your go-to thought too about your boyfriend? Oh, here we go.
Starting point is 01:08:39 This is probably a prank. Oh, all right. God, he's fun with all these awful pranks. Did Barry put you up to this? Yeah. He did, bloody Barry. Oh, all right. You know. God, he's fun with all these awful pranks. Was it Barry who put you up to this? Yeah. He did, bloody Barry. Oh, Baz. So within a few minutes, she knew the intruders were serious.
Starting point is 01:08:50 An ordeal. They said, I don't know who Barry is. Yeah. That's what I knew. Yeah. Everyone knows Barry. Must be from out of town. And the ordeal was to last more than 16 hours.
Starting point is 01:09:01 That was the worst time, Mary Gibb said. The time when I realized they weren't joking. Not the 16 hours. The worst part was the ordeal. Yeah. Before and after, that was quite alright. I want to say the worst part of the ordeal was the ordeal itself. That might surprise you. Sometimes the answers are hiding in plain sight. So Mary took a tape recorder, deciding
Starting point is 01:09:21 the music on the tapes might be handy to help keep the six little girls from panicking. Just a real quick thinker. They're all girls too, aren't they? Yeah, they are. Yeah. The two boys were sick. That's right. Where are the boys?
Starting point is 01:09:33 Ugh, sick today. Classic boys. Classic boys. Always sick. Always sick. You know what they're like. I can relate to that. So they had the tape recorder just to like play songs and...
Starting point is 01:09:42 Yeah, she just said nursery rhymes and probably Peter Coom, maybe the Wiggles. When you wake up in the morning at a quarter to two and you can't go back to sleep and you don't know what to do, you brush your teeth. You know that one? No, is that Wiggles? No. No, Wiggles is to to chug a big red van. Get in the van, lie on the floor, do as we say. She's like, oh, I might skip that one.
Starting point is 01:10:10 There's a bit on the nose, this one. But yeah, so it turned out the way, and the article continues, they spent part of the time singing in the back of the kidnapper's panel van. That's so cute, isn't it? She's so sweet. Late in the day, Mary Gibbs showed her cool again. The gunman allowed their seven hostages out of the van
Starting point is 01:10:27 to stretch their legs, and this is when she said, we're going to have a nature walk. And they did just that with a kidnapper following them with a knife in hand. Soon after the van left the school, Mary Gibbs decided that she couldn't afford to be scared, saying, I had the children to look after. She kept the little girl's spirits up so well
Starting point is 01:10:44 that one of them, Christine Ellery, was to say later, I wasn't ever really scared." Which, you know, says a bit others. The Canberra Times report on the girls' experiences in the following days, and some of them did say that obviously they were a bit scared. Robin Howarth, who was 10, said, there may have been a tear or two shed by some of the girls,
Starting point is 01:11:06 but if they did, they kept it to themselves. The kidnappers had told them they would come to harm if they tried to escape. Robin said, we were terrified. Horrible thoughts kept flashing through my mind. I just did not know what they would do to us. I kept wondering if I would ever see my mommy and daddy again. Brutal. Robin said that throughout their hour long drive what they would do to us. I kept wondering if I would ever see my mummy and daddy again. Oh, brutal.
Starting point is 01:11:25 Robin said that throughout their hour long drive to the hiding spot in Thick Forest, about 12 miles north of Lancefield, the kidnappers kept, quote, laughing and talking about the money they were gonna get. Mr. Rex Howarth, father of the three Howarth girls, said he hoped the Faraday school would be closed, saying, I don't think the school will be open on Monday.
Starting point is 01:11:45 I think they will be sent to another school where there are more teachers. I don't want this sort of thing to happen again. And it looks like that's exactly what happened. The school shut down. Shit. Really? Gosh. So after just over a hundred years of being a school, it was closed and was sold as a house,
Starting point is 01:12:04 which is what it's been ever since. It's changed hands a few times. Wow. And in fact, isn't this wild? Cause I, it doesn't really matter, but I was going to do it like an anthology of, of lottery winners stories gone bad. And someone who suggested this story mistakenly said that this had to do with a lottery winner, which it doesn't.
Starting point is 01:12:24 So that's why I found this winner, which it doesn't. So that's why I found this story and it grew and grew, so I ended up choosing it. But the fact that I did this week is just pure coincidence because just three months ago the real estate website Domain had an article that read, the site of one of Australia's most notorious high-profile kidnappings is on the market in regional Victoria. So funny to frame this as a selling point. Here's a really opportunity for you. The Faraday Schoolhouse has been listed for sale and is where six pupils and their 20-year-old
Starting point is 01:12:50 teacher Mary Gibbs were abducted by two men in 1972. That frightful memory has been long set aside with one Faraday school road now a warm and inviting family home. What the fuck? 400 square meters of lovely, lovely bush field area. Buy a piece of history. Harrowing, harrowing history. A walk in closet to die for. It also has a couple of, it says that it was sold in 98 for 52 grand in 2017 for 489,000. Oh, that's a pretty good marker. That's huge. And then, though, obviously it was on sale again.
Starting point is 01:13:27 And amazingly, it sold just three days ago. Wow. Isn't that just a funny thing? How much? $770,000. Far out. This is like, it's a place in the middle of nowhere. I did end up speaking to Dad, and he's like,
Starting point is 01:13:39 that's a surprising amount. It is very isolated. That's a lot, yeah. As it turned out, Dad was familiar with the story. Yeah, no, he told us already. Oh, sorry. Yeah. And he said he put a bid in, but he was outbid.
Starting point is 01:13:49 Well, he's actually going to buy it for me, which is nice. I asked him if it had much of an effect on schools and stuff in Victoria and he said, not really. It was seen as a freak thing. Right. Because I'm like, did, geez, was security all of a sudden more of a worry and that sort of stuff? And he's like, not that he can remember. Hmm. Speaking of cash, 770 cool hard ones.
Starting point is 01:14:11 That's a lot. Times a thousand. Minister Thompson ended up going to the grand final that afternoon. And according to Whitaker, he found a lot of people asking him for a loan because it was in the news that he was, that he had a million bucks on him. In the cash. Just that morning, you know. And he later quipped, I've only been a millionaire once in my life, and all the shops were closed.
Starting point is 01:14:33 Saturdays used to be, not have shopping. I don't like that. I don't love it. It's quoted in so many articles. Nah, it's all right. I think, I think you gotta pay that, because, you know, if you saw him, you'd it's all right. I think, um, I think you've got to pay that because, you know, if you saw him, you'd go, all right, let me show you a photo of him. I think I do, I do like it, but I think because we know everyone's fine, then it's a fun joke. But if he's making that
Starting point is 01:14:56 at the time and there hasn't been any kind of resolution yet, you'd be like, what the fuck? He's just high-fiving people. I was a millionaire this morning. Yeah, bees all over the place. Anyway, kids are still missing but footy. But how good is footy? Footy, footy, footy, footy. Yeah. You know, it just looks like a cartoon of a politician sort of. I mean, the politician Eric Abetz still looks almost exactly like a fucking show. I think this guy was maybe, you know, not quite an Eric Abetz level evil.
Starting point is 01:15:24 Not quite. Not quite. Not quite. Allegedly. On the scale of one to Eric. Eric being the worst you could ever be. Allegedly. That'd be a great drag name, Erica Abetz. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:15:36 And I reckon he'd love that. Yeah. So anyway, yeah, bit of fun. All the shops are closed. That's fun. What a time. It's like, what is that? 50 years ago and Saturdays you couldn't go shopping.
Starting point is 01:15:50 It's wild. Really wild. Anyway, so we went to the granny and like I said, Carlton played Richmond and Carlton beat Richmond. So we had a bad day. Oh no. Oh man.
Starting point is 01:16:01 Things had started off so well before him. He had a million bucks, but all of a sudden the shops are closed and now his team loses the granny. I was just thinking. Things had started off so well before we had a million bucks, but all of a sudden the shops are closed and Nanny's team loses the granny. I was just hoping he had a nap. Yeah, surely. In between. But also, how long did they sit there waiting?
Starting point is 01:16:13 Yeah, I think for a while. I guess once they took that guy in, they were done, right? I think, yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I guess so. But they waited and it was clear that they weren't coming in. So Carlton beat Richmond.
Starting point is 01:16:27 How are these numbers? They won 177 to 150. Wow, huge score. Wow, huge. In front of more than 112,000 people at the MCG. But even more than the footy score, you're probably wondering what happened to the kidnappers. Yes.
Starting point is 01:16:42 Where they ever found. Well, like I say, they never turned up to pick up the ransom money. In fact, I remember the 4 AM call requesting the money be left at the Wood End Post Office, the whole reason they were there. Well, according to the Canberra Times, 10 minutes before the money was due to be left there,
Starting point is 01:16:59 so at 10 to 5, another call was received from the same man who said his earlier call was a hoax. He had said that Drop the money off at five. Drop the money at five. He called back, 10 to five and said, I was just joking. I didn't realize kids were involved. I don't want anything to do with this. And that was a different person to the guy who was just loitering around the post office at 5 a.m. Well, yeah, you know, he was just a little bit of a wimp.
Starting point is 01:17:21 He was just a little bit of a wimp. He was just a little bit of a wimp. And that was a different person to the guy who was just loitering around the post office at 5am. Well, yeah, you assume. Or they assume. He was waiting for a mate. Yeah. Maybe. We're going to go for a jog. Yeah. Early morning jog. Oh, is it illegal to go for a jog now? Well, I'm wearing jeans, but that's how I like to jog.
Starting point is 01:17:40 Oh, it's illegal to jog in jeans now, is it? I'm sorry, I'm confused officer. What is the crime? Get your hands off my penis. So was this actually a hoax or was it the real kidnappers getting cold feet? That's something that seems to me like they've gone, oh shit, maybe that guy sees the cops,
Starting point is 01:18:05 sees there's more than one person there, goes back to the pay phone and goes, actually, I mean, actually, I was just joking. Well, one way to avoid cold feet, go for a jog. Oh, that's true. How about put on socks? That's another way. Such an inefficient way to warm up your feet, Dave.
Starting point is 01:18:24 What about a foot heater? Hot water bottle? So they also left the van in Bushland where it was, where the girls escaped from, which is about 25 miles from Faraday, I think. Or, you know, it was a bit of a drive away. And the police later found it there. The cop who found it was Senior Constable
Starting point is 01:18:46 Anderson from the Lancefield Police Station. And he believed that if Gibbs didn't kick away out of the van, they would not have been found for weeks and would probably have died in the van. Oh my god, that would have been so awful. Because yeah, they weren't going to come back for them. Yeah, it's unclear. Other cops and other people have said they thought maybe it was only abandoned after they went back, saw that they'd broken out and they're like, oh shit, we- Yeah, possibly, yeah.
Starting point is 01:19:11 Everything's gone pear-shaped. Let's flee. We gotta go. It's very different. I mean, yeah, I was going to say, surely they wouldn't want to have like harmed the kids, even at some stage when they go, I think we've fucked this up. Let's bail on this. Surely you'd go back and let him out or something. But that's probably just me, not a criminal, thinking that. Yeah, it's just hard to know. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:19:31 Like, I think, I think plenty of these kidnappings that people think, I'm not, I'm never actually going to hurt it. This is all bluff. Yeah. And I knew the whole time that I was never going to hurt them. So what's the worry? But others are like, I'll do anything for this. I'm not joking around. Yeah. And I knew the whole time that I was never going to hurt them. So what's the worry? But others are like, I'll do anything for this. I'm not joking around. So yeah. And I think it's still unclear what happened in this case. I'm so glad she just kicked her way out. What a legend. It's such a legend. They haven't found the guys. Three days later, the Canberra Times reported
Starting point is 01:20:00 more than 400 police, most of them armed, were still searching tonight for two men who on Friday kidnapped six school girls and their teacher and demanded $1 million for their safe return. Officially police have said they do not know why the kidnappers had left their hostages or why they did not attempt to collect the ransom which the Victorian government had made available. But police sources said today they thought the men
Starting point is 01:20:23 had panicked when they realised that an army exercise was going on in the area. So there was this huge army practice operation. Oh, my God. And so there's like armed forces around doing training. Training exercises, yep. They're like, you know. Like a dress rehearsal. Going to get their ransom money and they see like four tanks and they're like, oh, shit.
Starting point is 01:20:44 Ah, yeah, we might be outgunned here. They see me running along behind the tank going give me a go! Come on! That one looks fun! Give me a go! The submarines are silly but tanks are fun. Tanks are fun. Fun.
Starting point is 01:20:56 Silly too but. Oh they are silly. But bit of fun. Yeah. They make more sense than oh let's go underwater glop glop glop. So stupid. What are you doing down there? Cut it out, get a boat.
Starting point is 01:21:08 I love that we've got multiple Submariner listeners. They don't seem to remind that joke at all, but one guy has definitely offered us a tour on the submarine. No way. Yeah. Is that your answer? That's good stuff. What does he mean that submarine that's like halfway to Sydney? What town is that? Is that your answer?
Starting point is 01:21:25 That's good stuff. What does he mean that submarine that's like halfway to Sydney? What town is that? I forget every time. Oh yeah. The... Holbrook. Holbrook.
Starting point is 01:21:34 Thank you. We got it. Holbrook. Holbrook. Confirmed. Matt, his mind is faster than a computer. To be honest, I didn't even confirm it, but I felt like it was probably. It feels right.
Starting point is 01:21:50 The point was maybe moot by then. So yeah, army exercises. That's what, the theory is that's what sort of scuttled them apart from anything else. Just sounds like they were a bit hopeless really. Then working with Mary Gibbs, the teacher, they were able to get a description of the car, a 1960 or 61 Holden sedan. She was also able to tell police that the men had apologized to her for the smell of the car
Starting point is 01:22:16 and that they'd said they'd been living in it. So, sorry about the smell of the car. They're laughing. They've been pissing and shitting in it. Yeah. Sorry about that. And she's like, well. She's like, did you think you could maybe leave the van for that're laughing. We've been pissing and shitting in it. Yeah. Sorry about that. And she's like, well. She's like, did you think you could maybe leave the van for that?
Starting point is 01:22:28 And he went, oh, we just had a piss corner. It was right there in front of us. And a shit corner. So there were two of the corners of- Were gone. Unusable. Yeah. They were both down this back end, which is where the door is.
Starting point is 01:22:40 So that's how we were getting in and out. We got to pass the piss and shit corner. Not gentlemen, those two, I'll tell you that for nothing. Um, after working with police, Gibbs also helped put together identikit pictures of the two men. Um, here they are. It's so funny that they were put together by the same. They look like two different artists put these pictures together.
Starting point is 01:22:58 Yeah. Yep. All right. There's the floppy hat. Yeah. And the glasses, but what a jawline. Yeah. That other man, my god, he's all jaw. hat. Yeah, and the glasses. But what a jaw line. Yeah, that other man, I got his old jaw.
Starting point is 01:23:06 Yeah. Hover, hover. Both got a couple of ripping pairs of sideburns on them. Yep. Yes, 1972. Yeah. The year of the burn, I think. Says police, identical sketches of the suspects.
Starting point is 01:23:19 The first is described as in his mid-20s, five foot seven inches tall, blue eyes, slightly hawkish nose. David. Hang on. Pimply face. Okay. You've got beautiful clear skin. Also stocky build.
Starting point is 01:23:31 Okay. All right, and you're out. And this long darkie. It was just blue eyes. Just blue eyes, I was gonna say, because I'm also not in my mid-20s either. It's blue, but you could pass for mid-20s easily. In 1972, yeah, I think you could have.
Starting point is 01:23:43 You got blue eyes and you're 5'7", so. Yeah, actually that's right. This is my exact height. Well, this is because you're age, Dave. Because it's my exact height. We're the same person. The second is about 30 years old, 5'9", averaged to medium build with brown shoulder length hair and long red bushy sideburns. Oh my gosh. Oh, actually that's closer to me. Oh, actually that's closer to me. Shit. That's much closer to you. Ah, shit. Where were you two in 1972?
Starting point is 01:24:06 I was living in a van. Yeah, I think I was finding myself. In a van. That also means living in a van. I found myself in a van. That translates to living in a van. The Victorian Assistant Commissioner of Police, Mr. Miller, who was the Miller who was under the blanket.
Starting point is 01:24:21 Oh, Blanket Miller, they called him. Said at a press conference at the Russell. Oh, blanket mill, I recall them. Said at a press conference at the Russell Street headquarters, "'Everybody can rest assured that the best resources "'and the most outstanding skills in the force "'have been committed to this investigation. "'It is an understatement to say that these men are dangerous "'and consequently, our best investigators are on the case.'
Starting point is 01:24:40 "'That same day, The Age published a story saying "'the red van had been purchased by one of the kidnappers only a week or so before From a car dealer in Brunswick. Oh My gosh, that's where we are Yeah, Dave had access to Brunswick for sure You have access to Brunswick. Yeah. Oh my god. It was bought for $285. Oh Dave has access to turn Dave could I borrow $285. Dave has access to $285.
Starting point is 01:25:05 Dave, could I borrow $285? Well, you could have yesterday. I just bought a van. Dave. It was a deal. That is incredible. Unfortunately though, Dave used a false name and address. I mean, the man used a false name and address.
Starting point is 01:25:20 Gave the name as Matt Stewart. When they found the dealership, they were like, yes, we got him. Got him. What's his name and address? Smegelsmoggle from Shmegeshmugger. They're not even real numbers. Schminnismunnumun. What did you say?
Starting point is 01:25:34 It's just- What's your postcode? Schminnismunnum. Okay, just write that down. Fantastic. Here's the keys. Good luck. All the best.
Starting point is 01:25:42 It would have been, I mean, it's so hard to be a criminal these days. So many forms of ID and video, fingerprints, DNA, everything. But back then, they're like, what's your name? Yes, I'll trust it. Yeah. That sounds right. Nowadays, like, you look like a Philip. If there's ever a crime and the police don't have much to go on, I'm always like, how?
Starting point is 01:25:59 Yeah, there's stuff everywhere. How? Come on. Every shop has CCTV. What are you talking about? Can only assume incompetence. Yeah. Yes. Or inside job. Oh, yeah on. Every shop has CCTV. What are you talking about? Can only assume incompetence. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:26:07 Yes. Or inside job. Oh yeah. I never think of that. Or cops are criminals. ACAC. Is that what they say? That's accurate.
Starting point is 01:26:15 Um, allegedly. Nice. Good save. Look forward to asking AJ to edit that out. I'm afraid. Are you doing that right now? Oh, AJ. Got a direct line to you. Um, edit that out. I'm afraid. Are you doing that right now? Oh, AJ, I've got a direct line to you.
Starting point is 01:26:27 Edit that out, unless it's funny. So yeah, they've got the guy, but unfortunately it's a fake name and address, but they're getting closer. They were actually becoming quite confident one of the men was well known to them and had actually been on the run for the last five months. Oh. Had a long list of crimes. And it didn't take long because only a couple of days later they had their men. Friends Robert Clyde Boland, 32, plasterer of Queen Street Bendigo. This is published in the newspaper. I love it.
Starting point is 01:27:00 Yeah. In the olden days they just go. They dox them. They dox them like straight up. Yeah. In the olden days they just go- They dox him. They dox him like straight up. Yeah. And Edwin John Eastwood, 21, Plaster of Natal Avenue, Edithvale, Melbourne. Oh. It's a way down the other- We live quite far apart.
Starting point is 01:27:15 ... side of town. But brought together in the brotherhood of Plaster. Yes. Of course, all Plasters know each other. Yeah. After initially pleading not guilty, Eastwood changed his plea to guilty and was convicted by the jury, later being sentenced to 15 years in jail. The Crown said, Ms. Gibbs identified Eastwood and Boland in an identification parade.
Starting point is 01:27:39 Evidence was also presented that Boland was the man who bought the van. He was, you should remember this though, Boland was the one who bought the van. He was, you should remember this though, Boland was the one who was able to come up with a fake name, not Eastwood. Okay. Wasn't in his skillset. Despite changing his evidence that it incriminated Boland and instead saying Boland was not the man
Starting point is 01:27:57 who took part in the kidnapping with him, so in early, in the investigations, in police interviews, he said, yeah, he was the guy who did it, signed a statement saying as much. Then early in the first, so Boland had three trials. The first two, the juries couldn't reach a verdict. So I went to the third one. The first one, he said Boland was the guy. And then he changed his story story, said no, he wasn't the guy at all. Despite that, Boland was found guilty as well in the third trial and sentenced to 17 years in jail. Wow.
Starting point is 01:28:34 According to Whitaker, Eastwood has maintained that Boland was innocent of the Faraday kidnapping and that his real accomplice was related to the man that Thompson spoke to at Wood End. Oh, whoa. and that his real accomplice was related to the man that Thompson spoke to it would end. He said that guy drove around and you took him for questioning. He was actually my partner. Oh, okay. And Eastwood years later, decades later, wrote a book about it and named the man as Bob Western. But the police and as well as Mary Gibbs maintain that the right men were jailed. What?
Starting point is 01:29:08 She said based on their appearance, she named them. And the police have suggested that Eastwood was backtracking to try to make it up to Boland after incriminating him early in the investigation. He like wrote this book and everything when he was about to get out of jail. Boland was already out and they're like, he just wanted to. Right. He said, no, I didn't, you know, that's what the police say anyway. But was Boland the one that he admitted that it was him?
Starting point is 01:29:36 Boland eventually, no, Eastwood did and Boland- Sorry, let me ask that again. I'm confused here. So Eastwood's the one that said, OK, I pleaded guilty, it was me. Yes. And he incriminated Boland. Yeah. And then later said, oh, one that said, OK, I pleaded guilty. It was me. Yes. And he incriminated Boland. Yeah. And then later said, oh, no, no, no, I was just kidding. It was actually that guy you met on the street. Yeah, that's right. I don't know his name.
Starting point is 01:29:52 And he also said that the police pressured him into incriminating Boland early. OK. He said that they they said to him, if you don't if you don't sign this, we're going to we're going to bring you a girlfriend in. And he's like, oh, all right. And supposedly he says, I said, yeah, OK, sure, Boland did it. I'll sign whatever. Leave her out of it. And he's like, but he'll have an alibi or something. They'll know he couldn't have done it.
Starting point is 01:30:19 That's what he said years later. He's like, I didn't I incriminate him, but I knew he'd get off. I can't believe that they clearly didn't do it. Yeah, me saying he's guilty, they're not gonna think he's guilty. Yeah. Yeah, there's nothing legally binding in that. No, and I'm just signing it, because there was a spot for it,
Starting point is 01:30:38 and it said sign here, so I did, but I was under pressure. That's interesting. So it's very murky. But yeah, the fact that Gibbs says it was him But I was under pressure. That's interesting. So it's very murky. But yeah, the fact that Gibbs says it was him makes me think, and she drew up those things like straight after, and it does resemble him. You know, as much as a big potato looking thing could resemble a human. Gibbs was awarded the George Medal in 1973, which was, quote, instituted in 1940 by King George VI
Starting point is 01:31:07 as a second level to the George Cross. It is awarded for acts of bravery in a non-war setting by civilians and members of the armed forces involving circumstances of extreme danger where military honours are not otherwise available." So it's like a quite a high bravery award. Earlier Thompson had said, the release of the children is very largely due to the presence of mind of the teacher. She showed extraordinary courage. Wow. So like I said, I messaged my parents last night, asking if they remember the kidnappings, because they were around the same age, both teachers, et cetera, et cetera. They didn't reply till this morning.
Starting point is 01:31:45 And mum replied, you know, Mary Gibbs is your dad's cousin? No. What? Get out. Like, why? You didn't know that. First cousin, why didn't know? I just, yeah, I had no idea.
Starting point is 01:31:58 So dad called soon after and we chatted about it. He reckons I've probably met her at family functions like some like when I was younger because their dad and her about the same age. Dad's dad sister is her mom so she's a you know she's a student without name. Wow. And then it all made sense like the Stuart women are just like it just makes it just sounds like such a woman thing to do, to kick the door down and just to be sort of a bad ass in that moment. Wow. Or also like big, confident sort of personalities,
Starting point is 01:32:34 just get it done. I'm like, that makes so much sense. That's awesome. Wow. I can totally picture one of my sisters kicking the door. Yep. You know, not to diminish what she did. No, I didn't know that.
Starting point is 01:32:44 She actually had to do it, but I, I'm like, oh, I can see that. I can see that in your door. Yeah. You know, not to diminish what she did, she actually had to do it, but I'm like, I can see that. I can see that in your sisters. Yeah. Wow. Do we know if Mary's still alive? Yeah, she's still alive. So dad said that they were quite close when they were younger, but you know, as I guess
Starting point is 01:32:55 cousins often do, sort of drifted apart as they got older. He did say that the family were following it very closely, of course, because it was big news and they were very directly related to it. So it was a pretty stressful time, but it was like it was over, you know, you were hearing about it and then they were found sort of soon after those early reports came out. And you're not getting like 24 hour news updates. Yeah, that's right. They were morning and afternoon newspapers, but not like live blogs.
Starting point is 01:33:24 Yeah. Updating every five were morning and afternoon newspapers, but... Not like live blogs. Yeah. Updating every five minutes. Tweets going, yeah. There were a few days while the men were on the loose, but at least they knew that the kids and Mary were safe. Wow. He did say that...
Starting point is 01:33:39 I didn't read this anywhere, but he said that he's pretty sure that the courage she showed in using her legs like that led to like long term leg injuries. Oh wow. Pretty shit, but yeah. Yeah. She's got a different name now, she got married and yeah. Oh wow.
Starting point is 01:33:56 I was just like holy shit, I'm related to a fucking hero. Yeah, what a legend. And you could ask questions like what happened if I'm sharing the genes? Uh huh. It's obviously dilated a little bit. Diluted? What a legend. And you could ask questions like, what would happen if I'm sharing the jeans? It's obviously dilated a little bit. Diluted. Diluted. My eyes are dilated.
Starting point is 01:34:13 Yeah, a lot of teachers in my family. If we were trapped in a van, I'd trust you to kick us out. Yeah. Absolutely. Can you dilate this van? I wanna be born by this van and get out. I want to be birthed. Oh, is that what dilations mean? I was thinking like dilated pupils. Yeah, pupils dilate, but so does a
Starting point is 01:34:31 vagina at birth. Okay. Or cervix more specifically. We're all learning here today. A vagina. A vagina. My vagina's door lighting. Could you get the nurse in my vagina's door lighting. Get the, could you get the nurse in my vagina's door lighting. I would say in that case. But apparently that would be the wrong terminology and I'd look quite a fool. You'd look like a fool. But that is so cool, wow. Yeah, wow, what a connection.
Starting point is 01:34:56 Cause yeah, I think if I knew the story and looked it up, I would've been like, that's cool. But it was wild to be so involved in the story, being like, what a bad ass. Is that man be like, me, that's cool. But it was wild to be so involved in the story, being like, what a bad ass is that man be like, well, that's it. And I looked it up, what's my dad's cousin? It's, because this always confuses the shit out of me. I think that's my first cousin once removed.
Starting point is 01:35:14 Yes. I'm like, I'm just a couple of steps from greatness. That's pretty wild. And it's so great that you're telling this story the whole time, we're like, what a bad, I love this woman, she's so cool. Yeah, yeah. Imagine. We're like, what a bad, I love this woman. She's so cool. Imagine if we were like, what an idiot.
Starting point is 01:35:28 What a piece of shit. And you're like, damn it. Don't ever go back to me. But it's also funny that like, I mean, you could have not asked your parents about it. And then a few weeks later be like, oh, did you ever hear? And then you find out like it's cool. It was funny that I, yeah, I don't know why I thought that I guess it was It was the kind like there was close to where they had taught
Starting point is 01:35:49 Yeah, and also just their families for the teachers dad both dad's parents are teachers. He's got siblings who are teachers It's so funny. He's got cousins that are teachers. Yeah, just a big tea big teacher energy in that family Yeah, I know what may I can do so I don't need to teach. You don't teach. Yeah. What I can do? Well, I don't need to answer that. You talk real good. Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah. I think I've proven that today. Yep. Anyway, that's not the only twist and the final twist in this tale. Oh my God, he's got Mary Gibbion. She's here. Oh my God. Send her in please. I was going to say that for later. Oh, okay. Off-pod. That's just for us. I was wishing that I'd asked. I mean, I don't know if she'd still want to talk about stuff.
Starting point is 01:36:31 It does sound like a lot of the people involved, some of the kids, they're quite like, yeah, we don't really talk about it much. We just sort of got on with things. Fair enough. Yeah. And like they were so young, which is a good thing in a lot of ways, because it, yeah, obviously it's still deeply traumatic, but it, it, they've had a long time to process stuff, forget stuff, repress stuff.
Starting point is 01:36:52 Yes. And yeah. There was one of the, I think it was the journalist, Wayne Grant, was it Wayne Grant? He, he said that back in those days, it wasn't really counseling and stuff. If you didn't have strong family and friends then you were pretty stuffed but apparently all these kids that was like a tight community and yeah good but still you wonder how much I'd be like well let's just not talk about it. Yeah that's definitely the attitude of the time. Push it down. Sorry I wouldn't mind pushing it down a
Starting point is 01:37:19 little further. A little further there darling. I can still see it poking out a little bit. If you wouldn't mind pushing that down. Well, it's just, we'll close down the school. We'll not look at that school anymore. It's gone. There you go. It never happened. Fixed it.
Starting point is 01:37:34 Anyway, like I say, there's another twist here. So the two men are locked up. Boland gets out after his time. What, 17 years did you say? 17 years and he- And he's the one that said I didn't do it. Yes, and I think he maintains that he maintained that the whole time. I believe that he hasn't re-offended.
Starting point is 01:37:53 Eastwood, on the other hand, after a few years of being locked up in Geelong Prison, on the 16th of December 1976, he escaped. No. Two months, he wasn't found. Then all of a sudden he popped up, or someone popped up, we'll let you see. We'll let you be the judge. When on the 15th of February, 1977,
Starting point is 01:38:16 another teacher and their students were kidnapped. Again, the teacher was young, Rob Hunter was only 20 years old. This is why I know the story. Cause your friends with Rob Hunter? Yeah, he's my cousin. No, no, no. Yeah, yep. No, keep going. But this is this is this was this came up in like a family conversation
Starting point is 01:38:34 in the last two years, I reckon. Right. So he did another. I haven't heard of this. Did another school kidnapping. Yes. Rob Hunter, only 20 years old. At that point, had only been teaching for nine days. Oh, Rob Hunter, only 20 years old, at that point had only been teaching for nine days. Oh Rob! Rob! Like Gibbs, he was the sole teacher at a tiny school, this time in the Gippsland town of
Starting point is 01:38:53 Wurreen and the school there had only nine students. So it was similar in a lot of ways. Did he get a new student each for each day he's been teaching? Yes. They eased him in, one student a day. Yeah, one student a day. It was one on one, one on two, one on three. It's going to be brutal by the last day of the year. So John Sylvester wrote a great article about this.
Starting point is 01:39:14 John Sylvester, like the crime age, one of the big, he wrote a lot of books about Melbourne underworld and stuff. But anyway, right off their age, I'm going to quote his article quite a lot here, or read from his article quite a lot here. He writes, the rookie teacher at the tiny country school was startled during morning recess when some of the kids ran into the single weatherboard classroom yelling, there's a man outside with a gun. His initial reaction for someone so experienced was remarkably calm, believing his nine primary school students were more at risk from overactive imaginations than an active shooter. He thought the gunman was probably quote, some harmless hunter out shooting rabbits, like the opposite of what they thought in the last one. Then he saw him, the man in a balaclava, not a floppy
Starting point is 01:40:02 hat, pointing a handgun straight at the teacher's chest saying, don't try anything fucking smart or I'll shoot you. Okay, swearing in front of the children. Great. Yeah. Mate, the rabbits are outside, aren't we? Yeah. And you know-
Starting point is 01:40:15 I'm not a rabbit. I'm not a rabbit. I'm dressed as, it's Easter. I'm dressed as a bunny, but you're confused. It's just something fun for the kids. Yeah. And you know what kids are like, little parrots. So now they're all going to be fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.
Starting point is 01:40:25 You know what I mean? Don't swear in front of the kids, please. I'll cooperate, but let's watch the language. Yeah, don't. And don't swear in front of the parrots either, because they're also like parrots. Fuck, fuck, you know, all day, I've gotta hear it. So we have to continue.
Starting point is 01:40:40 Is the man with the revolver was wearing a Collingwood beanie as a balaclava, which is very offensive. Well, it's your people, Jess, isn't it? This says a lot, doesn't it? Collingwood supporters. And this man was, of course, Geelong prison escapee, Edward John Eastwood, who was now 26. Can I ask with the beanie, had he cut eye holes or was it just a beanie over his face? It was an old beanie, so it was quite thin.
Starting point is 01:41:04 You could see through it. You over there? Where are you? Where are you? Make some noise. Sorry, I generally thought I was aiming at a rabbit. Yeah. I wondered.
Starting point is 01:41:12 I thought, geez, this rabbit's big. Lucky days. He, his nickname was Ted as well, I should say. Oh, Edwin Ted. Yeah, how'd he get there? I would have called him Dick. Hoping it was a simple robbery, Hunter volunteered. I can write a check.
Starting point is 01:41:30 How much would you like? Another bad ass teacher here. Just taking it all on his stride. The gunman responded, no mate, that's not the sort of money I want. I don't want teachers salary money. I guess that's what he's saying. It's a noble profession. Thanks.
Starting point is 01:41:43 All right. And my dad is Rupert Murdoch, okay? Yeah, you idiot. Fucking idiot. Yeah, I just go by this name to avoid, you know, nepotism and stuff. Exactly. What do you want? But I'll go to daddy for money.
Starting point is 01:41:55 I will go to daddy. I'll go to daddy in heartbeat. I will happily go to daddy. I'll go. I was thinking about going to daddy anyway. I'm just having a hard day today. I said, daddy? Daddy. Daddy, I had a bad day, daddy. Daddy, I've a hard day today. I said, daddy? Daddy.
Starting point is 01:42:05 Daddy, I had a bad day, daddy. Daddy, I've had a bad day. Please get me out of here. A helicopter arrives. Yeah. Thank you, daddy. Thank you, daddy. That'll be all daddy.
Starting point is 01:42:15 That'll be all daddy. Stand down, daddy. Ha ha ha ha ha. What a character James Murdoch is. Ha ha ha ha. Back to Sylvester. Jess, there's a word in here I can't say. Can I get you to sub in? Hunter did his best to protect his students from the spectacular Larry. Oh,
Starting point is 01:42:33 that sounds, that's pretty much right. Yeah. This spectacularly inept but equally erratic Eastwood who seemed- That was a good sentence too. Equally erratic Eastwood. I mean, this is Sylvester. John Sylvester. Fantastic writing. He's not fucking around. Like he has his rep for being an inside man. He knows all this stuff, but also the writing. He also knew Shakespeare. Yeah. Did he? I didn't realise that. So yeah, the inept but equally erratic Eastwood who seemed more interested in headlines and getting away with his idiotic crime. Eastwood was nervous, distracted and sweating profusely.
Starting point is 01:43:12 Don't wear a beanie over your head mate. When he initially grabbed them. When a grade five girl asked, what's your name? The gunman eventually responded, Ted, failing even to attempt to provide an alias. Remember that Bolard was the other guy and the first crime was the one who gave a fake name. What's your name? Egon Eastwood. Dude, you're a gunman. Do you have to respond to the grade five at all?
Starting point is 01:43:39 Yes. Whatever. Beanhead. Like it doesn't matter. Call me sir. Then all the kids are going, beanhead, bean whatever. Beanhead. Like it doesn't matter. Call me sir. Then all the kids are going, beanhead, beanhead. Shut up! Shut up! I hate you kids.
Starting point is 01:43:52 Eastwood always craved the spotlight, even if it was held by armed police Sylvester Rides. His planning was so poor that he tried the kidnapping at another country school earlier before randomly choosing Hunter's class. His ransom note had the name of his original target, Alamby, crossed out and replaced with Worene. I'm saying Alamby right there. Trying to remain outwardly calm for the sake of the children, Hunter managed to unplug the electric clock to leave a clue to the time of the abduction. Oh, that's clever. It stopped at 11, 10 AM. So clever. I wouldn't think to do that. No. No, if I was the cop walking in, I wouldn't immediately time of the abduction. Oh, that's clever. It stopped at 11, 10 a.m. So clever. I wouldn't think to do that.
Starting point is 01:44:25 No! If I was the cop walking in, I wouldn't immediately go, the clock stopped. He needs Clarot to be on the case. I feel like that's on his tripped over the power cord and later said, nah, did it on purpose. Yeah, yeah, backdating. I unplugged it.
Starting point is 01:44:37 It was actually really smart. Oh, really? That was really clever. That's clever. It's sort of like in movies where they always go, like, the watch stopped at this time. Yeah. I'm like, the watch has actually stopped.
Starting point is 01:44:44 What? The watch has stopped? Really, guys guys? But also you're like, I mean could could that be a red herring placed there by the By the assailant as well because that's what this assailant actually does He places a little red herring according to Nicole Henley writing for the blog of misdeeds and mysteries Eastward chained the children together and bound and gagged Hunter before putting them into his stolen Dodge truck, driving for several hours. So it was a lot more violent about it, chaining them up this time. I know in the first four years earlier or whatever,
Starting point is 01:45:17 five years earlier, it was four years earlier, it was a lot more chilled. Moreover, before leaving with his prisoners, Eastwood left a note behind on the front door of the school telling parents of the children that they were on a nature walk study, which maybe he got that idea from the first time around, and would be, quote, back in two hours, delaying the sounding of the alarm on the kidnapping taking place. This is quite a smart move by him. Yeah. But he signed by their teacher.
Starting point is 01:45:46 Signed by Ted. Oh, just scribbled it out. But he also hasn't- I wonder if you put like a time on it, as in like, we're leaving at three, so we're back at five. Yeah. But also like, but we're here to pick him up at three. Yeah, why would you leave at three? Why would you start at the end of the day?
Starting point is 01:46:03 That would raise alarms for me. This is weird. As a parent. Henley continues, when the children failed to return after a couple of hours passed, the parents informed the police under the belief that their children and their teacher had merely gotten lost on their walk in the Halston Bush. Which makes sense, that's what you would be thinking. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:46:21 Your mind doesn't go straight to probably being kidnapped by a psycho. By somebody who's escaped from jail recently. Yeah. Of mind doesn't go straight to probably being kidnapped by a psycho. By somebody who's escaped from jail recently. Yeah. Of course not. Henley continues, meanwhile, with prisoners in tow and no one yet aware of the situation at Merbu North, Eastwood posted a letter to a newspaper editor demanding a ransom and Sylvester breaks it down. What did the kidnapper want?
Starting point is 01:46:40 His ransom is very silly. Sylvester says, it was as stupid as his initial plan. Oh no. In a note to his old mate, the education minister and deputy premier, Lindsay Thompson, he's obsessed with this guy, he demanded the release of 17 of the state's most dangerous criminals from Pentridge, an arsenal of weapons, $7 million in US currency, a hundred kilos of cocaine, a hundred kilos of heroin and a late model car with a full tank of petrol. And Sylvester jokes with seven million bucks he couldn't buy his own juice.
Starting point is 01:47:18 A hundred kilos of heroin and coke. Two hundred kilos of drugs. Yeah. And... the fuck that's too much and a car a Car can't carry that's too heavy sounds like he's gone on an illegal version of the process, right? Yeah, you want a car 100 kilos of cocaine a hundred kilos of heroin. Come on down The release of 17 of the state's most dangerous criminals as well. Yeah, he was, he's like, I don't think any of these things. None of that's gonna happen.
Starting point is 01:47:50 These are all very unlikely, but pick one. Yeah, and even then. And make sure it's the car. Was he thinking? I was thinking the heroin. Maybe you're thinking of, you know, he's like, I need to come in with a strong position to bargain. I was like, all right, you can keep the heroin. I'll take half the coke. You know, like he's got a position to work off then. Yeah. But if he just starts
Starting point is 01:48:14 with the thing he desperately needs, then he's fucked if they negotiate with him. We'll give you half a car. I need a whole car. Unfortunately for Eastwood, his driving was just as bad as his kidnapping skills. Oh no mate. This next bit is quite farcical, but so enjoy. So he's driving along, 10 hostages, teacher, nine children in his Dodge, he's driving a Dodge truck. They're all crammed in, he's stolen a Dodge truck. Did I mention that before? Yeah. So he's crammed them all into the truck truck when he stacks into a log, a logging truck. When the truckers check in on them to make sure they're okay, Eastwood takes them as hostage. So now he's got 12 hostages,
Starting point is 01:48:56 nine students, one teacher and two truckers. And he's getting increasingly frazzled yelling at them. Don't try anything fucking smarter or blow your heads off to the truckers. Unfortunately, another truck came by soon after, fearing that they'd seen something, he flagged them down and took them hostage too. No! So now he has 14 hostages, nine students,
Starting point is 01:49:16 one teacher and four truckers. Okay, that's it. Partridge in a pear tree? Yeah, that's it, I promise. Just kidding, when a combi van pulled up with a couple of road trippers and He must have been pulling out his hair. Okay, you two get in the truck That's 16 hostages nine students one teacher four truckers and a couple of road trippers. That is so Soon it's gonna be like half of Victoria
Starting point is 01:49:38 Get in the fucking van the cops come to arrest him. All right, you're in you're in the van. Wait Why are we doing what you're telling us to? So he's super frazzled and he's got so, all of a sudden he's got so many people to look after. And before it was a lot of kids and a teacher who was worried about the kids. So maybe it was a bit easier to keep them as one unit. Now it's like multiple unrelated adults
Starting point is 01:49:59 that he doesn't know anything about. According to Sylvester, he jammed all these people into the van or the truck and eventually drove to his campsite for the night where they shared tinned ham and stolen chocolate. No more delicious chocolate than stolen chocolate. Is it any luck he shared it with his captives? I think so, yeah. Hey, he's all right.
Starting point is 01:50:20 That night- Hey guys, come on, come on, let's come sit around the cafe. Come on, let's do this. I'll loosen your chains a bit. That night Eastwood openly bragged about the Faraday kidnapping. What a fucking idiot. So you just identified yourself. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:50:33 And... I'm that guy. Yeah, I'm that guy. You would have seen me in the papers. Probably. The one I've just broken out of jail. Eastwood. Apparently, they listened to the radio and the kidnapping was reported and he was super
Starting point is 01:50:47 chuffed. Guys, guys, guys. In front of everyone. Shh, shh. Hey, shut up back there. They're talking about us. That's me. Huh?
Starting point is 01:50:55 That's me? Yeah, totally. He said, in all the bragging and stuff, he said to his captives, if the police confront me, I'll shoot it out with them and I won't be going down alone. I would shoot some of you as well. That's what he said to the captives. Oh, okay. Great. Good way to keep them on the side. Yeah. Hey, but remember the chocolate. Wasn't that nice?
Starting point is 01:51:15 Yeah. There's salt chocolate. Sylvester continues, in the darkness, truck driver Robin Smith slipped his chains and crept out of the campsite. He then jogged more than 10 Ks to a farmhouse to raise the alarm. By 6.45 a.m. Eastwood, who's obviously the prison escapee, realized he'd let one of his own prisoners escape. He bundled his remaining 15 hostages into the underpowered van and took off.
Starting point is 01:51:39 Almost immediately, police were on his tail. Eastwood, holding his revolver in hand, put his hand and arm out the window while he was driving and took some shots of the police cars chasing behind him. So he's, all right, pew pew pew, trying his best. Police fired at the tires, but one bullet ricocheted through the cabin. And eventually Eastwood was shot in the leg and arrested. On Monday, November the 7th, 1977, 38 weeks after Eastwood walked into the Wurreen primary school, he pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court to 16 counts of kidnapping, three of theft of vehicles, three of using a firearm to avoid arrest, one of escape, one of burglary and one of theft.
Starting point is 01:52:18 Oh my God. He was sentenced to 21 years with a minimum of 18 and was released. That doesn't seem like enough. No, no, it doesn't. Like, cause he's already... Just a skate. Just fleeing prison. Prison is a lot...
Starting point is 01:52:29 One kind of kidnapping is surely a lot of years and you do that 16 times. Yeah. But then is this on top of the sentence he was already serving? I think... Yeah, cause that was already quite long. He still had like 10 years of that to go, which you'd think would be increased because of the breakout. I mean, look, I don't understand. Yeah, I don't know. I don't understand.
Starting point is 01:52:51 Right. But you're about to say sorry that he got out. Yeah, he was released in 1993. So he's been out for quite a while. Wow. He has said that when he was shot by police, he said that was after he'd already given himself up and they shot him unarmed in custody. Of course he said that. But it's hard to know how much you can believe this guy.
Starting point is 01:53:11 Yeah. According to Henley, it would still not be the last people would hear of Eastwood as on the 30th of April, 1981, he fatally strangled a convicted rapist named Glenn Davis in the exercise yard of Pentridge Prison and was charged with murder as a result. He was consequently acquitted on the grounds of self-defense as he was stabbed a total of 10 times during the incident. Oh wow. What? Pretty good evidence that it's self-defense when you're strangling a rapist, but you're getting stabbed at the same time. Oh my god. What the fuck?
Starting point is 01:53:46 When did Pentridge become no longer a prison? Um, I reckon it was in the 90s or early 2000s. That recently? Yeah, I think so. Sorry to ask a question. No, that's okay. Nobody has the answer to. 97. Wow.
Starting point is 01:54:04 It's now a cinema. Yeah. You can go get a massage there. And I have. But anyway, we'll finish talking more about Hunter, this second teacher who is a badass in his own right. Conor Sylvester, more than 40 years later, the recently retired hunter has written a riveting account in the self-published book, Day Nine at Wurreen.
Starting point is 01:54:31 His personal recollections of what began on Monday, Feb 14th, 1977. It's amazing that he had to self-publish it. Sylvester's obviously a big rep for the book saying that it's available at the website, kidnappedteachertalks.com. And he, but he also says it should be picked up by any mainstream publisher with half a brain.
Starting point is 01:54:52 So it was like, why is this not, why is this self published? Anyway, I also said that schools can contact Rob Hunter through the website. So he goes and does talks at schools, I guess from kidnapped teacher talks. That's what I got from it. Okay. Good pick up. Sylvester also says that Hunter refused to be defined by the kidnapping and continued to teach around Victoria, retiring after 44 years in education. The key he says was to let go of his anger towards the kidnapper and reject his desire for revenge, which obviously would be very hard to do. He now delivers those kidnapping lessons in school lectures entitled, Health After Hurt to Kids About Mental Resilience.
Starting point is 01:55:31 Wow. Of his students, he says that some of them are now grandparents and that all, which is wild to think, and all were affected by the kidnapping. Four did not return to Warrain primary afterwards, which we understand. Fair, yeah, of course. Meaning that for the rest of the year, he just had five students in the school. Oh, wow. And I'll finish with this, which I think is a lot of note, a bit of fun from the ordeal.
Starting point is 01:55:58 Looking back, Hunter remembers being angry at Eastwood for obvious reasons, like a lot of us, like, how dare you talk to my kids like this? Yeah. All that sort of stuff. Fair enough. But he also remembers getting angry at him for quite trivial things. Do you remember the note that Eastwood wrote saying the class was out for a nature walk? Oh yeah. Well, it was written in all caps and Hunter later said, this annoyed me. He had written a notice making out that it was me who had written it. And that made me angry. How dare he? Yeah. Despite the crazy circumstances, I was also irritated by the way it was written. His use of capital letters was wrong.
Starting point is 01:56:35 Any primary teacher worth his weight uses every opportunity to model and teach the use of correct upper and lowercase letters. I would not have written that note in capital letters. Well, that was, you know, the first clue. Parents turned up and went, hang on a second. Hang on. That's not the work of... That's not Mr. Hunter. We've known him for nearly nine days.
Starting point is 01:56:54 Nine days. And I know him to use every opportunity to model an example. Or is it possible that those four kids didn't come back, not because of the kidnapping, but because the parents had seen the note and going, I don't want this guy teaching him. Oh, cats, what the heck? Come on. Should be cursing, surely.
Starting point is 01:57:11 So that's that's the story of, I guess, well, really, it's the two kidnappings. But the episode will probably be called The Faraday Kidnapping. Wow. I cannot believe he did a second one. I know. That is so surprising. It is, yeah. And the fact that it was just like he was losing his mind, everyone he saw, all right, you're a hostage. Okay, you're a hostage now.
Starting point is 01:57:32 Call me back, get in there, get in there. He's flagging down other people, like, come on. Like I guess he was just like, they've seen too much. Yeah. People are driving past, they're not, no one's assuming it. People got their own stuff going on. Yeah. People are driving past. They're not, no one's assuming. And people got their own stuff going on. I'm not looking in every single car I drive past on a highway. You know? Come on. Come on. That's very funny. That part. It's cause you,
Starting point is 01:57:55 like you say, it's such a farce. Yeah, it was. Yeah. Comical. And it actually, I mean not, I don't think that part of it, but the, the story itself ended up being a book. A book was based on it in 1980 by Gabrielle Lord. Is that author? Meaning, is you Australian writer, Dave? No. Called Fortress, which was turned into a film in 1985 as well. With Rachel Ward playing basically my first cousin. I'm gonna start talking.
Starting point is 01:58:28 That's pretty cool. I mean, they changed the name of the character, but that was the teacher character. Wow. So I wonder what that would have been like for having, you know, it was 13 years after the movie comes out from when it happened. So. Yeah, it's not long enough.
Starting point is 01:58:42 Is it the kind of time where you're like, I don't want to be reliving there. Is it kind of, is it like being portrayed by like a movie star? I guess it would depend on your personality. I'm pretty sure, um, Eastwood would have been stoked. Oh yeah. Yes. Well, that sounds like this post on me.
Starting point is 01:59:02 Yeah, it definitely sounds like he'd love that. What a story. I was pretty happy to have some fun with that one because my memories were like 90% everyone was okay. I was pretty sure. I also sort of thought you're probably not going to tell the story of a bunch of primary school children. I also was confident for that really.
Starting point is 01:59:22 Like all dying in awful ways or something. So I was confident we were going to be okay there, but still a really scary, obviously not to downplay at all what they experienced. It sounds horrendous. Yeah, because things could have gone wrong. Of course. I mean- I mean, even that bullet ricocheting through the van. I did not know where that was going to go. The fact that nobody was even hurt from that is incredible considering there was a
Starting point is 01:59:42 hundred people in the van. It was jam packed. It hit the only bit of clear space in there. That's wild. But yeah, I don't, I must have heard of it at some point during my life, but I have no recollection of it at all. But yeah, I'm glad I messaged mum and dad. Yeah. I'm always glad they message, but especially now. When I was in Adelaide, Bop, I was chatting to a guy and I'm blanking on his name right now,
Starting point is 02:00:12 who's played in an Irish band. Okay. At the time was coming up to St. Patrick's stage. Was it The Edge? It was The Edge. Yes, you were chatting to The Edge. But we were talking about Irish music and stuff and I was like, Oh, you know, Jess actually she's related or has a family friend who's in one of those
Starting point is 02:00:30 legendary Irish bands. Am I right? And so I said I'd ask you that and let him know. But hopefully he's listening now. So I, cause I can't remember his name. It's the Furies. The Furies. And you was one of the big ones. George Fury. And it's George Fury. Yes. And he's your dad? He's my dad. He's my dad. No, he's my, he's the father of my cousins.
Starting point is 02:00:51 Right. I say that because I, I wouldn't say uncle. Yeah. Because- But he was like an uncle when you were younger or something? You, you, cause didn't you, he came whenever he was over, didn't you hang out with him? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But so he and my auntie were never together.
Starting point is 02:01:07 Right. So but he would come and visit his kids sometimes. Yeah, great. A few years or whatever. So whenever they were on tour in Australia, he'd chuck her a text. Yeah, pretty much. If you're in town. Pretty much.
Starting point is 02:01:24 But yeah, George. On your George. Lovely man. Always fun having him around because somebody would just hand him to her and then you just, there'd just be music in the background. It was great. But yeah, the Furious, which and there was a couple, I don't remember where I was now. One time on Roadshow, we were in a venue and you know how like certain old theaters and stuff around the place will
Starting point is 02:01:48 travelling bands or performers will sign the walls or something. The Furies were written there and I was like that's kind of cool. That's awesome. Now I'm performing here. My parents I'm sure had a few Furies CDs. Yeah quite possibly. They were pretty big. I mean they're probably still yeah still art to a relative degree but our parents generation would probably know of the Furies.
Starting point is 02:02:04 I wish I could remember this guy's name. Yeah, still art to a relative degree, but our parents' generation would probably know of the Furies. I wish I could remember this guy's name. I want to say Glenn, but I think he was wearing a t-shirt of a musician named Glenn. And you've associated that person with Glenn now. We were recently talking about famous Glens. Which Glenn? Musician Glenn, like a folk musician Glenn. Glenn Hansard.
Starting point is 02:02:19 Glenn Hansard. He was wearing a Glenn Hansard t-shirt. Why can't I remember that? Anyway, my brain's not helpful sometimes. Well, hopefully that guy's listening. Glenn Hansard. Because they're wearing a Glenn Hansard t-shirt. Why can't I remember that? Yeah. Anyway, my brain's not helpful sometimes. Well, hopefully that guy's listening. And knows of the Furies. Glenn Hansard is an Irish singer-songwriter.
Starting point is 02:02:32 Ah. Was it Glenn? Could have been Glenn. Wearing their own t-shirt asking about the Furies. His name was a name that was spelled with one less letter than normal. Maybe it was Jeff with one F. Oh, interesting. Something like that. Anyway. Okay. Time to move on. Yeah. So sorry that I can't remember your name. Sorry to you, Jeff, with one F. Well, that brings us
Starting point is 02:02:55 to everyone's favorite section of the show where we thank some of our great Patreon supporters. If you want to get involved, go to patreon.com slash doogle on pod. And there's a bunch of things there, Dave, that people can get involved in. Is that correct? Absolutely. You are saying all these things correctly. You go to patreon.com slash do go on pod, like you say, and you can get access to three soon to be four bonus episodes every single month, as well as access to the back catalog
Starting point is 02:03:17 of 200 plus bonuses. Being the Facebook group, know about live shows for anyone else, get discount sales, vote for topics, vote for two out of three of the reports we go through, little cycles where we sometimes, this was a free choice, was it for you, Matt? Was a free choice. Jess and I, our topics are currently being voted on and sometimes it's so close that even one or two votes can really sway what we're going to talk about. Absolutely.
Starting point is 02:03:39 So yeah, lots of stuff. Yeah. Did you say ad-free episodes? That's a new thing. Sorry, it's so new even for us that I've forgotten. Ad free episodes are now available on our Patreon. So if you're finding the ads a bit annoying, well, chuck in a couple of bucks and you get to support the show in a different way
Starting point is 02:03:54 and do not have to listen to the ads. And yeah, the first thing we like to do, based on the level we're on, there's all sorts of other shout out things. If you're on the Sydney Scharnberg level or above, you get to be in the fact or quote question section, which is this section, which actually has a jingle go something like this. Fact, quote or question. Huh, who always remembers the ding? Huh, who always remembers the sing? And the way this works is people on that level or above get to give me a fact or quote or question or
Starting point is 02:04:18 bribe. Or bribe. Or bribe. We'll take a bribe. Absolutely, we'll take a bribe. I'm in Bragg. Bragg will suggest it. I'm bribe or a bribe. We'll take a bribe. I mean. Absolutely, we'll take a bribe. I meant brag. I'm bribeable. But you have to be at this level in the Patreon to give us a bribe, okay? Yeah. Which is, yeah. Wait your turn for a bribe. Yeah.
Starting point is 02:04:34 Matt, we'll get to you in time. Okay. Yeah. We'll call out your name and then you bribe us. There is a process for the bribing, but we are very open to it. Please respect the process. Thank you. So, I read out four each week and yeah, it could be a bribe.
Starting point is 02:04:47 We haven't had one of those yet, but fat quota question, brag suggestion, joke, all sorts of things. Recipes we had in the past. We've had everything. It's great. I don't read them out until I read them out and that's just me explaining why I'm about to mispronounce words and maybe read something crook out because I haven't, what do you call it? Fetid it.
Starting point is 02:05:05 Fetid it. Has not been vetted or fetid. No, fetid. Not Greek or Danish. And the first one comes from Susie Darrow, aka Senior Dog Breed Identifier. Oh, great skill. Great skill. Because I'm always on the park going, what kind of dog's that? Yes. I know, you know, the big ones, the basic bitch ones. I know.
Starting point is 02:05:27 You get what you're Labradors, you're bulldogs. I know the difference between a Lab and a Golden Retriever, let me tell you. That's great. I can pick them apart. But apart from that, I don't know dogs. Right. But you're like, is that a Nikita? What is that?
Starting point is 02:05:39 What is that? What are you? Well, it's so good to have Susie on board. Yeah, perfect. We need you. Because it's embarrassing to have a stab and not know. Yeah. Yeah. Do you want to replay in my head all the time?
Starting point is 02:05:51 Is one time I was walking my dog, who was a French bulldog in the park, and this old woman, older woman was walking along with a Boston Terrier. Now, Boston Terriers and Frenchies look fairly similar, but there's very clear differences, and I know the differences. And what I said to the little dog was, look at you. And she thought I said, looks like you to my dog. And then she looked at me like I was a fucking idiot and really rudely went, it's a Boston Terrier. And I went, I know. They look quite similar. Yeah, but I knew the difference and, and it's not crazy if somebody did get them mixed up.
Starting point is 02:06:27 You're right, they do look very similar. Yeah, I would have. But I was talking to her dog and said, look at you. I misinterpreted completely. I thought a third thing where you'd seen the dog and looked at her and said, looks like you. I'm not at the dog. That is a common thing, that the dogs look like they're.
Starting point is 02:06:44 Like they their owners. Yeah. Oh, looks like you. Are you familiar with these two dogs? It's one of Boston Terrier ones. Yeah. Yeah. They are so similar.
Starting point is 02:06:53 So similar. So they've made that purposely. Show him again. So the difference is that Frenchie's ears are round and Boston's are pointy. Okay. And if you could actually, if they were standing up, you'd say that they're very different in the back end of the dog. Okay. And if you could actually, if they were standing up, you'd say that they're very different in the back end of the dog. Oh, okay.
Starting point is 02:07:07 Bostons sort of have longer, skinnier little legs. Why are you looking at my dog's rump? I'm trying to figure out what- I'm trying to figure out the breed. I just found, I've got another Boston Terrier photo here and Jess, your dog is much hotter than that dog. That's an ugly dog. But also that looks like you.
Starting point is 02:07:20 It kind of does. It does not. Man. Man. Is that a better representation? They're so cute. It kind of does. It does not. Is that a better representation? They're so cute. Still to me, they look very similar. Yeah, they're very similar looking dogs.
Starting point is 02:07:30 I think I might have dog face blindness. No, that's purposely confusing. But anyway, so okay, we've got Susie. We have not got far in this. We've got Susie's on board too. I think about that woman all the time because she was quite rude. I'm like, if you've got a dog, you have to be ready for some of the dog chat. Oh, that's my mum saying. Oh, is it a West Highland Terrier?
Starting point is 02:07:53 I think she said. No, Cairn Terrier. There's lots of different terriers from the UK. Too many terriers. Cairn Terrier. And the lady goes, Norwich Terrier, which is a very, very specific subcategory. Honestly, shut the fuck up. That's so funny. But anyway, we're not going to fall for that trap anymore because we've got Sacramento Sews on board, which is what Alexi dubbed her on an episode of Who Knew It.
Starting point is 02:08:16 She's written a few great questions on Who Knew It. I think you're on that episode every day. Yes, I remember. Sacramento Sews. Love it. Anyway, Sacramento Sews, okay, senior dog breed identifier has a question. Great.
Starting point is 02:08:28 Hi mates, I have a question for Jess. So I hope this gets read while she's on. Oh, sorry Sacramento Seuss. I'm off. She's not on today. I am not on today. I have to know what brand is that cute, bright blue and white floral short sleeve button down
Starting point is 02:08:44 you wore to record the first episodes when Dave returned from paternity leave. Oh my god. Oh, because it was on a clip. Do you remember? I bought it at a, I bought it in Cairns in like a surf shop. And I'm not gatekeeping on purpose. I just don't remember what it was. It might've been a surf, dive and ski. Right, because you're not wearing it right now. I'm not wearing it now purpose, I just don't remember what it was. It might have been a surf, dive and ski. Right, because you're not wearing it right now.
Starting point is 02:09:06 I'm not wearing it now. Don't have the tag. Otherwise I'd be, you know, you better believe I'd be checking that tag. Let me have a look. Let me have a look at that. Was it Nala? You know what, old people seem to have that, they've got that feeling that they've got the right to check the back of the tag.
Starting point is 02:09:19 I think I'm getting towards the age. You're old enough, you're old enough for tag. For tag grabbing? Tag rights? That's a tag grabber. That feels like a Kerb episode. Yeah. Wait, what are you a tag grabber? What are you a tag grabber? You can't tag grab. I was tag grabbed. I was tag grabbed. You can't believe it. Walking down the street, I got tag grabbed. I'm too old to be tag grabbed. This is fun. While I just have a look, you guys are just having a meltdown over there.
Starting point is 02:09:42 Should we still talk about tag grabbing a bit longer? How long is this going to take? Oh, no, there's more to the question. Okay, great. Go for it. So just having a meltdown over there. Should we still talk about tag grabbing a bit longer? How long is this gonna take? Oh, no, there's more to the question. Hopefully help jog your memory. The pod posted a clip on Instagram of you wearing it during the amazing story, the amazing Matt fart story. Oh, doesn't that sound, that sounds like,
Starting point is 02:09:57 oh, I'm a magician. The amazing Matt fart story. Yep. That top is so ding dang cute. And and that's all caps. It is ding-dang cute, I will say. But in all caps, doesn't it make you think? I've watched that video a few times. For editing purposes and I cannot imagine. I've got to go watch it. Of course. If you want to. I can imagine. You've worn it on a few things. You're wearing it on the upcoming series of the quiz show. Yep
Starting point is 02:10:25 I'm wearing an episode of that. Yeah, I bought it on holidays. You know when you make holiday purchases Hey, there's a backup question. Okay, great. She said if you don't know don't worry Well, I know it's surf diving ski if you don't know don't worry. Okay I don't think they don't have surf diving ski in Sacramento and it's not on their website anymore either because it was middle of last year. So the backup question is, what are some of your favorite clothing brands, especially Australian ones? We'd love to hear everyone's answer. Thanks.
Starting point is 02:10:52 Dave, Australian brand, you're a brand man. I think even more than Jess. I'm wearing a... Big time. Am I a brand man? I mean, I'm wearing a plain black tee right now. I don't know if you... I don't know what it is.
Starting point is 02:11:02 I don't mean a brand man. You're a fashion man. Oh, thank you so much. You're a stylish man, Dave. Yeah, I'm wearing a plain black tee. If it wasn't for Australian, you'd say Primark. We all know that. I'm wearing a country road t-shirt right now. OK, la-di-da. And I'm wearing Dijord jeans from down the road in Sydney Road here. Oh yeah. And he buys his jeans and his red vans from the same place,
Starting point is 02:11:20 the same strip Brunswick is where. Gotcha. Remember earlier in the session. Oh, yes. Oh, red vans. I was thinking the shoes there. Brunswick is where- Gotcha. Remember earlier in the- Oh yes. Oh, red v- I was thinking the shoes there. Me too. Oh, sorry. Sorry. Me too.
Starting point is 02:11:30 No, no, no. No, Matt, we let you down. Because that was a good joke. Yeah, that's great. But there's two Australian brands for you that I wear a fair bit of. Yeah, that's pretty good. Country Roads Australian. There you go.
Starting point is 02:11:40 I always associate it with John Denver. That's fair. that's fair. Very different vibes actually, the shop country road and that song, very different vibes. I mean I'm wearing a Dolly Parton t-shirt that is from Dolly Parton's website, like it's Dolly merch. You and me are big, we're more like merch wearers. I wear mainly breweries, often t-shirts I was given during beer pioneer shoots. Yeah, that's pretty good. And band tees. Matt mentioned earlier that I used to work at Bonds,
Starting point is 02:12:13 I still wear a lot of Bonds stuff. Oh yeah, Bonds. Is that Australian? Yeah. Yeah, I definitely wear a lot of Bonds. You don't always see them because they're under my jeans. They make jeans? I'm saying my jocks are Bons. I don't want to hear about your jocks. Don't show me your jocks. Matthew, put it away. Disgusting. When you say you want to see them,
Starting point is 02:12:33 I thought you wanted me to take them off. What jocks are you wearing, Dave? I'm wearing Bons jocks right now. Whoa. Anyway, yeah, I don't have like a lot of, I buy stuff, pretty hodgepodge, to be honest. A lot of like pretty cheap basics. Hodgepodge, great brand.
Starting point is 02:12:49 Hodgepodge Begodge. Thank you, Suzie, for that question. Next one comes from Piper Gallaher. Piper writes, oh, this is Piper's title. Who am I? You sure? You sure you want to know? The story of my life is not for the faint of heart.
Starting point is 02:13:05 If somebody told you it was a happy little tale, if somebody told you I was just your average ordinary guy, not a care in the world, somebody lied. That's Piper's title. Love it. And Piper has a fact writing, Sam Raimi, is that a quote that either of you recognize? I'm looking it up. Thank you. Okay. Piper's got a fact writing, Sam Raimi, is that a quote that either of you recognize? I'm looking it up.
Starting point is 02:13:25 Thank you. Okay. Piper's got a fact. Sam Raimi's seminal 2002 indie art house classic motion picture, Spider-Man, was the first instance- It's a Spider-Man quote. Yep, yep. Of Peter Parker, spoilers, he's Spider-Man, being able to shoot his webs from his own
Starting point is 02:13:41 wrists rather than inventing a web shooter. What? Is that true? I just thought, yeah, cause I know. I missed some of that. So it was one of the first instances where he actually, he was able to shoot from his wrist. Well, have you seen it in the Marvel cinematic universe where they were, spoiler alert, all the, all the Peter Parker's are together.
Starting point is 02:13:58 Yeah. And they have different, they're like, oh, you can do it. Yeah, they're really amazed by him being able to do it. I think that was, oh, right. I thought they I thought it was more the joke was that they sucked, but it was that they were normal and he was. I mean, yeah, what is normal? But yeah, they were like, oh, we have to. We're not shooting webs out of your wrist, Jess. We have to make it our little cartridges,
Starting point is 02:14:16 but he can just go, whoop, whoop, and that's pretty cool. That's pretty cool. This is a great fact. I didn't know that, I didn't know that. This was adopted by the comics at the time, but it is quite rare sight to see most Spider-Man media to this day. P.S. my fuck off long title is the opening line
Starting point is 02:14:30 to Sam Raimi's seminal 2002 indie art house classic motion picture, Spider-Man. I've not seen it, but I didn't know it was an indie art house film. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's cool. It's got a cult following now, but yeah, it's pretty underground. It's the main reason why I haven't seen it, because it just feels like it's a bit of an
Starting point is 02:14:47 intimidating watch. I watched all of the Spider-Man movies in the space of a week, I think. Yeah. Did you get it though? It frickin' ruled. Really? Yeah, we loved it. Oh, that makes sense.
Starting point is 02:15:00 We were a weekend away and we'd just watch Spider-Man the whole time in front of the fire. It was very nice. I would say you're very media literate though. Yes, absolutely. I wouldn't say that. That probably comes from you having a degree in media. That's true. And literacy. That, yeah, fuck. Okay. Wow. Actually I do too. I didn't know. Media and literature. Yeah. So that's different. That's why I don't, wouldn't understand it. Literacy. Very different. Yeah. Ironically why I wouldn't understand it. It's literacy. Very different. Yeah.
Starting point is 02:15:27 Ironic there that I misunderstood those two words. Thank you so much, Piper. Piper. That was fantastic. I loved it. That was a joy. I loved how you wrote it. Journey. Very fun. Very funny. Journey. Journey. I thought we were all saying a J-word to describe that experience. Journey. Next one comes from Cam. Care of R of Rupert the dog and, uh, Cam's title is foreigner brewery rep foreigner brewery. An important job.
Starting point is 02:15:51 Uh, and it's a recommendation. Fantastic. I was hoping it was just the actual job title. It'd be great. It was just like, you know, uh, accounts receivable. Yeah. Sub manager. Foreign foreign accounts receivable. Matt, also Jess and Dave. Dave, I assume you're back from wherever you've been by now, safe and sound. I sure is. I am. Thank you so much for assuming.
Starting point is 02:16:13 Matt, though you're a beer guy. Matt, though you're a beer guy. Lots of exclamation marks. This guy writes like I write. Yeah. Not like how I talk though. So it's hard to do this out loud. Yeah.
Starting point is 02:16:23 Matt, you're a beer guy. I have a huge recommendation for a brewery that doesn't get enough love here in sunny Brunswick. It's called Foreigner Brewery. I've never heard of it. I think I talked to you about it once at Max Watts. That's right, it did ring a bell. Yes, everything that happens at Max Watts
Starting point is 02:16:41 is always remembered. I remember that night, Cam. I think I pushed my cheek up against yours to take some selfies and I'm sorry. That feels right. In the heart of COVID, you don't do that. Anyway, I shouldn't have said that on the record. Look it up and come along, there's a regular Great Dane named Rupert
Starting point is 02:17:01 that may have recently asked a FQ and Q himself. Oh. I never, I did not picture Rupert as being a Great Dane named Rupert that may have recently asked a FQ and Q and stuff. Oh, I never, I did not picture Rupert as being a Great Dane. Me either. So Rupert was the name of a smaller dog. I was imagining a Cavoodle. There you go. So that's exciting. Rupert.
Starting point is 02:17:16 Maybe I was thinking cause of Rupert the bear, you know, but Rupert the bear would be a big dog. Anyway, thank you Cam, great tip. I have either of you heard of it? Mustn't be far from you. No, I don't know it. But I'm not a beer guy, so I might not have heard of it. Well, I mean, it shows you how much of a beer guy I am. You're a disgrace.
Starting point is 02:17:35 Yes. Dave, you're all right. Thank you. So many of my favorite breweries are doing it so tough at the moment because of coming out of COVID and the ATO is just after them all. You know, they sort of, they let them easy through COVID on some of the tax requirements. But now they're asking for all of it basically together. So a bunch of them are going into voluntary administration to try to get through it, including like my like deeds and big
Starting point is 02:18:05 shed in Adelaide, a bad shepherd, all like a bunch of my favorite, favorite breweries. I think they're all getting through it and it makes no sense. The ATO is basically apparently for one of them, they were like, you owe us a chunk of money and they're like, let's get a payment plan going. He's what about paid off over two or three years. And they came back and said seven days. And they're like, we can't do that. So they had to go on a voluntary administration.
Starting point is 02:18:33 The administrators then negotiated with the ATO and they're now paying 10 cents in the dollar of what they owed. Cause the ATO is like, if they go to the wall, we get nothing. So 10 cents in the dollar is better than that. But if they negotiated the three year deal, they would have got all of it.
Starting point is 02:18:46 It's just over three years. Yeah. Okay. I feel like that. How about seven days? Yeah. Yeah, we're willing to be reasonable. You got seven days, but that started four days ago. That was in an article about Hawker,
Starting point is 02:18:59 which is another local-ish Melbourne one in Thornbury. But yeah, it's just, I don't know. It sounds like the ATO is losing a bit. Sorry to our ATO listeners that are going, hey, you don't know the whole story. 50% of our audience loves the ATO. That's right. And maybe I don't know the whole story. 50% of our audience is the ATO. It read as unreasonable to me.
Starting point is 02:19:17 Does a little. 50, yeah, we do. It's a big bureaucracy. Big chunk. So no wonder there's so many of the listeners are in there. So sorry to pay you right off. Our final one this week comes from Danny Lopez Rojina. And thank you so much for having the phonetic spelling there. Cause I definitely would have said Rogina. Danny Lopez Rojina is the professor of making people feel awkward and they're offering a brag saying,
Starting point is 02:19:46 Hi all, I'm so excited to finally join this tier. I wanted to brag that I will soon be finishing my PhD in sociology. Hell yeah. If you get called out on a plane, is there a doctor on this flight? Yeah. Hold back a little bit is my advice. I'd go full in. No, just see if any other people
Starting point is 02:20:06 ding their little bell first. I am a doctor and I can fly this plane. Let's do this. I assume. I wanted to brag that, oh, I've said that. The pandemic added an extra year to my degree because interviewing people doesn't work so well with the beginning of COVID,
Starting point is 02:20:22 but I am finally almost there after seven years, after the additional four for bachelor's and two for master's. Hopefully by early May 2024, I should be Dr. Lopez Rowena. Hell yeah. But not that kind of doctor. The first of my family and the child of a Cuban refugee. My biggest problem is that I specialize in immigration, race slash ethnic relations and social inequality. I get to actively see the awkward shit in demeanor in slow motion of people getting uncomfortable when I talk about my work outside of the classroom. Good stuff. There was a line.
Starting point is 02:21:01 Long prologue aside, I wanted to let y'all know that y'all will be in my thank you page of the book I'm writing. Yes! To be able to graduate from this hell. Y'all help keep me sane and Jess's laugh always makes me smile. So thank you.
Starting point is 02:21:17 Holy shit. That's so cool. We're gonna read a book. Congratulations. Danny. That's huge. That's exciting. So impressive, yeah. For us, yeah. Very impressive that we're gonna be in a world like this. So impressive. For us, yeah. Very impressive that we're gonna be in a world like this.
Starting point is 02:21:27 We're gonna be in a book. And also Danny, you're also doing good stuff too. You're doing all right. But it's really, it's important to acknowledge your victories and we have victored today. We are victoring it right up the wazoo. We love to brag about what we get to be bragging afterwards. Yeah, big time.
Starting point is 02:21:42 Hey, you know we're in a book? It's brag-ception. People still doing Inception things. So I forget, I'm out of date with PodcastFix. That feels right. I know we still do Portmanteaus. We do still do Inception. Yeah, Inception's still a relevant topical film. Yeah. Is it still doing a cinematic run?
Starting point is 02:21:58 I think so. Thank you so much to Danny, Cam, Piper and Sacramento Sews. The next thing we like to do is shout out to a few of other great supporters. Jess normally comes up with a game based on that. I'm going to have to start talking less, my throat is starting to struggle. Dave, do you want to explain this? We give a shout out to these beautiful people. And like Matt said, Jess usually comes up with a game.
Starting point is 02:22:19 So read out their name and then, you know, do a little riff on the name. I mean, we did had we, um, Gibbs and the kids. Oh yeah. So maybe we could do band names. Okay. Based on somehow on their name. Yeah. I love that.
Starting point is 02:22:32 I don't think it'll be easy. I reckon you'll make it look easy. I don't think it'll be fun. I think this is going to be like a duck. You're going to look calm. Yes. But frantically swinging your little legs around underneath the surface. That's me all of the time.
Starting point is 02:22:47 You are like a duck. I am a duck. Yeah. We're having to do that. Yeah. Let's give an example now by me kicking things off. How about this? Sure. Go for it. I'd like to thank from Newton in MA. What is this? Massachusetts. We get this every single time.
Starting point is 02:23:00 Yeah. I think it is. It is. Because last time I was like, it's Maryland. And then we looked it up and it was Massachusetts. Yeah, and Maryland's MD. Newton is in Massachusetts. Just go with our gut. We're great. We know everything. We're going to look.
Starting point is 02:23:11 We know we know one thing and that's we love Eric Romo. Oh. Romo no Fomo. Love it. That's good. Romo no Fomo. Is it Eric Romo and the Romo no Fomos? Oh, that's too clunky. I like Romo no Fomo. Is it Eric Romo and the Romo no Fomos? Oh, that's too clunky.
Starting point is 02:23:26 I like Romo no Fomo. Okay, sorry. I was just trying to get, we're trying to establish what this is. Alternative when in Romo. He's on fire today. Yeah, my God. Are you using a band name generator? That's not fair.
Starting point is 02:23:39 That's what I call my brain. No, I'm kidding, Dave. Yours is very good as well. No, it wasn't as good as that. But Eric can choose. Yeah, exactly. We've honestly given too well. No, it wasn't as good as... But Eric can choose. Yeah, exactly. I've honestly given too many options there. You're the front man.
Starting point is 02:23:48 I'd like to thank from Heathmont here in Victoria. I know I'm saying that correctly. Melanie Pearson. Melanie Pearson. Pearson... Okay, I was going to say Pearson the Veil because of Pierce the Veil. That's great. Yeah, but it already exists.
Starting point is 02:24:02 Okay. That's where my brain went. That could be a cover band. Oh, that's good. Okay. No it already exists. Okay. That's where my brain went. That could be a cover band. Oh, that's good. Oh, okay. No, go on, go on. Something like Melanie Pearson Brosnan or something like that. Oh, Pearson in the Wind?
Starting point is 02:24:13 Pearson in the Wind. Okay. Yeah, I like that. That's the strongest. You don't want to do that. That's, I think there's no sure sign that you're an anarchist than if you're pissing in the wind. Yeah. The wind blows right back at you.
Starting point is 02:24:26 You got piss all over you. You got piss all over you. No, it's messy. I'd also like to thank from Staples, what I assume is Minnesota now, but I'm questioning everything. Maine is another option. No.
Starting point is 02:24:39 MN is Minnesota, thank goodness. They've always wrote it straight up. Yeah. Staples, Minnesota, a big shout out to Zachary Jones. Zachary Jones is already pretty good, isn't it? Jones-ing for a Zach. Jones-ing for a Zach. So no bad ideas.
Starting point is 02:24:54 Well, let's see what else we can come up with. Jones-ing for a snack. Oh, yeah. Zach is the snack. Yeah, that's right. Or is there anything on Zachary? Probably not. Zach. the snack. Yeah, that's right. Or is there anything on Zachary? Probably not. Zach.
Starting point is 02:25:08 Yeah. Zach attack. Zach attack. Like a real 90s. Zachary attackary. Yeah. How about that? That's kind of fun.
Starting point is 02:25:16 That's pretty good. I like that actually. My idea, I like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're pretty good at liking your ideas. I like that. I like my idea. Zach attack of the clones.
Starting point is 02:25:24 Oh, that's fun. Zachary Attackery is better. Zachary Attackery. That is good stuff. Can I thank some people? Please. I would love to thank from Kambuya. Oh my God. In Queensland.
Starting point is 02:25:35 Dylan O'Deal is back on. What is this? Briefcase number 26. Kambuya! I would love to thank Jared White. Oh, White on time. Oh, White on time is good. I don't think we can, White on time. Oh, White on time is good. I don't think we can beat White on time.
Starting point is 02:25:50 Yeah, I think White on time is great. You sound like you think it's great. White on time. Yeah, that's kind of fun. Dave, what do you got? Anything for Jared. Yeah, let's go with Jared because White is hard, do anything on that doesn't sound really fancy. Sound like it's a white supremacy thing.
Starting point is 02:26:08 Yeah. Um, the white of his powers. Although exactly. Like hard of his powers. Yeah. Yeah, but no. Yeah. See what you're saying.
Starting point is 02:26:18 You can't put white in power lines. No, no, no. You can't do it. I was going to say like white for your right to party, but it's like, that sounds terrible. Yeah, let's avoid white. Okay, but white on time's okay, I think. White on time, that's fun. But let's try Jared.
Starting point is 02:26:33 Jared at Harrods. Jared's at Harrods. What about shopping at Harrods with Jared? Jared's at Harrods. You sure? Shopping at Harrods with Jared. Jared can choose there I guess. Jarod and Tackle.
Starting point is 02:26:50 Jarod and Tackle. Like Arad? Jarod and J-Tackle. Yeah, like the, yeah. Slightly French, slightly Bergen. Jarod and J-Tackle. That's fun. I met my kids Jarod and J-Tackle.'s fun. Meet my kids Jarod and Jatakul.
Starting point is 02:27:09 OK, a few options there for you, Jarod. Next, I would like to thank from, oh, location unknown. We can only assume deep within the fortress of the moles. I would love to thank Jamie. Jamie. Could always email maybe send him some of the D. Maybe. Jamie. It's Jamie or Jamie. It's not Jamie. Maybe. Jamie. It's Jame, Jame-u or Jame-me. It's not Jame-u, it's Jame-me.
Starting point is 02:27:30 That's fun. Dave hates it. I don't think I understand. It's not you, it's me. Oh, okay. It's not. I mean the Seinfeld thing. And just a thing that is often referenced. Yeah, it's going to be in the, I think it's Zeitgeist. Yeah, it's in the Zeitgeist still. And then you can just shorten that as J-Moo. J-Moo. Yeah, that's fun. And they have it like dead merch has cows on it. Yeah, J-Moo, where'd that come from?
Starting point is 02:27:52 Well, it's not J-Moo, it's J-Me. I'm Jamie. I'm Jamie. And they say this interview is over. Thank you for your time. Goodbye. Thank you, Jamie. And I would finally like to thank again from address unknown.
Starting point is 02:28:09 So we can only see him deeper within the fortress of the moles. George Beresford. Beresford. Beresford. George Beresford's day off, something like that. Okay. Yes. Ferris Bueller, something.
Starting point is 02:28:19 Yeah. Something in there. Is there? Oh, Beres is Ferris. Yeah. If you say it like Beresford, Beres is Ferris, yeah. If you say it like Beresford. Beresford, day off.
Starting point is 02:28:29 Yeah, okay, yeah, I like that. George Beresford's. He's wearing like the outfit on the... The Adventures of George Beresford Fairlane, which is a Andrew Dice Clay movie. Ah. Which I'm sure holds up really well. None of that has meant anything to me. Well, Ford Fairlane's a kind of car.
Starting point is 02:28:48 Oh yes, okay. What about George? Surely we can do something with George. Oh, George, yeah. What about Boy George? Nobody's ever done that before. Oh. What about George Boy?
Starting point is 02:28:57 You know, sometimes there's like Macwood Fleet and people are like punting. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, George Boy. Boy. George Boy. Or like the, like, or what about American style works better here?
Starting point is 02:29:09 Boy, you know, they say boy instead of boy. Oh, George Bowie. They say Bowie, Bowie George. Bowie George, that's good. Bowie George. We got it. We got it. That's good.
Starting point is 02:29:20 Because in an Australian accent or I think English, it would be like, Bowie George. Bowie George. That still works. But even better in America. Boy George. Boy George. Boy George. Please welcome, Boy George. I was saying, Boy George.
Starting point is 02:29:31 That rules. That's great. Next. I'll bring us home. Oh my God, from Zurich. What? Uh, which is CH. I'm, it's Switzerland, right?
Starting point is 02:29:40 Zurich? Yes, it is. And CH is Switzerland? Yeah, cause there's, Swiss francs is CHF. I know, that's probably, that's all related, I guess. Yeah, it must be spelled. Why do they say Switzerland? Anyway, while you're looking that up, I'm sure.
Starting point is 02:29:51 I'd love to thank Patrick Schmid. The Schmid Night Hour. Yes! The Schmidnight hour? How dare you? That was so good. Gonna wait till the Schmidnight hour. Love it. I have no notes.
Starting point is 02:30:16 Next. Yes. Thank you so much. Did you figure out why, what's ch- Previously, they had something to do with Confederatio Helvetica. That's where the CH comes from. Right. And we did- And then, which was a client state of France, CHF, I believe. This is- this is from Cora, so I can never fully trust them, but- Oh, yeah, no, I can't fully trust Cora. Does-
Starting point is 02:30:41 Oh, this- okay, here we go. From Stud studyinginswitzerland.com. I'm more trusting them. The Swiss franc symbol CHF is an abbreviation that stands for the Latin name of the country Confederatio Helvetica. And the F stands for, I've got to click on the link to get the answer to that. And the F stands for Frank. Oh, Frank. Okay. And CHF.
Starting point is 02:31:01 So I guess CH is taken from Confederatio Helvetica, which is the Latin name for the country. We got there. There's an answer. Love that. On your Schmidnachthauer. Next up from me, that reminds me in the chat with AJ, our editor, a fantastic man, he was saying that ch ch is Christ Church. Was that something that we talked about on the show? No. No, don't worry about it then. It was just an extra little fact for you out there.
Starting point is 02:31:34 Yeah, because the Christ Church code is ch ch and I thought that was ch ch, but that's actually just Christ, ch for Christ and ch for church. Yeah. Anyway, next up from West Wumbay in Queensland, Australia, I'd love to thank Vivian Roberts. Vivian Roberts. Jeremy's iron. I was just trying to think. Yeah, no, it's just-
Starting point is 02:32:00 Vivian's Robert? Is that what you should do it off that? A little play off Jeremy's Robert? Is that what you should do it off that? A little play off Jeremy's eye? Could you just call it like, like 6-5? Because Vivian starts with V-I-V. Oh, that's pretty funny. 6-5. V-I-V-I.
Starting point is 02:32:21 What does the extra I? Oh, the extra I. 6-6. 6-6. That's not bad. But spells out 6-6. VIVI. What is the extra I? Oh, the extra I. 66. 66. That's not bad. But it spells out 66. 66. And maybe even Saints 1 only Premiership could be their name. 66.
Starting point is 02:32:32 Yeah, that can be like a little sub fact. That could be an album name maybe. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just something fun. Yeah, but 66, not bad. What about Vivien Sinoman Roberts? Oh, that's pretty good. And finally from me. sorry, looking at that end.
Starting point is 02:32:48 Finally from me, 666 is fantastic. From Potters Bar in Great Britain. Potters Bar's a lovely name. Beckermania, no, Beckermania. Beckermania, that's it, Beckermania. Beckermania. Beckermania. Well, it. Bek-a-mania. Bek-a-mania. Bek-a-mania. Or, may-na-mania would be pretty good. May-na-mania.
Starting point is 02:33:10 May-na-mania. May-na-mania. I've got may-na-mania. And it's just a matter of like changing the positioning of the eye. Yeah. That's cool. That's fun. Wow.
Starting point is 02:33:21 That's undeniably fun. Lock it in. I can't deny it. Fun. That is fun. Lock it in. I can't deny it. Fun. That is fun. Three funs. Thank you so much to Becca, Vivian, Patrick, George, Jamie, Jared, Zachary, Melanie and Eric. The last thing we need to do Dave is the Triptych Club.
Starting point is 02:33:33 How does this work? To be honest, it's quite similar to what we've just done there in some ways. Basically, the Triptych Club, this is our theatre of the mind clubhouse slash hall of fame for people that have been on the shout-out level or above for three consecutive years to enshrine them to thank them forever We welcome them in lift the velvet rope put their name up on the scoreboard Whatever those boards are that used to see it ourselves and stuff like that. They are both Exactly. We honor them. We thank them by welcoming them in and once you're in you don't want to leave because why would you?
Starting point is 02:34:04 Yeah, that's right. And by welcoming them in and once you're in, you don't want to leave because why would you? Why would you want to leave? Yeah, that's a great point. And we always come up with a few things. Weekly, Jess adds a food or a drink menu, I book a band, and then we welcome them in with the initiation ceremony. Quite honestly, I feel like I've been getting a bit of a vibe lately that the things that I've been offering up for like drinks and snacks, you've either kind of laughed at or been disgusted by? That's sort of a vibe I've been picking
Starting point is 02:34:30 out on. Oh no, no. I just think to me, and maybe this is just me, but I think when we're offering food and drinks to these people who we love and we cherish, that they should be edible and drinkable. So like that cocktail that was was Petrol. Yeah. That wasn't. Yeah, well it just it's not.
Starting point is 02:34:50 I thought maybe some of our Patreons were planes. Oh yes. No they're plane enthusiasts. Oh, okay. I'm sorry, we should have made that clear. Well I think you'll be happier with this one because I mean this report was sort of about like country Victoria and like that's where you know my family is from and my mum's aunt was the president of the CWA for some time. Holy shit. So I just-
Starting point is 02:35:10 You're connected. I've put on a bit of a high tea. I've just got some nice scones and little sandwiches and- This is awesome. And some nice tea. Yeah, great. Great. Just checking the temperature of the tea. I knew you'd ask.
Starting point is 02:35:23 Yeah, have we fixed that situation up? Yeah, how's the boiler going? Well, here's the thing too. I made the tea on the stove. Yes. Then remembered we have kettles. Yeah. Multiple kettles.
Starting point is 02:35:34 Yeah, we can use the kettles. But I've already made the tea on the stove. Okay. And a big pot. It is far too hot. Oh my God. But I'm just going to put a lot of ice in it. Yeah.
Starting point is 02:35:42 Hot iced tea. Yeah. It is far too hot even though water can only reach 100 degrees. It's somehow 200 degrees. It's somehow a stubble. This isn't water, Davis. But the scones are nice. It's not water, this is tea.
Starting point is 02:35:53 I don't think he's listening to you. And Matt, I haven't put the jam and cream on. It's gonna be like serve yourself. So you can do your freak little way and then we'll have normal. Exactly. Dollop on the cream, dollop on the jam. Couple of dollops.
Starting point is 02:36:04 Beautiful. Yeah, yeah, dollop it up, jam first. So. I thought that would be alright, and I'll try to be better and actually I'll take on that note of Edible sounds like it's so much better. Okay, so delicious. I can't wait. Should we go off as guns after this? Yeah, well, we'll be in the club. I'm looking for the after party who's playing You never gonna believe it. I'm actually been in in the party. Who's playing? I always book a band. You're never going to believe it. I've actually been in contact with Jess's family. Whoa. And... CWA? Yeah.
Starting point is 02:36:31 Whoa. You're never going to believe it. They said yes to coming down. The Furies are here, Jess. Whoa. It's your kind of uncle up there tonight. Wow. Pretty cool. Pretty cool. Pretty cool.
Starting point is 02:36:41 It's your kind of uncle when they're on tour. I'm pretty sure the lead singer died. That's right in the triptych club. Exactly. I know he's alive. I beg your pardon. Just dead to you. Dead to me.
Starting point is 02:36:55 That's right. All right. So that means it's time for me on the door with the clipboard to read out the two names coming today. Dave honours them by doing some weak word play based on their name or where they're from. And Jess looking after Dave's fragile ego hypes him up a little bit as well.
Starting point is 02:37:13 So it is so fucking fragile. Dave is the MC. Not as fragile as mine as Comedy Festival opens tomorrow. All right, so here we go. You ready, Dave? Absolutely. First up from address unknown. Can only assume from deep within the fortress of the models. Please welcome in Cathy Hine. Cathy Hine. You make me happy.
Starting point is 02:37:29 Hine. Happy and Cathy. Love that. And from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, go Penguins in the United States. It's Orius Khan. I was in the deep within the Pittsburgh, but now I'm in the deep within the Pittsburgh. I'm in the deep within the Pittsburgh. I'm in the deep within the Pittsburgh.
Starting point is 02:37:37 I'm in the deep within the Pittsburgh. I'm in the deep within the Pittsburgh. I'm in the deep within the Pittsburgh. I'm in the deep within the Pittsburgh. I'm in the deep within the Pittsburgh. I'm in the deep within the Pittsburgh. I'm in the deep within the Pittsburgh. I'm in the deep within the Pittsburgh. I'm in the deep within the Pittsburgh. I'm in the deep within the Pittsburgh. I'm in the deep within the Pittsburgh. I'm in Penguins in the United States. It's Aureus Khan.
Starting point is 02:37:46 I was in the deep within the Pittsburgh, but now I've been brought to the surface. No, I'm going to heaven. I'm going all the way with Aureus Khan. Yeah. Welcome in Aureus. I'm a big fan. And Cathy, happy Cathy.
Starting point is 02:38:02 Please make yourselves at home. Grab, get quickly into the line for some beautiful. Yeah. What do you call it? English tea? High tea. High tea. Yeah.
Starting point is 02:38:13 High tea. Yeah, that's what you say. Say, high tea. And the tea says, It's so fucking hot, please forget about my misery. Yeah. This is boring, me beyond scientific possibility. Yeah, it's pretty cool.
Starting point is 02:38:27 That's good. You boiled it so hot, it became sentient. Yeah, it's concerning. I hate it when it talks to me. They say you can't make it hotter than 100, they just say you shouldn't. Yeah. Jess, anything we need to tell people before we go? That we love them and that anybody can suggest a topic.
Starting point is 02:38:43 There's a link in the show notes, but you can also do it on our website, which is dogoonpod.com. You can find us across social media at dogoonpod and it always helps to, you know, follow, share, spread the word. You don't have to be a patron if it's not something you can do, but you can tell a friend about the pod and spread the word that way. But apart from that, just wash your butt, will ya? Dave, boot at home. Hey, we'll be back next week with another episode, but until then, we'll say thank you so much for listening and goodbye.
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