Do Go On - 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 Australia'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: [e-mail] 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.

Melbourne and Canada, we got exciting news for you. And we should also say this is 2026. Jess, what year is it? 2026. Thank God you're here. Right now, I'm in Melbourne doing my show with Serengy Amarna 630 each night at the Cooper's Inn Hotel, having so much fun. We'd love to see you there. Canada, we are visiting you in September this year.

If you've somehow missed the news, we are heading up Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto for shows. That's going to be so much fun. Tickets for all this stuff, I believe, are online. And I'm here too. Hello and welcome to another episode of Doogone. My name is Dave Warnocky and as always I'm here with Matt Stewart and Jess Perkins. Hello boys. Hello girls.

Hello ladies. Yeah, pretty good. Do you think that could be my catchphrase? Yeah, could you get it again? Hello ladies. How hot are women and how good is it to be alive? 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 to 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 hijacking order was, the bomb heist. Yep. So there 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.

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 that we could relive it now. Yeah. Because how else could we? It's not like it was caught on tape. 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. We're putting on a website called pod scripts.com. This has come to my attention. Episode 430 about the sinking of the Costa Concordia. I've just got a bit of the script here. I just like to read it to you.

Do you remember this happening in the podcast? Well, I remember the script that we wrote. Yeah, we're reading it now. We read all of our episodes of Podscript.com. Yeah, Podscript. We are pod scripting podscrip. 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 women. Imagine they're naming pew. Pew. Oh, pew. That would have been tough at primary school. Yeah, but she's okay now.

Florence ponged off. Oh, pew. Oh, she smells like poo. Florence poo. All sorts of stuff like that, yeah. I don't know if they would have gone that clever. Probably not. They're kids.

Sorry, I'm writing the year eight level there. 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, 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. Okay. My name is Dave Warnkeke, with a weird symbol in the middle of Warnocky. Sure. And there's a place on me with Matt Stewart. I'm Jess.

I'm Jess Burkins. Hello, Dave. Hello, Dave. That was a nice touch. A little pointed chest. A little. No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

I'm get. Hello. Hello, Dave. That was a nice touch. Little point at Jess. A little. No, I'm sorry. Oh, that wasn't good app.

That sounds right. God, AI's good. A little point at Jess. A little point at Jess. A little point at Jess. Great. It was even, it was scripting the things we were doing. Pointing.

Gosh, it's good. So anyone reading along on podscrips.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, Hey, Jess, blip. Blip. I'm pointing at you blip. Blip, Jess Burkins. Hello. Hello, Jess Burkins. It's I. All right. How do we do this show?

Jess. 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, yeah. You're absolutely right. We've really lived two other classic episodes. One with a joke and second one with reading out a weird screen. If this is the first episode, just remember that it's a bit...

Trying out a new podcast is like watching a new sitcom. You've got to give it three episodes. Okay, you've 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've 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. Oh, don't put that on him. Award winning role. That's huge. That's huge.

That's too much pressure for the little shoulders on the little man. So one of the three of us, research is 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 tail. And Matt, we usually start with a question. That's right. It's weird that we've already brought up the topic.

I'm going to talk about the Big Bang Theory. Okay. 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. What year is this? All right, I'll give you a few things that happened that year. Oh, okay. I nearly buzzed him in for 2024. Me too. Oh, my God, that would have been embarrassing.

Do we wait for all the clues or should be buzzing? I had a concern that he has finally lost it. You there, boy, what year is this? I don't know. Yeah, 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. Yes, of course. Just you know the history of your club? Of course. Do you need any more info? I'll let Dave have a go.

Okay. So we'll keep going until Dave can get it. Anset Airlines Flight 232 from Adelaide, Dallas Springs was hijacked. Oh, bloody hell. And that's not the report? That's interesting. Yeah, I know. When did Anset close?

Ninies. Yeah. What's this? I'm going to say, 74. Oh, you're really close. But you've gone over and this is plus the right rules. So Jessica could just lock 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. I said 74. We're both locked down. All right, we're both back in. Did you say 74? Yep. Goff Whitlam became prime minister. Oh, I don't know. The Munich or Muncheon Olympics. Correct. Ha, sucked in, Dave. Well done. Well done. Sucked the fuck in, Dave. Was it Gough Whitland that got you there? Yes.

Yeah, you're a big goff. I love Gough with him. I love Gough. It was a hot Prime Minister. It 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 Tyre from Wadarong Land in Ballarat, Kelly Clark from Perth in Wadjuck Country in Western Australia, and Matt Arnett from Ringwood in Melbourne. Okay, I'm going to guess it's an Australian story. Yes, it is. 1972. Is that the Eastland Shopping Center was built in Ringwood? Yes, I'm going to talk about the pretty smooth construction of the Ringwood Shopping Center.

Cool, this should be done fairly quickly. Yeah. Much like the construction on that flawless piece of architecture. Fantastic. The way they laid that slab, oh, my goodness. So smooth. Exactly, not a single blemish in that slab. Gorgeous.

It's disappointing that you build on top of a slab because it was such a beautiful. You never get to see the slab. Oh my God. Pristine. You glide across that slab. So we're in 1972. It's the 6th of October. What was it like then, Matt?

Well, in this day, it was rainy in the morning. Quite wintery, even though it was in the middle of the springtime. Was goffy in yet? Uh, goffy. I think goffy wasn't quite in yet. Okay. Wow. 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 wintry day. Rain is cleared. It's after 3pm.

Sorry, I was still thinking it was about Eastland. I'm sorry. I've got to really stop thinking about the shopping zone. Yes, about 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 that entire school. It's a very small country school. How many students are? 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. Four have already lost. Must be a bug going around. Well, yeah, if there's a bug going around, you're going to wipe out a bunch of the kids, I know. I mean, it's hard to get excited in a game musical chairs with six. It is a bit. At its peak.

Yeah. Right. Yeah, I would have thought that, how many do you need, do you think? I reckon you need. double figures 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. 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. Okay, so that family's making up half the class. Yeah, they have a bit of, you know, pull in what happens in school. They get a bit of a veto. They have a wing. 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, poor, three families make up the whole class. The whole school. Yeah, wow. Because you see their ages are ranging from five to 11. Basically the whole breadth of

primary school. 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 accidentally had one more chair than required. Right.

Everyone went, oh, we all win. Yeah. It was boring. It was as boring as the construction of Eastland Shopping Center. Boring, but beautiful. Beautiful, but yeah, without interest. because everything went according to plan 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. 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 floor.

Finally can see it. Yeah. The handiwork. Is that a trend? Back when I was selling air conditioning, that was becoming a bigger thing. Yeah, people are doing a lot of polish. heating in the slab. Oh, yeah, under floor.

Love it. Yeah. Just heats up that whole slab. Or in screed heating. No more cold tutsis. Yeah, but I wonder if you were pouring a slab if you really feel it's a real slap in the face. Yeah, that they're chucking and pipes down. Yeah, it's usually there's a solid slab.

Yeah. You'd be like, oh, it's just uncomfortable. It's not perfect. Yeah. All right. So that's the setup. Okay. Six kids and a teacher.

Yeah. Playing musical chairs in this tiny town. She's the only teacher at the school. as well. Okay. And she's the principal and the janitor. And she's, uh, she graduated the year before from Bendigo teachers, college, whatever. Yeah. I really thrown in the deep end there. Yeah. Well, that's how it used to be. Yeah. Like my parents, they, you know, they get chucked out to the country um, to start, and they start working at smaller schools to learn the ropes, I guess. Maybe they're just hard positions to feel sometimes. Yeah. That still happens a bit, I guess. Uh, anyway, in his book,

The Fierce Country, True Stories from Australia's Unsettled Heart, 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... They're talking about who's going to get the balaclaclava. Yeah, like, floppy hat. 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. Good idea. But dark glasses too. It's hard to see inside. Okay, sorry. Protects his eyes, though. Do go on.

So the end of 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 ushered 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, one of the oldest students, do their best to comfort them. The kidnappers have left a note, which reads, Ransom will be $1 million. $500,000 in $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 7.25 p.m., we will contact Lindsay Thompson, who was the state education.

minister at the time at Russell Street Police 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. Anil. What's when you're talking about kids? Yeah, exactly.

We're going to annihilate. That sounds like something you do to like a building that needs 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 tell you later. Oh. It's a bit naughty.

Okay, sealed section. Yeah. Save it for the very end, post credits. Yeah. When all the kids have gone to bed. I'll forget. Yes. Where did you say this tiny town?

What was the name of it? Faraday. No, that's the name of the school. Yeah, this is the name of the town. 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, I was going to say it's country Vic. 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 now. But back then, that's huge. Serious cash. But I guess that's what he's not, or the kidnappers aren't asking for the money from the school or. the parents. They're asking for it from the government.

Yeah. Who probably should have it. You'd hope they'd have a mill. Yeah. 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. You'd have a mill in like 10 minutes. Yeah.

And then stop looking. Just leave the rest. I'm sure there's heaps more. And there's someone at the back going, oh, no, I'm looking. Oh, you've already got it? You got it? Okay. Well. I'm sure I'm sure.

I'm sure. 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. Oh, okay. Rub it in. I just gave my switch money away.

Yeah. And that was a lot in 1972. Really? The 72 switch. They're all saving up for switches. You've got to save up for the switch. The switch still the latest in gaming technology? It's the best in gaming technology, yes.

I don't want to sound like I'm saying something with the out of date. No, no, no. People are going to find this very cute in seven years when they're listening to this, going, they don't even know about the schmidel. The Nintendo Shmidal? The Switch will be nostalgic by then. Yeah. It's fine.

It'll come back around. Yeah. Like the SNES? Snez. Yeah. And like DOS. Oh, how, MS DOS. How nostalgic we are all for DOS.

I miss DOS every day. You know what I miss? Printing on really thin, weird feeling paper that had like little perforated bits. I think you could pull off and a line. Oh, that was a satisfying sound. Yeah. Missed 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 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 Facebook where people were sort of like, how old is everyone? Because I feel like I'm older than the demo.

And there were quite a few that were 70, 50 to 70. Yeah, there was quite a few people in there. And I was like, oh, this is great. Like, I'm stoked to hear that. But then also realized how insufferable we must sound sometimes because I feel like me in particular talk about Dave and my age a lot, all go like, oh, we're getting old. That must be so annoying. So 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 good. I wonder if any of them are Aussies. I'll probably remember this story because it was. It was big news. It has been billed by some as Australia's crime of the century.

Whoa. What about the Southern Hemisphere's crime of the century? I think that also counts. Cop that. Antarctica? Well, yeah, there's a few other countries, man. 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 bella clava, another one, dressed as the Australian fast bowler with a floppy hat. Zing on the mask. The baggy green. Is that what you, you think of the baggerine hat as a floppy?

No, the wide brim floppy hat. You know, like, Dennis Lily on the outfield. Yeah. Okay. I think of that as a dad

in the garden hat, but it's okay. Good one. What about a beekeeper hat and it'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. Yeah. Dad in the garden. You go to field down a dad in the garden. Yeah. I'll be at silly,

silly mid off. Which one of these is real? 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. Down the gully? Down the gully. I'll be down to the gully. Must have originally been a gully. I like it.

We're just like an 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 p.m. 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.

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-pitched voice and did not sound nervous. This isn't important at all. 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. I just thought, what a funny detail. We're putting on a high-pitched voice, do you think? I don't think so. I'll only see this one. Yeah. Oh, I went on, Mark Biel, so 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 That's all I'll say Mate He sounds Australian Yeah

All right mate You can imagine Him reading that in the paper next morning And to his like His accomplice Me like What is it

What is this of her What do you say I've got a high pitch voice? Why have you never Tell me I've got a high pitch voice You don't Do you think I got a high pitch voice No mate

I don't think you've got a high pitch voice I've got a very normal pitch voice To be honest According to Or 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 pitch voice, no, he said, I couldn't believe what I was hearing. He said, it was so girly. Mate, are you taking the piss? Come on. You yanking mine, honey. You are not a real person.

This is a character. Don't, mate, don't piss on my leg and tell me his Ryan. Come on, all right. 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.

Granted, it sounds pretty straightforward there. He couldn't have spelled that out. Didn't know what to make her. 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.

Oh, do you think, I hope the government weren't making, 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. And it's finally got there. It's a slow computer, but it gets there. You've made a lot of notches in this wooden table. Do you think Evan will be mad about that?

I think he could be. I'll send it back. Felicity don't know. Evan owns this table. He lends it to us. No, we're at the Stupid Doll 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 Stubbard's years. 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. You're an equal part. In terms of, you know, contracts and stuff.

Sure, sure, for sure, yeah. In terms of legal liability. Yeah, it's a liability. On paper, that's true. But in terms of productivity. Oh, no, sorry. 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?

Yeah, that's fair. And it's been less and less with every year. I reckon there would have been a time you would have been able to come to me. I agree. But that time was past. 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. I'm going straight to the boss. I wouldn't go to him for a bloody... Mate, like, tits on a bull this guy. He's fucking useless. But he's good fun. I'll do a podcast with him. So I'll never ask anything of him ever.

Sorry, you wanted to move on. Go for it. 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

a town it is. Did you, had you heard of it, Dave? No. And Jess vaguely remembers it, but probably from this story. Yeah, and I'm guessing it's out Ballarat way. West? Ah, yes, it's northwest. Yeah.

So it's closer to more Bendigo than Ballarat. Yeah, okay, yep. It's about an hour and a half north. west of Melbourne today. 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, have you done that? What have you done that? What have you got a cruise ship? 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 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. Small, yeah, wow. But it's, I don't even think there's like a town, like a city center or anything. There's not, you know, it's homesteads on farms, kind of. Yes, yeah.

Quick history of the township, which of course will just be the white history. Yeah, of course, yep. I'm not going to go through the whole 60 or thousand years, but it is on Jarja Warong country, and that history goes back, tens of thousands. Yeah. But let me take it out 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 flock to the region, the historic townships of Chuton, historic, remember, I'm talking about hundreds of years old. Chuton and Castle Main. I've heard of Custon. I've never heard of Chuton.

No, chitin's fun. They were created by the Mount Alexander Gold Rush. Faraday was settled as an agricultural area and quickly grew supplying farm produce to the gold fields. Oh. Although Faraday was close to the gold fields, its granite soils were not gold-bearing, but it did have a good rainfall,

and its position close to Mount Alexander was favoured by the settlers. So a few people, a few people sort of stuck around. Stuck around. But like I say, it was tens, not tens of thousands. Yeah, yeah, yeah. In the late 1860s, the Faraday School house 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. So it was kind of bustling at the time. But, you know, I guess this says something about children of the 1860s. Yeah. But the average attendance was only in its 30s. So.

Is it a percentage? 30 odd kids 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 1 switches probably. Oh, yeah, good, yeah. Playing bloody snake or something. Yeah, for. Definitely no LED on that one. No. It's a cute little townhouse, so I've got to tell you that. Townhouse is not what it is.

It's a cute little house. Schoolhouse. Yeah, they're cute. Made from local granite. I've stayed in an Airbnb that's a converted schoolhouse. Yeah. And it's like, yeah, you can't, it's crazy. I haven't grown up in the city as well.

we have, or, you know, the suburbs and the size of schools and pupil-wise and also just like building-wise and land-wise and then being like, oh, this is a cute little one-bedroom place. Yeah, it becomes a one family's house. Yeah, that the whole, not even. It was like, it was a studio essentially. And you're like, this was the whole school. It's, 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. cafes, pick up restaurants and you're like, okay. Well, as a Melbourneian, coffee's my religion and cafes, that's my altar. Okay. You'll find me kneeling down and supping on the cup. Please, may I have a soy flat white? 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. So that's going to make Praise Bean is so funny.

I want to 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 printer. I don't do coffee either. I'm going to put that about. That's what I meant.

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 100 years old, this school at this, at this. point. Yeah, wow. That's a much more interesting game of musical chairs, can I say?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You get the piano out. Crazy kids. It goes like not only 100 years but to the old west. Get the piano. How would they even have enough chairs? Well, they probably don't need to. 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. Because of the golden throne. Musical throne. That's the dream. Golden throne. 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. It took me, that's why I explained it a bit more early,

because when I read that, I'm like, what, why are you saying three families? mothers. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, there were only three mothers. They became alarmed when the children had not come out at 350. Come out. Come out.

Come out. Come on. 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 alarm, 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 school day of those eight kids in the room? Yeah. Or six kids in the room. Well, you could just go around and bell them right in their own face. Yeah, you probably don't have to disturb nearby farmhouses. So they became alarmed when they hadn't come out.

Mrs. Thelma Con said she and Mrs. Howeth 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. What are they going to 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

We don't know what's happened Yeah 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 Oh yeah, couldn't just Google it. No, that's the thing back then. Google was still, at least I think, in an early development. I think it was still in beta mode. He then called the closest police station at Castle 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'd 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, that's the normal sort of,

when you're passing up the chain. Yeah. Husband. Yes. Husband. Yes. Coppers. That's right.

Wayne. And then coppers back to Wayne. 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 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 the other thing here. Just give me a couple of days at it. Come on. Chief, I need this. I can do this. There's gold in these hills. I've got to just got to 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. At the moment, I've sniffed a big rock and it's caught my nostril and I can't, now I can't breathe. I'm sound of panic, actually. I'm going to need a couple of days. days and maybe an ambulance. So what are the kidnappers?

Well, according to awe, they drove their captives through Elfingstone or Elfingston, or Arrampin, or I was born, Lancefield. Is this why this is about? Oh, no, when I saw that, I was like, whoa. Yeah, like I get with Australia references, you get with Kyneton references. Well, I was just like, you just, I didn't realize how close. I'd never heard of Faraday, and I grew up near quite close there, like it was 25. five 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. I'm like a couple of teachers around. I think would have been a very similar age to my dad. And, you know, similar area. I'm like, did you guys know anything about this?

They didn't get back to me immediately, but that's all right. Still on red. Really? They haven't. When did you text them? Because I was just talking to them this morning. I mean, I'd text them quite late, quite late at night to be I. So, you know, they probably, they would have gone to bed early, probably sleeping in.

Yeah, now my group chat with them is going off today. Yeah, so weird. They haven't texted you back from last night at 2.15 in the afternoon. Ah, they probably had an early one. An early one and a late sleeping. So they slept in and then they've gone back to bed already. Yeah, yeah, I think so. But in the meantime, they've messaged Jess and I in our group chat.

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, do they remember the Faraday story? If you could, yeah. Oh, they've responded. A lot of emojis here. Very positive. Very positive.

But in brackets, don't say anything to Matt. Don't read this bit out. Oh, oh, God. So, yeah, 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 you had on her, which added up to about nine bucks. So it's still a long way from that million. She was bloody flush that day, wasn't she?

Nine whole dollars. 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. But a bit rough though. You've already kidnapped her. Now you're robbing her. Yeah. Come on. Insult, insult to injury.

Leave the $9. And driver's license. They have such a pain in the ass to replace. And she lives in the middle of nowhere. So she's going to have to go to Bend to go to get her life. 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 like, you can forge these guys. And what are you going to do? What are you going to do with it? You're going to use this?

High bitch voice. You think he was 17? Oh. Yeah, I'm going to 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. there one of the men leaves uh they've got a they've got a sedan as well as the van one of them leaves in the sedan he 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 legs for a bit but he he followed them around with a knife saying basically don't do anything silly that's a nice relaxing stretch to the leg 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's saying, you know, that's this certain tree, whatever. She taught them how to make little boats out of the leaves and stuff. So she's just keeping their minds off it. What a legend. She's 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. 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, it's seven people. Yeah. You'd still be... Bit squished. Yeah. If they cracked a winter.

There's any bread rolls or pies or anything left over? I think there was pies and a baymarie. Yeah. Do you know what to be worse? Oh, potato cakes. Love it. You know what it'd be worse? That there isn't any food in there, but it still smells like freshly baked bread.

Oh, you'd be so hungry. Yeah. Oh, I think they sold this at East. It smells so much like cut-crust buns. Oh, my gosh. That would tell, is it? That would be worse. Yeah, that'd be much worse.

Than it having food in it. That would be so much worse. I think that'd be the worst. Don't tell me that happen because I can't handle that. I'm imagining that. Yeah, I'd take. I'd take the reverse, no smell but all the food. I would, yeah, I'd take that.

I mean, it's not ideal. No, no, no, no, no. But I think for me, but imagine if there was no. My favourite 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. Yeah. So that's why I think physical food, even if you can't eat it, seeing it, that's number one. That's the one. Smelling it, number two, then tasting, eating it tastes from number three. Yeah, agreed. That'd be the order, wouldn't it, that's your top three?

That'd be my top. Sensors with food? Is that what I'm doing? Top three ways to enjoy bread. So you drift off for half a second and none of this makes sense. I know. That's true for people who are concentrating the whole time. 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 started it. started it and by the end of it was like, what the hell are you talking? You have taken things too far, my friend. So they're locked in,

told that Wade 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, though, to tell you a bit more about this

after these quick messages. Unless you're on the Patreon with AdFrey, then we'll just be straight back. Okay. So the state education minister for Victoria, Lindsay Thompson, who was mentioned by a name in the ransom note, 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?

I don't think so. I think it's a very versatile name. It is. You don't hear it enough anymore. I know. I had a childhood family friend, Lindsay. You got Lindsay the Dr. McDougal from Friends of the Rom guitarist. And Triple J.

Triple J alum. An absolute icon. The doctor. The doctor. Anyway, that's just double-checking. Had a feeling it would be a male because it's a politician in the 70s. Even this up a bit. Lindsay Davenport.

Oh, yeah. Tennis Champion. She was one of my favorites as a kid. Or as an adult or whatever. I was already an adult when she played tennis. You were a kid at heart. Kid at heart, that's right. Thank you.

K-Fabe is tricky. You were a kid at heart, probably up until like mid-90s, I'd say. Okay. A bit to late. Late 90s? Well, what do you count as a kid? Oh, you know.

Remember in the 90s, became bitter and old very quickly. Yeah, very suddenly. Yeah, yeah. Well, actually in the 2000, but it's all right. The Wild Bill's days. Anyway, so education minister, Lindsay Thompson, a man,

comes into the police HQ following along things. See, like 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. How is good. Gibbs and the kids. The latest record from Gibbs and the Kids. Sort of like King Gizzen and the Lizard

it has that same sort of fun, 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 there a first name? It rhymes with Gibbs. Hibs. Hibs, Gibbs, Gibbs and the, Colin Dibs on the, no, you don't want to call it.

Hibs, yeah, yeah, that name, we all love that. We'll know that name. Libby. Libby Gibbs. Libby Gibbs. 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 really quick. Yeah. What are we doing here? David.

That's your new thing. Is we going, wait, what are we doing here? What's happening now? We're having an abandoning. 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.

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. But Hamel's named after him. There you go. Is it? Very big venue of Melbourne. Yeah. His name, funnily enough,

isn't even Dick. If he says Richard, I'll lean over the table and just smack him. Yeah, it's crazy. His name's actually Richard Hamer. I don't know where he came from.

No, his real name is Rupert Hamer. So I don't know how they got to Dick. 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 been. Both of you, Brendan Fraser, Andy Matthews. 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. 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. Yeah. Yeah.

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. But he declined to reveal what arrangements had been made to have the ransom available. I'll go to the same. I'll go out there myself.

If there's any point. If there's any point, I'll do it. I mean, if it's pointless, I wouldn't buy it. 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 regular as that. Dad was like, he was a pretty good premiere.

You don't hear that much of people talking about. Oh, Dick Hamer. But, yeah. And he sounded like he was like, you know, it was through gritted teeter. He's like, he was actually a pretty good premiere. Yeah. So he was a Victorian premiere? Yeah, yeah.

Your dad doesn't like giving out compliments to premier. No, that's right. I praise. Exactly. He's okay. He said it's a bit of a visionary, actually. Wow. Imagine if we had some sort of space named after Dan Andrews.

Andrews Hall or something. Andrews Hall, yeah. That could be good. His little vanity project was the train station. That was him, wasn't it? Or was that before him? I don't know. It feels like it's been going for four million years.

Changing Spencer Street Station in the Southern Cross. Was that him? Oh, that's got to be old. That's old of that. That was while I was in high school. But he probably claimed it. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, so Thomas is at the Russell Street Police headquarters at 7pm because the note said the call would come in for him there at 725.

So he's early. He's like, I'll answer the phone if there's any point. Yeah. I mean, he's like, I'll take calls in the meanwhile. Yeah. 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? Ain't got any questions about it? Somebody's been stabbed. Oh. 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. So, bye. So, 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 at about 8 p.m. 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 that is rude you've made an appointment you've made a commitment and you have to uphold that commitment. That's right. Or people won't want to hang out with you again. 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 cash is his bond. Yeah, that's right.

Also, his bearer bonds. 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 an action movie is ransoms. They're always like pay them in. non-denominational bearer bonds.

I've never heard that. You watch a lot more action movies than me. I watch a lot of rom-coms. They're not talking about bonds and... You're not in rom-coms. I am thinking of James Bond, I've just realized. Oh. Jess used to work at Bonds and hasn't heard of it, so...

Yeah, that's crazy. Well, that's jockey briefs. Well, that's jockey. That's a different brand. Yeah. 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? Bond's briefs? I am. Is he your von Gris? 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 even if there are some sort of a camouflage or a darker color, no white, no tidy white. Who's wearing white undies? Come on. Confident people. Feren't people.

Bearer bonds were what they were stealing in, die-hard one. Okay. A movie that Jess and I haven't seen. It's a movie. I can be your white knight. Man, I love that whole thing. Do 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 so great.

This character's so good. I can't believe he's based on a real person. But 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 out of you.

Don't have a, booby? Come on. Come on, have a drink, movie, okay? The real life person, that, please tell me that was Sydney Scheinberg. Imagine. I know, he was like, he had a bit of the Seanbergs about him. He was a real character. And he was, what movie was he said he's making?

He was making the godfather. The godfather. And did Marlon Brando base his godfather on that man? Because that's all I was the year. Me too. Well, I wasn't doing a good one then because he doesn't sell it all. That is not at all when he said. Very good Brando.

All you're going to do is do the producer of the Godfather, and you sound like you are being the Godfather. There was a guy in it as Brando as well. And they did not sound, well, is my like. No. That's incredible.

That's spot on. So who is that? Hey, booby. Wow. I mean, my American accent, though. Spot on. That's the good thing about trying to do a specific thing is,

I forget that I'm trying to 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. That sounds 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 some in a week. You're losing your fucking mind. It's got coffee and orange juice and water.

You're going to need to piss so bad. Not only that. Gentleman doesn't do that, though. So what are we talking about? Who knows? It's a harrowing situation. Basically, the orders hanging out waiting for a phone call that has not come. That's right.

Yeah. And it goes into. of the night around 3 a.m. Come on, give up. By this point, the premiere's long gone. Of course. So as Thompson,

he got to bed around three. 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. 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 has taken 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 out of the Academy.

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 this phone.

I left off the hook for eight hours last night. 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! Oh, my God. You call, hey, guys, they're calling.

So, so Mick Miller takes a call. He gets the message, drop the money off on the steps of the Woodend Post Office at 5am and no funny business. In two hours. Yeah, he tells. Well, yeah, maybe we could have done that, mate, but the banks are bloody closed, champ, because it's 3 a.m. And you wanted it in 2 hours. Hey, come on. You're supposed to call at 7.25 p.m., very specific time.

Now you call me at 3 a.m. and you're giving me 2 hours. to get this sorted? How fucking day? And how long is it going to take the bloody get to Wooden? That's an hour drive easy. Let me tell you, there's no second date happening with this guy. Oh, he's blown it. Absolutely blown it.

Aw. I thought we had a connection. That was already one of the red flags, to be honest. No funny business. But say, be there in two hours. They also said they wanted education minister, Lindsay Thompson, to do the drop off alone. In two hours.

Lindsay's in bed, mate. Lindsay's asleep. 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 Woodend with cash in two hours. 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 moves, 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 ministers to be standing there so they can go up and say, Hello, Lindsay, nice to meet you. I did all this because I just wanted to meet you. Yeah. Sorry, here's the hostages. They've been having a great time. I've been letting them smell bread.

It's 71 kilometres 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 going to get? a million dollars and get in his car and drive. This is unreasonable.

It's ridiculous. He'll have to rob several 7-Elevens on the way. There's a 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 this show,

and 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. 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 are it? Will it do any good?

What's the fault? 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. Is there any reason for this? If you think it'll, I guess if you think it'll do any good. Jeez.

Whitaker 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. Later?

He's for him. He survives beyond this day. And do the Tigers win that day? I'll tell you later. Oh, okay, great. I like that's actual sizzle. 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. It's never been specified if it was actually cash or it was just a fake. Whoa. But it had something for a drop. Wow. Yeah.

And at all, like you say, how do you get that million bucks? If he's been driven by cops, he's not alone, is he? 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. It was chilly. He could have sat in the front for 95% and then when they're 10 minutes out of town, he puts the blanket on. He's in the boot the whole way. People are scouting out the hole of the colder.

You know, you could. can never be too careful. But anyway, so 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. Remember to duck, because I'll already have them lined up. Yeah. Okay.

Why is that blanket pointing a gun at me? It would be so confusing. What a way to go? I got killed my blanket. That would be embarrassing. I'd be so embarrassed if I got killed by a blanket. Blankets have always been friend, not foe. Yeah.

Oh, blanket. Why? So they got there quick. Like, it all happened really quickly. They got there and again played the waiting game. Oh my gosh. They raced all the way up there. Got to 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 absolutely smoke to you guys. Yeah, you're kind of 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.

I was so confident. I was like, this hippo is hungry. Apparently it was, you know, peckish at best. Had a big lunch. I'll just graze for dinner if that's all right. So they're sitting there at the front of the post office in Woodrow. 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. Thompson called out and he later said in the meanest voice he could put on. Oh! What the hell do you think you're doing walking down the main street of Woodhand at 5am? That was me trying to do a mean voice.

That's the mean's voice. Is that one of the meanest voice? I didn't like that at all. I felt uncomfortable. It was so mean. Yeah. So he was like, he was obviously shitting himself. He's like, I'll sound tough.

I'm a big tough guy. We've all done it. Which is funny because he had two guys with guns backing him up. Yeah, you don't have to pretend. You don't have to be tough. But, um, so he got close to the cops took it, 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 ain't even much more normal. Sorry about that. Sorry about. What are you doing? 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 glad. 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. Just waiting for a mate. I love that we've got heritage. Yeah. 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. At 5 a.m. What's a normal thing to do at 5 a.m? You're driving up and back. It's pretty suss. We're waiting here for some criminals.

No, that's not me. It's waiting for a mate. I'd say I was buying drugs. Oh, yeah. Good one. 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. I can do anything Right now, I'm tickling your toes

In my mind Can't get me for that Can I go for that? Because it's up here Yeah Anyway, it's all Feels like it's not going anywhere They're waiting Again they're waiting and waiting

These kidnappers Are just impolite It won't wait so long Because then the post office Will actually have to open Yeah There'll be people everywhere Yeah

Everywhere Because the post office to be the busiest thing in town. Yeah, wood end, it's going to go off. Yeah, people lining up from 6am to be first. Yeah, let's try the first one to get a stamp. That's right. I need to stamp urgently.

I've got my tongue ready to lick it. That's efficient. If you got your tongue out already in the line, they can just, they just... Want that please? With what will my tongue? The post. It still comes at a set time, ma'am.

It doesn't matter when you lick it. It's still not being picked up. up till five. Stop following me down. Oh, great. 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 action is starting to pick up. Oh, no. With the kidnappers dragging their feet, Mary Gibbs was growing impatient as all rights. 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.

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 a way out, whatnot, but eventually just started kicking it with her, she was wearing these chunky shoes likely, 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.

I'm going to use my laser in my shoe right now. Oh, no, she didn't use laser. She just bashed. Yeah, yeah. But she had this back. I got a laser, 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.

No way. That is awesome. Yeah, it's so good. And they, and just big enough, but she was quite small. She was about five foot. and she was able to get through and then the kids followed her 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, 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. Yes. 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 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 flag 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 roads.

Yeah. Because they're afraid of 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, you know, just knackered, scared. Yeah. Two hours later, they hear gunshots ringing out.

Oh my gosh. So they duck and hide behind bushes until they see a car and a couple of women get out of 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 guys. 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 took them back to safety.

So they made it. Oh, that's so. No one was obviously traumatic, but physically they were okay. But that moment when you hear a gunshot, you'd be so scared. Jesus. They've caught up with us. You'd be so heightened the whole time because 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. 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 or, but yeah, you'd hear guns and be like, that's for us. Yeah.

What are the odds? Of course, yeah, so scary. But I'm so glad. And who wants to take the chance either? Yeah. Gibbs later told the son, 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. So it's basically like, they all wanted a piss. Yeah. And I'm like, I don't want to be in here with the piss. I don't want to be in a piss fan.

It's going to ruin the bakery. I have an idea. The bakery smell. Let's save the day. Let's piss outside and then we'll get back at the vein. Wait, hang on a second. While we're out. Pissing, we may as well.

Describing the escape later, Gibbs 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, 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 Beattie wrote an article for the age about Mary a couple of days later.

I'll read the majority of 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's school said soon after Saturday's rescue. 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 as a killer player. He might have been playing for Melbourne by this stage. He was reported and. miss 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, yeah, got to be in the, on the final day. 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 grand. Exactly.

You can't win it without making it there. 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 in the ring? I think everyone in the stadium gets a ring. You get a ring. They love kids. They love giving that ring.

dollars to be there. You should get a ring. You get a ring and they're like gold 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. Do you think? I like it. Yeah. That's fine. In gold we crust. It sounds classy but also makes me hungry. Yeah. Perfect. And it makes you think as well. You're like, what does that mean? But I also kind of think, like, I'd shop there because I'm like, they seem quirky. Yeah. And I like that. Yeah. Quirky bread. I like that in the business. 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. 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, yeah. Fuck off. Fuck off then. If you call these green rocks, maybe. Yeah. That's shit house. Learn to bake. Hey, step one, bake a good bread.

Yeah. Step two, market yourself quickly. That's right. But subtle. Yeah. These ones who jump in two feet first marketing. Bo, quirky. Shut up.

Let's get the bread ride first, guys. It's been a very bread heavy episode. Bread heavy, yep. Bread heavy, yep. Gibbing the kids. No. No. It's worth a try, but no bad ideas, but it wasn't good.

You don't know it until you say it's right. And I knew it. Anyway, back to this article by Max Beattie. Carl Ditchrich could have, should have been the only one to do it okay yeah mary hardly 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 in a faraday school miss gibbs only 20 and in her first year out of bendigo's teachers training college thought at first it might have been two friends of my boyfriend playing a joke she said not a funny joke

it's isn't that funny get a new boyfriend if that's what his friends think are funny if that's your go-to thought too about your boyfriend. Oh, here we go. This is probably a prank. God, he's fun with all these awful pranks. Does Barry put you up to this? Yeah. He did, bloody Barry.

Oh, Baz. So within a few minutes, she knew the intruders were serious. An ordeal. Like they said, I don't know who Barry is. Yeah. That's what I knew. Everyone knows Barry. Must be from around the town.

And the ordeal was to last more than 16 hours. That was the worst time, Mary Gibbs said. The time when I realized they weren't joking. Not the sixth in out. The worst part was the ordeal. Yeah. Before and after, that was quite alright. Honestly, 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 the music on the tapes might be handy to help keep the six little girls from panicking. Just a real quick thinker. Well, they're all girls too, aren't they? Yeah, yeah, yeah. The two boys were sick.

That's right. Where are the boys? Oh, sick today. Classic boys. Classic boys. Always sick. I was sick. You know what they're like.

I can relate to that. So I had the tape recorder just to like play. Yeah, she just said, I guess, nursery rhymes and probably Peter Coombe, 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. No, Wiggles is toot, to chugger, chugger, big red van. Get in the van.

Fly on the floor, do as we say. She's like, well, I might skip that one. He'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 kidnappers' panel van. That's so cute, isn't it? She's so sweet. Late in the day, Mary Gibbs showed her cool again.

The gunmen allowed their seven hostages out of the van 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 had the children to look after she kept the little girl's spirits up so well that one of them christine ellery was to say later i wasn't ever really scared which you know says a bit others um the cambra times report on the girls experiences in the following days and some of them did say that obviously they were a bit scared uh robin howeth who was ten uh said there may have been

a tear or two shed by some of the girls, 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 mummy and daddy again. Oh, brutal. 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 going to get. Mr. Rex Howeth, 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. 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? So after just over 100 years of being a school, it was closed and was sold as a house. which is what it's been ever since. It's changed hands a few times. Wow.

And in fact, isn't this wild? Because it doesn't really matter, but I was going to do it like an anthology 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. Oh. 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 was 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. It's so funny to frame this as a... Yeah, 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 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 bushfield 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, it's a pretty good market. That's huge. And then, though, obviously, it was on sale again. And amazingly, it sold just three days ago. Wow. Isn't that just a funny thing? How much? 770.

Far out. This is like, it's a, it's a place in the middle of nowhere. I did end up speaking to dad and he's like, that's a surprising amount. It is very isolated. That's a lot. As it turned out, dad was familiar with the story. Yeah, no, he told us already. Oh, sorry.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he said he put a bit in, but he was that bit. I was actually going to buy it for me, which is nice. I asked him if it had much of an effect on, 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. Speaking of cash, 770 cool hard ones. That's a lot. Time to 1,000. 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 had a million bucks on him.

In the cash. Just that morning, you know. And he laid equipped, I've only been a millionaire once in my life and all the shops were closed. Saturdays used to be not have shopping. I don't like that. I don't love it. It's quoted in so many articles.

That's all right. 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. 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 at the time and there hasn't been any kind of resolution yet, you'd be like, what the fuck, dude? He's just high-fiving people.

I was a millionaire this morning. Anyway, kids are still missing, but footy! But how good is footy? Foothy, footy, footy, yeah. You know, he just looks like a cartoon of a politician sort of. I mean, the politician, Eric Abetz, still looks almost exactly what I can show. I think the scale was maybe, you know, not quite an Eric Abetz level evil. Not quite.

Not quite. Allegedly. On the scale of one to Eric. Eric being the worst you could ever be. Alleged. That'd be a great drag name, Erica Betts. Yeah. And I reckon he'd love that.

So anyway, yeah, a bit of fun. All the shops are close. That's fun. What a time. It's like, what is that? 50 years ago and Saturdays you couldn't go shopping. It's wild. Really wild.

Anyway, so we went to the Granny and like I said, Carlton played Richmond. And Carlton beat Richmond. Richmond. So we had a bad day. Oh, no. I was just thinking... Things had off so well for a million bucks, but all of a sudden the shops are closed and now his team loses the granny. I was just hoping he had a nap in between. But also, like, how long did they sit there waiting? Yeah, I think for a while. I guess once they took that guy and 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 again. So Carlton beat Richmond, How are these numbers?

They won 177 to 150. Wow. Huge. 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. Where they ever found.

Well, like I say, they never turned up to pick up the ransom money. In fact, remember the 4 a.m call requesting the money be left at the Woodend Post Office, the whole reason they were there. Well, according to the Canber Times, 10 minutes before. the money was due to be left there, 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 as children were involved, he did not want anything to do with it. She's very confusing. The earlier call... So the guy called up to say, drop the money off the 5. Drop the money at 5. He called back 10 to 5 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 assume, or they assume. Who's waiting for a mate? Yeah, maybe. We're going to go for a jog? Yeah. Early morning, oh, is it illegal going to go for a jog now?

Well, I'm wearing jeans, but that's how I like to jog. Oh, it's illegal to jogging jeans now, is it? I'm sorry, I'm confused, officer. What is, 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, it seems to me like they've gone, oh shit, maybe that guy sees the cops, sees there's more than one person there, goes back to the pay phone and goes, actually, I mean, actually, I was just, I'm 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. 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. Yeah. And the police later found it there. The cop who found it was Senior Constable 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.

Everything's gone pear shape. Let's flee. We've got to 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 them out or something.

But that's probably just me, not a criminal, thinking that. Yeah, it's just hard to know. Yeah. Because, like, I think plenty of these kidnappings that people think, 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. 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, more than 400 police, most of them armed, was 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 had panicked when they realized 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, yeah. 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. Yeah, we might be our gunned here. They see me running along behind the tank going, give me a go. Come on. That long looks fun. Give me a go. Submarines are silly, but tanks are fun.

Fun. Silly too, but... Oh, they are silly, but a bit of fun. Yeah. They make more sense. Then, oh, let's go under water. Gloop, glop, glop. So stupid.

What are you doing down there? Cut it out. Get a boat. 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. Or does he mean that submarine that's like halfway to Sydney? What town is that? I forget every time. Oh, yeah. The, um, Holbrook. Holbrook. Thank you.

We got it. 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. Yeah, it is. 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. It just sounds like they're 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 and that they'd said they'd been living in it. So sorry about the smell of the car. We're laughing. 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 vent for that? And they 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 the back end, which is where the door is. So that's how we're getting in and out. We've got to pass the piss and shit corner. Not gentlemen, those two, I'll tell you that for nothing. After working with police, Gibbs also helped put together Identicate pictures of the two men. Here they are.

It's so funny that they were put together by the same. They look like two different artists put these pictures. Very different artists, yeah, yep. Right, there's the floppy hat. Yeah, and the glasses. But what a jaw line. Yeah, that other man, my gutty's all jaw. 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. It says police identicate sketches of the suspects. The first is described as in his mid-20s, 5'7

inches tall, blue eyes, slightly hawkish nose. David. Hang on. Pimply face. Okay. You've got beautiful clear skin. Also stocky build. Okay.

All right. And you're out. It was just long darky. It was just blue eyes. I was going to say because I'm not in my mid-20s. It's blue-old. You could pass from mid-20s easily. And not in 172.

Yeah, I think you could have. You got blue eyes and you're 5-7. So the second is about... Actually, that's right. This is my exact time. Well, this is close your age, Dave. We're the same person. The second is about 30 years old,

5 foot 9, average to medium build, with brown shoulder-length hair and long red, bushy sideburns. Oh my gosh. That's closer to me. Shit. That's much closer to you. Ah, shit. Where were you two in 1972? A 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. Oh, blanket. I like they called him.

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. 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. Oh, my God. You have access to Brunswick? Yeah. Oh, my God.

It was bought for $285. Dave has access to $2.85. Oh, my God. Dave, could I borrow $285? Well, you could have yesterday. I was bought a van. David. 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. gave them as Matt Stewart When they found the dealership They were like Yes we got him What's his name and address

Smigel smoggle From smugger They're not even real numbers Schmittemann What are you saying What's your postcode Shmezmaner Okay

Just write that down And does it here's the keys Good luck All the best It would have been I mean It's so hard to be a criminal these days So many forms of ID

And video Yeah CCTV everywhere Everything, but back then, they're like, what's your name? I guess 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?

Yeah, there's stuff everywhere. How? Come on. Every shop has CCTV. What are you talking about? Can I only assume incompetence. Yeah. Yes.

Or inside job. Oh, yeah. I never think of that. All cops are criminals. A-cac. Is that, what's accurate? Allegedly. Nice.

Good save. Look forward to asking AJ to edit that out. I'm afraid of... Are you doing that right now? Oh, AJ, I've got a direct line to you. Edit that out, unless it's funny. So, yeah, they've got this... They've got the guy.

Well, 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 it actually been on the run for the last five months. Oh, wow. And a long list of crimes. and it didn't take long because only a couple days later they had their men. Friends, Robert Clyde Boland, 32, Plaster of Queen Street Bendigo.

This is it published in the newspaper. I love it. Yeah. In the olden days, they just go. They doxom. The doxom like straight up. Yeah. And Edwin John Eastwood, 21, plaster of Natal Avenue, Edithvale, Melbourne.

Oh. So, yeah, way down the other. Live quite far apart. sort of town. But brought together in the Brotherhood of Plastery. Yes. Of course. All plasters know each other. Yeah. After initially pleading not guilty, Eastwood changed his pleaded guilty and was convicted by the jury, later being sentenced to 15 years in jail. The Crown said Miss Gibbs identified Eastwood and Boland in an identification parade. 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 was able to come up with a fake name, not Eastwood. Okay. Wasn't in his skill set. Despite changing his evidence that it incriminated Boland and instead saying Boland was not the man 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 than early in the first. So Boland had three trials.

The first two, the juries couldn't reach a verdict. So I went to a third one. The first one, he said Boland was the guy. And then he changed the story. He said, no, he wasn't the guy at all. Despite that, Bolin was found guilty as well in the third trial and sentenced to 17 years in jail. Wow. 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 it, would end. He said that... Oh, whoa. 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 a man as Bob Weston. But the police, and as well as Mary Gibbs, maintain that the right men were jailed. What? 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 he incriminated him early in the investigation. He 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? Boland eventually... No, Eastwood did and Boland... So let me ask that again. I'm confusing. So Eastwood's the one that said, okay, I pleaded guilty.

me. Yes. And he incriminated Boland. Yeah. And then later said, oh, 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. And he also said that the police pressured him into incriminating Boland early. Okay. He said that they, they said to him, if you don't sign this, we're going to bring you a girlfriend in. And he's like, oh, all right. And supposedly he says, I said, yeah, okay, 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.

That's what he said years later. He's like, I did it. 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 going to think he's guilty. Yeah. Yeah, that does, there's nothing legally binding in that. No.

And I'm just signing it because, you know, there was a spot for it. And it said sign here, so I did. But I was under pressure. That's interesting. Mm, 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. Yeah. You know, as much as a big potato-looking thing to resemble a human.

Gibbs was awarded the George Medal in 1973, which was, quote, instituted in 1940 by King George the Sixth 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 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, etc, etc. They didn't reply till this morning, and mum replied, you know Mary Gibbs is your dad's cousin? No. Get out. Like, wow. You didn't know that?

First cousin. Well, I didn't know. I just, yeah, I had no idea. 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 they're dad and her about the same age. Dad's dad's sister is her mom.

So she's a, you know, she's a Stuart without name. Wow. And then it all made sense of like the Stuart women are just like it just makes, it just sounds like such a Stuart woman thing to do to kick the door down and just to be sort of a badass in that moment. Wow. Or also like big, confident sort of personalities just get it done. I'm like, that makes so much sense.

That's awesome. I can totally picture one of my sisters kicking the door. Yeah. You know, not to diminish what she did. No, I know that. She actually had to do it. But I'm like, oh, 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 cousins offered do, sort of drifted apart as they've gotten 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 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. There were morning and afternoon newspapers. Yeah.

Not like live blogs. Yeah. Updating every five minutes. Tweets going. And 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, I didn't read this anywhere, but he said that he's, he's pretty sure that the courage she showed and using her legs like that led to like long-term leg injuries, sadly.

Oh, wow. Pretty shit, but yeah. She's got a different name now. She got married and, yeah. 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 jeans?

Uh-huh. It's obviously dilated a little bit. Diluted. Diluted. My eyes have dilated. 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 fan? I want to be born by this van and get out. I want to be birthed. Oh, that were dilation. I was thinking like dilated pupils. Yeah, people's dilate, but so does a vagina. I'd birth. Okay.

Well, you know. Or cervix. more specifically. We're all learning here today. A vagina. My vagina's door lighting. Get the, could you get the nursing?

My vagina's doll 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. Because, yeah, I think if I knew the story and looked it up,

that's cool, but it was wild to be so involved in the story being like, what a badass is that man be like. And be like, oh, that's it. And I looked it up. What's my dad's cousin? It's because this always confuses the shit out of it. It was my first cousin once removed. 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 if we were like, what an idiot.

What a piece of shit. And you're like, anyway, don't never 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, yeah, it was funny that I, yeah, I don't know why I thought to ask. I guess it was, it was, it was the kind, like, there was close to where they had taught. Yep. And also just their family's full of teachers, both dad's parents are teachers. He's got siblings who are teachers. It's so funny, he's got cousins that are teachers. They're just, a big teacher, big teacher

energy in that family. Yeah. Not me. I can do, so I don't need to teach. What I can do, well, I don't. need to answer that. 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 Gibbon. She's here. Oh, my God. Send her in, please. Oh, I was going to say that for later. Oh, okay. No, no. Off pod.

Yeah. That's just for us. I was kind of, I was wishing that I'd ask. I mean, I don't know if she still want to talk about and stuff. It does sound like a lot of the people involved. Some of the kids, there are quotes 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, they've had a long time to process stuff, forget stuff, repress stuff. Yes. And yeah. There was one of the, I think it was the journalist, Wayne Grant. What's it Wayne Grant?

He said that back in those days it wasn't really counseling and stuff. No. If you didn't have strong family and friends, then you were. were pretty stuffed, but apparently all these kids, that was like a tight community. Yeah, good. But still, you wonder how much it would be like, well, let's just not talk about it. Yeah, that's definitely the attitude of the time. Sorry, I don't mind pushing it down a 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, let's just, we'll close down the school. We'll not look at that school anymore. It's gone. There you go. There you go.

It never happens. Fixed it. 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'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. 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 was,

wasn't found, then all of a sudden he popped up, or someone popped up, let you see, let you be the judge, when on the 15th of February, 1997, another teacher and their students were kidnapped. What? Again, the teacher was young. Rob Hunter was only 20 years old. This is why I know the story. Because you're your friends with Rob Hunter?

Yeah, he's my cousin. No, no, no. Yeah, yep. No, keep going. But this is, this is, we, this was, this came up in like a family conversation 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, Rob. Like Gibbs, he was the sole teacher at a tiny school. This time in the Gippsland town of Wurene and the school there had only nine students. So it was similar in a lot of ways. Did he get a new student each day he's been teaching? Yes.

They eased him in, one student in a day. It's one-on-one, it's 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. John Sylvester is like the crime, the age, one of the big, he wrote a lot of books about Melbourne underworld and stuff. But anyway, writing for 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. Yeah. Then he saw him, the man in a balaclava. Not a floppy hat. Pointing a handgun straight at the teacher's chest saying, don't try anything fucking smarter, I'll shoot you. Okay, swearing in front of the children, great.

Mate, the rabbits are outside. I don't want you doing anything. 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 all confused. It's just something fun for the kids. And you know what kids are like?

Little parrots. So now they're all going to be going, fuck, fuck, fuck. You know what I mean? Don't swear in front of the kids, please. I'll cooperate, but let's watch the language. Don't. And don't swear in front of the parrots either, because they're also like parrots. Fack, quack, you know, all day, I've got to hear it.

Sylvester continues, the man with the revolver was wearing a Collingwood beanie as a balaclava. Very offensive. Well, it's your people, Jess, isn't it? This says a lot, doesn't it? Cullen supporters. And this man was, of course, Jolong Prison Escapee, Edward John Eastwood, who was now 26. Can I ask with the beanie he had he cut eye holes, or was it just a big? Beanie of his face.

It was an old beanie so it was quite thin. He could see through it. You over there? Where are you? Right. Sorry, I generally thought I was aiming at a rabbit. Yeah. I thought, geez, this rabbit's big.

Lucky days. His nickname was Ted as well, I should say. Oh, Edwin. Ted. Yeah, how to get there? I would have called him dick. Hoping it was a simple robbery, Hunter volunteered. I can write a check.

How much would you like? Another badass teacher here, just taking it all in 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 you're saying. Well, it's a noble profession, thanks. 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. I will go to Daddy. I'll go to Daddy. I'll have to go to Daddy. I'll have to go to Daddy.

Daddy anyway. I was having a hard day today. I said, Daddy. Daddy, I had a bad day, Daddy. Daddy, I 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. That'll be all, Daddy.

Stand down, Daddy. What a character James Murdoch is. Back to a Sylvester. Jess, there's a word in here I can't say. Yep. Can I get you to sub in? Yep. Hunter did his best to protect his students from the spectacular leery.

Oh, that sounds, that's pretty much right. Yeah, this spectacularly inept, but equally erratic Eastwood. That was the cousins too. Equally erratic eastwood. I mean, this is, 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 the pros. He knew Shakespeare. Yeah. Did he? I didn't realize that. So, yeah, the.

inept but equally erratic Eastwood, who seemed more interested in headlines than getting away with his idiotic crime. Eastwood was nervous, distracted, and sweating profusely. I should 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 Boland was the other guy and the first crime was the one who gave a fake name? What's your name? Edwin Eastwood Oh

Dude you're a gunman Do you have to respond to the grade five at all? Yes I know whatever Bean head Like it doesn't matter Call me sir Then all the kids are going

Beanhead Beanhead Bein Shut up Shut up Oh stop it Oh Hang you kids

Eastwood always crave the spotlight Even if it was held By armed police Sylvesterites 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, Alambi,

crossed out and replaced with Wurene. I'm saying Alambi 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. That's clever. It stopped at 11.10 a.m. So clever. I wouldn't think to do that.

No. If I was the cop walking and I wouldn't immediately go, the clock stopped. He needs to paro to be on the case. I feel like that sign who's tripped over the power cord and later said, nah, did it on purpose. Yeah, yeah, back dating. I was actually really smart. I 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 is actually stopped. What does stop? Really, guys?

But also, you're like, I mean, could that be a red herring placed there by the... Yeah. 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 Misty. deeds and mysteries. Eastwood 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 when they were, in the first four years earlier or whatever, 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 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 just signed by their teacher. Signed by Ted. Oh, just scribbled it out. But it 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, 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? That would raise alarm for me. This is weird. As a parent.

Henley continues, When the children failed to return after a couple of hours past, 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. Your mind doesn't go straight to probably been 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 Mervu North, Eastwood posted a letter to a newspaper editor demanding a ransom. And Sylvester breaks it down. What did the kidnapper want? His ransom is very silly.

As 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, 100 kilos of cocaine, 100 kilos of heroin, and a late model car with a full tank of petrol. And Sylvester jokes, with 7 million bucks,

he couldn't buy his own juice. A hundred kilos of heroin and coke. 200 kilos of drugs. Yeah. And... What the f? That's a lot. 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 price is right? Yeah. You want a car. A hundred 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, it's like, I don't think any of these things. None of that's going to happen.

These are all very unlikely, but pick one. Yeah. And even then. And make sure it's the car. Was he thinking? I was going to say heroin. Maybe you're thinking of, you know, he's like, I need to come in with a strong position to bargain. I'll say, 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 with the thing he desperately needs, then he's fucked if they negotiate with him. We'll give you half a car. Oh, I need a whole car. Unfortunately for Eastwood, his driving was just a, bad as his kidnapping skills. Oh no, mate. This next bit is quite farsical, 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. I mentioned that before. Yeah. So he's crammed them all into the truck, truck, when he stacks into 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. 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, one teacher and four truckers. Okay, that's it. Partridge and a petri?

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 troopers. That is so, as soon as it's going to be like half of Victoria. Fine, get in the van. Get in the fucking van. The cops come to arrest him. All right. You're in the van.

Wait, why are we doing what you're telling us, too? 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 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. There's no more delicious chocolate than stolen chocolate. Is any luck he shared it with his captives? I think so, yeah. Hey, he's all right. Is that not? Okay, come on, come on. Let's come sit around the campfire.

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. I'm that guy. Yeah, I'm that guy.

He would have seen me in the papers. The one, I've just broken out of jail. Eastwood. Apparently, they'll listen to the radio and the kidnapping was reported and he was super chuffed. Guys, go, guys. In front of everyone. Come on the house. Oh, shut up back there.

They're talking about us. That's me. He's like, yeah, totally. he said in all the bragging 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 him on side yeah hey but remember the chocolate wasn't that nice uh sylvester continues in the darkness truck driver robin smith slipped his chains and crept out of the campsite. He then jogged more than 10Ks to a farmhouse to raise the alarm. By 6.45am, 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. Almost immediately, police run his tail. Eastwood, holding his revolver in hand, put his hand and arm out the window while he was driving and took some shots at the police cars chasing behind him. So he's... All right. Poo! Pew, pew, pew. Trying his best. Police fired at the top. but one bullet ricocheted through the cabin. And eventually Eastwood was shot in the leg and arrested. On Monday, November the 7th, 977, 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. Oh, my God. He was sentenced to 21 years with a minimum of 18 and was released. That doesn't seem like a mouth. No, I know, it doesn't. Like, just a skate, just fleeing prison.

Prison is a lot. And 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, because that was already quite long. He still had like 10 years of that to go, which you think would be increased because of the breakout. I mean, look, I don't understand. Yeah, I don't understand the law.

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 way. 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 yeah, it's hard to know how much you can believe this guy, to be honest. 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 Day. 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 10 times during the incident. Oh, wow. What?

Pretty good evidence that it's self-defense when you're like, you're strangling a rapist, but you're getting stabbed at the same time. Oh, my God. What the fuck? When did Pentridge become no longer a prison? 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. 97. Wow. It's now a cinema. You can go get a massage there. And I have. But anyway, we'll finish talking more about Hunter, this second teacher,

who was a badass in his. own right. According to Sylvester, more than 40 years later, the recently retired Hunter has written a riveting account in the self-published book, Day 9 at Wurine, 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 kidnapped teacher talks.com. But he also says, it should be picked up

by any mainstream publisher with half a brain. So it's 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 Kidnap Teacher Talks. That's what I got from it. Okay, good pick up. Wow. 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. Wow.

Of his students, he says that some of them are now grandparents, which is wild to think, and all were affected by the kidnapping. Four did not return to Warren primary afterwards. Which you 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, I know, a bit of fun from the ordeal. 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. Any primary teacher worth his weight uses every opportunity to model and teach the use of correct upper and lower case letters. I would not have written that note in capital letters Well that was 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 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 kid kidnapping But 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 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. Comey van. Get in there.

Get in there. He's flagging down other people. Yeah. Come on. Like, I guess he was just like, they've seen too much. Yeah. People are driving past. not, no one's assuming it.

People got their own stuff going on. Yeah, 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 because, 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 story itself ended up

being a book, a book was based on it in 1980 by Gabrielle Lord. Is that author and meanings? You're Australian writer, Dave. No. Called Fortress, which was turned into a film in 1985 as well. With Rachel Ward playing basically my first cousin. 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 happens. Yeah, it's not long enough. Is it the kind of time where you're like,

I don't want to be reliving it or is it kind of, is it like, I'm being portrayed by like a movie star. I guess it would depend on your personality. I'm pretty sure Eastwood would have been stoked. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yes. By that sounds like, this place's on me.

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. And 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 reason. Yeah, like all dying in awful ways or something. So I was confident we were going to be okay there. But still 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, even that bullet ricochained through the van. I did not know where that was. that nobody was even hurt from that is incredible considering there was a hundred people in the man. It hit the only bit of clear space in there. That's wild. But yeah, 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 message mum and dad. Yeah.

I'm always glad they message, but especially now. When I was in Adelaide, Bob, I was chatting to a guy, and I'm blanking on his name right now, who played in an Irish band at the time was coming up to St Patrick's Day. 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 legendary Irish bands.

Am I right inside? I said I'd ask you that and let him know. but hopefully he's listening now, because I can't remember his name too. 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. No, he's my dad. He's the father of my cousins. Right. I say that because I wouldn't say uncle. Yeah.

Because. But he was like an uncle when you were younger or something. Because didn't you, he came, whenever he was over, didn't you hang out or something? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So he and my auntie were never together. Right. So, but he would come and visit his kids sometimes.

Yeah, great. A few years or whatever. So she went over there on tour in Australia. Yeah. He'd chuck her a text. Yeah, pretty much. Fury's in town. Pretty much.

But yeah, George. On your George. Lovely man. Always fun having him around because somebody would just hand him to her and then there'd just be music in the background. It was great. But yeah, the Furies, 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, traveling 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. 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 that's, you've associated that person with Glenn now. We're recently talking about famous glens. Which Glenn? A musician Glenn?

Like a folk musician Glenn? Glenn Hansard. Glenn Hansard. He's wearing a Glenn Hansard t-shirt. Why can 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. Ah. Was it Glenn? Could have been Glenn. We're in 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 1F.

Oh, interesting. Something like that. Anyway. Okay. Time to move on. So sorry that I can't remember your name. Sorry to you, Jeff with 1F. Well, that brings 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 do go on pod and there's a bunch of things there dave that people get involved in is that correct absolutely you are saying all these things correctly you go to patreon.com slash dogo 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 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 man 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. So you're lots of stuff. Yeah. Do 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, chucking a couple of bucks and you get to support the show in a different way 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-Shaunberg level or above, you get to be in the fact-of-quote question section,

which is this section, which actually has a jingle, go something like this. Fact quote or question. Huh, you always remembers the ding. Huh, she always remembers the thing. And the way this works is people on that level or above get to give me a fact-a-quot or a question, or bribe. A bribe.

We'll take a bribe. Absolutely, we'll take a bribe. I'm in bragg or suggestion. I'm bribable. 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. Matt will get to you in time. Okay. Yeah, we'll call out your name and then you bribe us. There's a process for the bribing. But we're very open to it. Please respect the process.

So I read out four each week and yeah, it could be a bribe. We haven't had one of those yet, but fact, quote, a question, break, suggestion, a joke, all sorts of things, recipes we had in the past. I've had everything. It's great. I don't read them out. I read them out. 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? Fetted it. Fetted it has not been vetted or fetid. No, fetid. About Greek or Danish. And the first one comes from

Susie Darrow, aka senior dog breed identifier. Oh, great skill. That is great skill. Because I'm always one in the park going, what kind of dog's at? Yes. I know, I know, you know, the big ones,

the basic bitch ones, I know. You get what your Labrador is, I know the difference between a lab and a golden retrieval, 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 an Akita? What is that?

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 know what I replay in my head all the time 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 it's not crazy if somebody did get them mixed up. You're right. They do look very similar. Yeah. But I was talking to her dog and said, look at you.

I misinterpreted it completely. I thought a third thing where you'd seen the dog and looked at her and said, looks like you. That is a common thing that the dogs look like their owners. Yeah. Oh, it looks like. Are you familiar with these two dogs? It's one of Boston Terrier ones.

Yeah. They are so similar. So they've made that purpose. show him again. So the difference is that French's ears around and Boston's are pointy. 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. Boston sort of have longer, skinnier little legs. Why are you looking at my dog's run? I'm trying to figure out the breed.

I've just found, I've got another Boston Terry photo here and Jess, your dog is much hotter than that dog. That's an ugly dog. But also, that looks like you. It kind of does. It does not.

Man. Is that a better representation? They're so cute. Still to me look very similar. Yeah, they're very similar looking dogs. I think I might have dog face blindness. No, those, that's, I mean, that's purposely confusing. But anyway, so, okay, we've got Susie.

We have not got far in a Susie. We've got, Susie's on board to. I just, I think about that woman all the time because she was quite rude. And 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, is it a, a West Highland Terrier? I think she said. No, can terrier. There's lots of different terriers from the UK.

Too many terriers. Can terrier and the lady goes, Ah, Norwich Terrier, which is a very, very specific category. Honestly, shut the fuck up. That's so funny. Shut the fuck up. We're not going to fall for that trap anymore

because we've got Sacramento Suze on board, which is what Alexi dubbed her on an episode of Who Knewit. Great. She's from a few great questions on who knew it. I think you're on that episode maybe day. Yes, I remember. Sacramento Sues. Love it.

Anyway, Sacramento Sues. Okay, senior dog breed identifier, has a question. Great. Hi, mates. I have a question for Jess, so I hope this gets read while she's on. Oh, sorry, Sacramento, Suz. 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 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 in cans In like a surf shop

And I'm not gatekeeping on 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 I'm not wearing it now Don't have the tag Otherwise I'd be you better believe I'd be checking that tag Let me have a look

Let me have a look at that Oh Was it now? You know what old people seem to have that They've got that feeling That they've got the right to check the bag I think I'm getting towards the age You're old enough a tag

For tag grabbing. Tag rights? That's a tag grabber. That feels like a curb episode. Yeah, yeah. Wait, what are you a tag grab? What are you a tag grab? You can't tag grab.

I was tag grabbed. I was tag grabbed. You can't believe it. Walking down the strip, I got tag grabbed. I'm too old to be tagged grabbed. This is fun. While I just have a look, you guys are just having a meltdown over there. Should we still talk about tag grabbing a bit longer?

How long is this going to talk? I don't know. There's more to the question. Okay, great. Go for. Hopefully help jog your memory. The pod post the clip on Instagram of you wearing it during the amazing story. The Amazing Matt Fart Story.

Incredible story. Doesn't that sound, that sounds like I'm a magician? The Amazing Matt Fart story. Yep. That top is so ding-dang cute. And that's all caps. Fof, geez. 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. Of course, you can imagine. You've wanted on a few things.

You're wearing it on a few things. The upcoming series of the quiz show. Yep. I'm wearing an episode of that. Yeah, I bought it on holidays. You know when you make holiday purchases? Hey, Jess. There's a backup question.

Okay, great. She said, if you don't know, don't worry. Well, I know, it's surf dive and ski. If you don't know, don't worry. Okay. I don't think, do they don't have surf dive and ski in Sacramento? No, 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. Dave, Australian brand You're a brand man I think even more than Jess I'm wearing a brand man I mean I'm wearing a plain black tea right now

I don't mean a brand man You're a fashion man You're a stylish man Dave Yeah I'm wearing a plain black tea If wasn't for Australian You'd say Primark we all know that I'm wearing a country road t-shirt right now I know that

La-Dadee And I'm wearing Dejure jeans from down the road And Sydney road here Yep And he buys his jeans And his red vans from the same place the same strip. Brunswick is where...

Gotcha. Remember early in this? Oh, yes. Oh, red, I was thinking of the shoes there. Me too. Sorry. No, no, no, Matt. We let you down because that was a good joke.

Good reference. Yeah, that's great. But there's two Australian brands for you that I wear a fair bit of. Country Road's Australian. There you go. I always associated with John Denver. That's fair. That's fair.

Yeah. 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 wears. I wear mainly breweries, often T-shirts I was given during beer pioneer shoots.

Yeah, that's pretty good. And band teas. Matt mentioned earlier that I used to work at Bonds. I still wear a lot of Bonds stuff. Oh, yeah, Bonds. Is that Australian? Yeah. Yeah, I definitely wear a lot of bonds. Like, you know, I kind of always.

see them because they're uh, hundred, under my jeans. They make jeans? I'm saying my jocks. 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 hear of your jocks? I thought you wanted me to take them off. What jocks are you wearing, Dave? I'm wearing bombs jocks right now. Whoa! Anyway,

Yeah, I don't, I don't have like a lot of, I buy stuff, um, pretty hodgepodge, to be honest. A lot of like pretty cheap basics.

Hodgepodge, great brand. Hodge, podge begodge. Thank you, Susie, for that question. Next one comes from Piper Galaher. Piper writes, or this is Piper's title. Who am I? You sure, you want to know?

The story of my laugh is not for the faint of heart. 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, is that a quote that either of you recognize? I'm looking at it up. Thank you. Okay. Piper's got a fact. Sam Ramey's Seminole, 2002, Indy Art House, classic motion picture Spider-Man was the first instance. It's a Spider-Man. Yep, yep.

Of Peter Parker, spoilers, he's Spider-Man, being able to shoot his webs from his own wrists rather than inventing a web shooter. What? Is that true? I just thought, yeah, because 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, spoiler alert, all the, all the Peter Parker's are together? Yeah, and they have different. And 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, 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, just. We have to make it out of little cartridges, but he can just go, whip, whip, whip. 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 to Sam Ramey's Seminole 2002 indie Art House, classic motion picture, Spider-Man. I've not seen it, but I didn't know as an indie art house film. 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 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 freaking ruled. Really?

Yeah, that makes sense. We were away on a weekend away and we just watched 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.

Literacy. That, yeah, fuck, okay. Wow. Actually, I do too. I mean media and literature. Yeah. So that's different. That's why I wouldn't understand it.

Literacy, very different. Yeah. 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're also saying a J-Wather to describe that experience. Journey. Journey.

Next one comes from Cam. I care of Rupert the dog. And Cam's title is, Foreigner brewery rep, foreigner. An important job. And it's a recommendation. Fantastic. Matt, I was hoping it was just the actual job time.

It would be great. It was just like, you know, accounts receivable. Yeah. Sub-manager. 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 am.

Thank you so much for assuming. 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. 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 don't, 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 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 that may have recently asked a FQ and Q himself. 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. Maybe I was thinking because of Rupert. because of Rupert the Bear, you know, but if a Rupert the Bear would be a big dog. Anyway, thank you, Cam.

Great tip. Have either of you heard of it? It mustn't be far from here. 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 beer guy. How I am? You're a disgrace.

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. Yeah.

But now they're asking for all of it basically together. Oh, get fucked. So a bunch of them are going into voluntary administration to try to get through it. Including like deeds and Big Shed in Adelaide, Bad Shepherd, all like a bunch of my 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 always saw a chunk of money. And they're like, let's get a payment plan going. He's, what about it 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. The administrators then negotiated with the ATO and they're now paying 10 cents in the dollar of what they owed. Because the ATO is like, if they go to the wall, we get nothing. So 10 cents to the dollar is better than that. But if they negotiated the three-year deal, they would have got all of it. It's just over three years.

Yeah. Okay. Sounds like that. How about seven days? Yeah. Yeah, no, we're willing to be reasonable. You got seven days, but that started four days ago. That was in an article about Hawker, 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, there's, I don't know the whole story. That's right. And maybe I don't know the whole story. 60% of our audience is the ATO. It read is unreasonable to me. It does a little.

50, yeah, we do. It's a big bureaucracy. Big chunk. No wonder there's so many of listeners are in there. So sorry to pee you right off ATO. Final one this week comes from Danny Lopez Rojina. And thank you so much for having the phonetic spelling there because I definitely would have said Rogina.

Danny Lopez Rojina is the professor of making people feel awkward. and they're offering a brag saying, 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. Wow! 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, full in. No, just see if any other people ding their little bell first. I am a doctor and I can fly this plane and let's do this. I assume. I wanted to brag that 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,

but I am finally almost there after seven years. After the additional four for bachelors and two for masters, hopefully by early May 24, 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,

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 online. 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. You all help keep me sane and Jess's love always makes me smile. So thank you. Holy shit. That's so cool.

Congratulations. Danny. That's huge. So impressive. Yeah. For us, yeah. Very impressive that we're going to be in a word. So impressive.

And also, Danny, you're also doing good. You're done all right. But it's really, it's important to acknowledge you victories. And we have victored today. We are victoring it right up in the wazoo. We love a brag where we get to be bragging afterwards. Yeah, big time. You know we're in a book?

It's a brag exception. People still doing inception things. So I forget, I'm out of date with podcast fix. That feels right. I know we still do portmanteaus. We still do Inception Portmanteau. Yeah, Inception's still a relevant topical film. Yeah.

Is it still doing a cinematic run? 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. Just normally comes up with a game based on that. I'm going to have to start talking less. Throat is starting to struggle. Dave, John explains.

We give a shout out to these beautiful people, and like Matt said, just usually comes up at the game, so read out their name and then, you know, do a little riff on the name and something. I mean, we did have, like, Gibbs and the kids. Oh, yeah.

So maybe we could do band names. Okay, based on somehow on their name? Yeah. Great, love that. 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. You are like a duck. I am a duck. Yeah, we're happy to do that? Yeah, hey, 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. 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, in Maryland's MD. Newton is in Massachusetts. Just go with our gut. We're great. We know everything.

We know one thing And that's, we love Eric Romo. 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. Okay, sorry, I was just trying to get, we're trying to establish what we see? Alternative went in Romo. Oh, he's on fire today. Yeah, my God. Are you using a band name generator? That's not fair.

That's what I call my brain. No, I'm kidding, Dave. Yours was very good as 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 fun man.

I'd like to thank from Heathmont here in Victoria. I know I'm saying that correctly. Melanie Pearson. Melanie Pearson. Okay, I was going to say Pearson the veil because of Pierce the veil. That's great. Yeah, but it already exists. That's where my brain is.

That could be a cover band. Oh, that's good. Oh, okay. No, go on. Go on. Something like Melanie Pearson, Brosnan, or something. Something like that. Piersing in the wind?

Pearson in the wind. Okay. Yeah, I like that. That's the strongest. You don't want to do that. I think there's no sure a sign that you're an anarchist than if you're pissing in the wind. Yeah. The wind blows right back at you.

You got piss all over you. You got pierce all over you. Everyone'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. MN is Minnesota, thank goodness.

They've always right straight up. Yeah. Staples, Minnesota. A big shout out to Zachary Jones. Oh, Zachary Jones is already pretty good, isn't it? Jonesying for a Zach. Jonesing for a Zach. So, no bad ideas.

Let's see what else we can come up. Jonesing for a snack. Oh, yeah. Zach is the snack. Yeah, that's right. Or is there anything on Zachary? Probably not. Zach.

Yeah. Zach Attack. Zach Attack. Like a real 90s. Zachary Attackery. Yeah, yeah. That's kind of fun. That's pretty good.

I like that, actually. My idea, I like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're pretty good at liking your idea. I like that. I like my idea. Zach of the clones. Oh, that's fun.

Zachary Attackery is better. Zachary attack. That is good stuff. Can I thank some people? Please. I would love to thank from Cambuya. Oh, my God. In Queensland.

Dillon O'Don. What is this? Is this briefcase number 26? Camboa! I would love to thank Jared White. Oh, white. White on time. Oh, white on time is good.

I don't think we can beat White on time. White on time. Yeah, I think wide on time is great. Wait, 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 to do anything on that doesn't sound. The white of it. Sounds really offensive. like it's a white supremacy thing. It's a white of his powers? Well, they're exactly... Okay, no, yeah. Like heart of his powers.

Yeah, but no. Oh, yeah, I see what you're saying. You can't say white and power in the way. You can't do it. I'll be like, white for your right to party, but it's like, that sounds terrible. Yeah, let's avoid white. Yeah, okay.

But white on time's okay, I think. Wide on time. That's fun. Jared. But let's try Jared. Jared at Harrod's. Jared's and Harrods. What about shopping at Harrod's with Jared?

Jared's at Harrods. You sure? Shopping at Harrod's with Jared. Yeah. Okay. Jared can choose there, I guess. Gerod and tackle. Jarrod and tackle.

Like Arid? Gerod and Jatkel. Yeah, like the, yeah, slightly French, slightly Bogan. Ja. Jarrot and Jettacle. That's fun. Meet my kids, Gerod and Jettacle. Okay, a few options there for you, Jared.

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. According to his email, maybe he's a surname with a D. Maybe. Jamie. It's Jammu or Jamee?

It's not Jammu, it's Jamee. That's fun. Dave hates it. I don't think I understand that. It's not you, it's me. Oh, okay. It's not. Louis-Sahnfeld.

thing. And just a thing that is often referenced. Yeah, it's going to be in the zeitguise. Yeah, it's in the zeitguise. And then you can just shorten that as Jammu. Jammu. Yeah, that's fun. And they have it like their merch has cows on it.

Yeah, Jamie, where that come from? Well, it's not Jamie, it was Jamie. I'm Jamie. I'm Jamie. And they say this interview is over. Thank you for me. Goodbye. Thank you, Jamie.

And I would finally like to thank again from address. unknown so we can only assume deep within the fortress of the moles. George Beresford. Beresford. Beresford. Beresford's day off, something like that. Okay, yes. Ferris Bueller or something in there.

Is there? Oh, Berris is Ferris. If you say it like Beresford. Beresford. Day off. Yeah, okay, yeah, I like that. There's Beresford's. He's wearing like the outfit on the city of

the Adventures of George Beresford Fairlane. So 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 Fair Lanes are kind of car. Oh, yes. Okay.

What about George? Surely we can do something of George. Oh, George, yeah. What about Boy George? Nobody's ever done that before. What about George Boy? You know, sometimes there's like Macwood Fleet and people like punning? Yeah, yeah.

The OI. Yeah, George Boy. Boy? George Boy. Or like the, like, or what about American style? works better here. Boy, you know, they say boy instead of boy. They say booey.

They say booey, Booy George. Booy George. That's good. We got it. We got it. That's good. Because in an Australian accent or I think English, it would be like boy, George.

So that still works. But even better in America. Booy George. Booy George. Please welcome. Booy George. I was saying booie George. That rules.

That's great. I'll bring us home. Oh my God. From Zurich. What you? See, It's Switzerland, right, Zurich? Yes, it is.

And CH is Switzerland? Yeah, because 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, I'd love to thank Patrick Schmid. Um,

Um, The Schmidt Night Hour. Yes. The Schmidt Night Hour. How dare you? That was so good. Gonna think to the Schmidt night hour. Love it.

I have no notes. Next. Dave, you happy with Schmidt night hour? Yes. Thank you so much. Did you figure out what's... Previously, they had something to do with Confederationo Helvetica. That's where the C.H comes from.

Right. And we did... And then, which was a client state of France, CHF, I believe. This is from CORA, so I can never fully trust. I know, hopefully trust Cora. Does, um... Oh, this... Okay, here we go.

From studying in Switzerland.com, I'm more of trusting them. The Swiss Frank symbol, CHF, is an abbreviation that stands for the Latin name of the country. Confedaratio Helvetica and the F stands for... I've got to click on the link to get the answer to that. And the F. Folding.

Oh, Frank. Okay, and CHF, so I guess CH is taken from Confedaratio Helvetica, which is the Latin name for the country. We got there. There's an answer. Love that. On your schmidnight hour. Next up from me, that reminds me in the chat with AJ our editor, a fantastic man. He was saying that Chich is Christchurch.

Was that something that we talk about on the show? No. No. Don't worry about it then. There's this extra little fact for you out there. Yeah, because the Christchurch code is C-H-C-H. And I thought that was ch'ch, but it's actually just CH for Christ and CH for Church. Anyway, next up from West Wombi in Queensland, Australia.

I'd love to thank Vivian Roberts. Vivian Roberts. Jeremy's iron. I'm just trying to think. Yeah, no, it's just... Vivian's Robert? Is that what... Do it off that.

A little play off Jeremy's iron. Could you just call it like Like 6-5 Because Vivian starts with VIV Oh, that's pretty fun A Roman hero, 6-5 V-I-V-I What is the extra I?

Oh yeah, extra I, 6-6 6-6 That's not bad But it's spelled out 6-6 6-6 I reckon And maybe even Saints' one-only premiership

Could be their name 66 Yeah, that can be like a little sub-facts That could be an album name Maybe, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah It's just something fun I don't know. 6-6, not bad.

Pretty cool. What about Vivienne Sino Man Roberts? Oh, that's pretty good. And finally from me, so we're looking at it. Finally from me, 6-6-6 is fantastic. From Potter's Bar in Great Britain. Potter's Bar is a lovely name. Becomania.

No, Becermainer. Becamania. That's it. Becamania. That's it. That's it. That's it. Beca-Mana.

Or Mainer Manor Mania would be. pretty good. Mena mania. Mena mania. I've got Mena mania. I've got Mena Mania. And it's just a matter of like changing the positioning of the eye. Yeah.

That's cool. That's cool. That's undeniably fun. Lock it in. I can't deny it. That is fun. Three funds. Thank you so much to Becca Vivian, Patrick, George, Jamie, Jared, Zachary, Melanie and

Eric. The last thing we need to do, Dave is a trip ditch club. How does this work? To be honest, it's quite similar to what we've just done there. In some ways. Basically, the TripDitch Club, this is our Theatre of the Mind clubhouse slash hall of fame for people that have been on the shoutout 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 at RSSs and stuff like that. Honour boards. They become, exactly, we honour them. We thank them by welcoming them in.

And once you're in, you don't want to leave, because why would you? Yeah, that's a great point. And we always come up with a few. things weekly just 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 out or been disgusted by. That's sort of a vibe. I just, I just think to me, and maybe this

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... Rocket chill. That wasn't... Yeah, well, it just...

But I thought maybe some of our patrons were planes. Oh, yes. 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 mom's aunt was the president of the CWA for some time. Holy shit. So I've put on a bit of a high tea. I've just got some nice scones and little sandwiches and... This is awesome. Sounding great. And some nice tea. Yeah, great.

Just checking you with the temperature of the tea. I knew you'd ask. Have we fixed that situation up? How's the boiler going? Well, here's the thing too. I made the tea on the stove. Yes. Then remember we have kettles.

Yeah. Multiple kettles. Yeah, we can use the kettle. 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. Hot ice tea. Yeah. It is far too hot even though water can only reach 100 degrees. It's somehow 200 degrees. This isn't water. It's not water.

This is tea. And I haven't put the jam and cream on. It's going to be like serve yourself. So you can do your freak little way and then we'll have normal. Exactly. Dolep on the cream, dollop on the jam. Couple of dollop. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'd all up, jam first.

So I thought that would be all right, and I'll try to be better, and actually I'll take on that note of it should be edible. Sounds like it's so much better. That's actually so delicious. I can't wait. Should we go off of Scons after this? Yeah, we'll be in the club. Looking forward to the after 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... The CWA. Yeah. Whoa.

You're never going to believe it. They said yes to come and. The Furies are here. Whoa. It's your kind of uncle up there tonight. Wow. Pretty cool. Pretty cool.

It's your kind of uncle when they're on tour. I'm pretty sure the late singer died. That's right. In the Tripage Club, anything's possible. Exactly. I know, he's alive. I beg you pardon. Just dead to you.

Dead to me. 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 honors them by doing some weak word play based on their name or where they're from. And Jess looking after Dave's fragile ego hikes him up a little bit as well. It is so fucking fragile right now. Dave is the MC.

Not as fragile as mine as a 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.

Kathy Hine. Kathy Hine, you make me happy, Hein. Woo! Happy and Kathy, love that. And from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, go penguins in the United States. It's Oreas Khan. I was in the deep within the pits. But now I've been brought to the surface.

No, I'm going to heaven. I'm going all the way with Orius Khan. Welcome in, Oreas. I'm a big fan. And Kathy, happy Kathy. 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, that's what you say. Yeah. Say hi tea. And the tea cell?

Yeah. It's very fucking hot. Please forget my misery. Yeah. Just bored me beyond scientific possibility. Yeah. It's pretty cool. That's good.

You boiled it so hot, it became sentient. Yeah. It's concerning. I hate it when it talks to me. Yeah, they say you can't make it hotter than Hunter. 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. 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 do go on pod, and it always helps to, you know, follow, share, spread the word. You don't have to be a Patreon 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 you? Dave, boot at home. Hey, we'll be back next week with another episode. But until then, we'll say thank you so much from listening and goodbye.

Bye. Don't forget to sign up to our tour mailing list so we know where in the world you are and we can come and tell you when we're coming there. Wherever we go, we always hear six months later, oh, you should come to Manchester. We were just in Manchester. But this way you'll never miss out. And don't forget to sign up, go to our Instagram, click our link tree. Very, very easy.

It means we know to come to you and you also know that we're coming to you. Yeah, we'll come to you. You come to us. Very good. And we give you a spam free guarantee.