On October 6, 1972, in a small isolated Australian town, two armed men stormed its one-teacher school, triggering an infamous kidnapping.
Teacher Mary Gibbs was preparing for home time with her six students when the pair barged through the door of the school at Faraday, about 100km north-west of Melbourne, wielding a shotgun, knives and chains.
Initially, the 20-year-old teacher thought the dramatic entrance was part of a prank, but she and the children were abducted by the men, Edwin Eastwood and Robert Boland.
The pair told them to get into the back of a van and drove them to an isolated hideout about 50km away.
When parents arrived at the school to collect their children, all they found was a note left by the kidnappers demanding a $1 million ransom be delivered to them by Victorian deputy premier and education minister Lindsay Thompson.
The ransom note ended with a chilling warning.
“Will not waste time making threats, but any attempt to apprehend will result in annihilation of hostages.”
Assistant Police Commissioner Mick Miller said in The Age at the time of the unfolding horror: “It’s the gravest situation of this kind in the history of the Victoria Police force”.
Media outlets described the brutal kidnapping as the “crime of the century”.
Thompson said the ransom demands would be met, while police launched a huge manhunt around Faraday.
Before dawn the next day, police drove Thompson to a bush location for the drop off, with Miller hidden under a blanket in the car, armed with a high-powered rifle.
Thompson was ready to personally deliver the cash, in two suitcases – as requested – but it was never collected.
When the kidnappers left their hostages in the van to make the rendezvous with Thompson, Gibbs and the children seized the opportunity to escape.
The teacher kicked the door of the van repeatedly, and, helped by the heavy-soled knee-high boot she was wearing, she eventually broke a panel.
“I’ve got a strong right foot,” she later told media.
She and the children were able to crawl through it and flee.
Eventually, after hours trekking through the bush, Gibbs and the shocked students met a party of hunters who took them to safety.
For her courage, Gibbs was later awarded the George Medal, the highest civilian bravery award.
Eastwood and Boland were arrested in Melbourne before being tried and sentenced to long prison terms.
