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Faraday School kidnapping

SOLVED1972Faraday, Victoria, Australia3 SOURCESUPDATED JUL 2026

Documents violence · crimes against children — written to inform, not to shock.

Illustrative

On 6 October 1972, Edwin John Eastwood and Robert Clyde Boland, two plasterers armed with a sawn-off shotgun, entered a one-teacher school in the rural town of Faraday, Victoria, Australia. At about 3pm, they forced 19-year-old teacher Mary Gibbs and her six female pupils, aged between five and ten, into a red delivery van. The men left a note at the school threatening to kill all the hostages unless a $1,000,000 cash ransom was paid, then drove the group into a remote bush area.

That evening, Victorian Premier Dick Hamer announced the State Government was prepared to pay the ransom. Education Minister Lindsay Thompson was driven to the scene by Assistant Commissioner Bill Crowley, who posed as the minister's driver and carried a concealed derringer pistol; future Chief Commissioner Mick Miller hid in the rear of the car with a high-powered rifle. Thompson waited to personally deliver the ransom, but it was never collected. In the early hours of the following morning, the kidnappers told Gibbs they were leaving to collect the ransom and departed, leaving her and the children alone.

Gibbs then kicked out a door panel of the van using her heavy platform-heeled boots and led the children to safety in the dark, finding help a few kilometres away. Eastwood and Boland were subsequently captured by armed Victoria Police officers following an extensive manhunt.

Eastwood pleaded guilty to seven counts of kidnapping in December 1972 and was sentenced to fifteen years' imprisonment with a ten-year non-parole period; three armed robbery charges against him were taken into consideration in exchange for his evidence against Boland. Boland was convicted by a jury in March 1974, after three trials, and sentenced to seventeen years' imprisonment with a twelve-year non-parole period; Eastwood later maintained that Boland was innocent and that the real accomplice was someone else. Boland was released in November 1983, having served eleven years of his sentence.

On 22 January 1973, Mary Gibbs was awarded a George Medal for bravery, and Lindsay Thompson received a Bronze Medal for Bravery from the Royal Humane Society.

Eastwood later escaped from Geelong Prison in December 1976 and, in February 1977, kidnapped a teacher and nine pupils from Wooreen State School in Gippsland, Victoria, in a similar incident involving numerous additional hostages before his recapture. While imprisoned, Eastwood strangled convicted rapist Glen Davies in the Pentridge Prison exercise yard in April 1981; he was charged with murder but acquitted on grounds of self-defence after evidence he had been stabbed ten times during the confrontation. Eastwood was eventually released from custody in 1992 after serving his sentences, with a subsequent unrelated conviction and re-arrest recorded in later years.

Key facts

Victims
Mary Gibbs
Date
1972
Location
Faraday, Victoria, Australia
Case status
solved

Case timeline

  1. 1972-10-06

    Edwin John Eastwood and Robert Clyde Boland kidnap teacher Mary Gibbs and six pupils at gunpoint from Faraday School, demanding a $1,000,000 ransom.

  2. 1972-10-06

    Premier Dick Hamer announces the Victorian Government is prepared to pay the ransom; officials go to the scene but the ransom is never collected.

  3. 1972-10

    Gibbs escapes the van with the children and finds help; Eastwood and Boland are later captured after a manhunt.

  4. 1972-12

    Eastwood pleads guilty to seven counts of kidnapping and is sentenced to fifteen years' imprisonment with a ten-year non-parole period.

  5. 1973-01-22

    Mary Gibbs is awarded a George Medal for bravery; Lindsay Thompson receives a Bronze Medal for Bravery.

  6. 1974-03

    Robert Clyde Boland is convicted by a jury after three trials and sentenced to seventeen years' imprisonment with a twelve-year non-parole period.

  7. 1976-12-16

    Eastwood escapes from Geelong Prison after stealing a car.

  8. 1977-02-15

    Eastwood kidnaps a teacher and nine pupils from Wooreen State School in Gippsland, taking additional hostages during the incident.

  9. 1977-11-08

    Eastwood is sentenced to 21 years' imprisonment (non-parole 18 years) for the Wooreen kidnapping, to be served consecutively with the Faraday sentence.

  10. 1981-04-30

    Eastwood strangles convicted rapist Glen Davies in the Pentridge Prison exercise yard and is charged with murder.

  11. 1983-11

    Boland is released, having served 11 years of his 17-year sentence.

  12. 1990

    Eastwood is released on parole.

  13. 1992

    Eastwood is eventually released after declining parole offered in 1991.

  14. 2001

    Eastwood is re-arrested.

Best coverage

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People

  • Edwin John Eastwood

    CONVICTED

    Pleaded guilty to seven counts of kidnapping in the Faraday case (1972) and later to 25 charges including 16 counts of kidnapping in the 1977 Wooreen kidnapping; acquitted of a separate 1981 prison killing on grounds of self-defence.

    citation on file

  • Robert Clyde Boland

    CONVICTED

    Convicted by a jury in March 1974, after three trials, of kidnapping in the Faraday case; sentenced to seventeen years' imprisonment.

    citation on file

  • Mary Gibbs

    VICTIM

    19-year-old teacher taken hostage with her six pupils; helped the children escape and was later awarded a George Medal for bravery.

    citation on file

Places

Faraday, Victoria, Australia

-37.2833, 144.2000

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Common questions

What happened to the victim?
On 6 October 1972, two men kidnapped a teacher and six young pupils at gunpoint from a one-teacher school in Faraday, Victoria, Australia, demanding a $1,000,000 ransom that was never collected before the hostages escaped.
Where did the kidnapping happen?
Faraday, Victoria, Australia.
Who was convicted?
Edwin John Eastwood (Pleaded guilty to seven counts of kidnapping in the Faraday case (1972) and later to 25 charges including 16 counts of kidnapping in the 1977 Wooreen kidnapping; acquitted of a separate 1981 prison killing on grounds of self-defence.) and Robert Clyde Boland (Convicted by a jury in March 1974, after three trials, of kidnapping in the Faraday case; sentenced to seventeen years' imprisonment.).
What is the current status of the case?
Status: solved. Last verified July 2026.

Sources

  1. Faraday School kidnappingwikipedia · Wikipedia · 2026-07-07
  2. Eye-watering price for school house in South Gippsland with dark pastnews · news.com.au · 2026-07-07
  3. Contemporaneous coverage of the Faraday kidnapping casenews · The Age · 2026-07-07

Last verified JUL 2026

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