IT was enough to blow a sergeant off his seat.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Just minutes before 2am on December 19, 1980, the Woolies at Maitland went up.
It wasn't a big store by today's supermarket standards, but it had $300,000 worth of stock in it and whatever it was that went off, it was designed to cause maximum damage.
A bright young thing working for a daily rag rang Maitland police station and found a copper getting towards the end of night shift. It wasn't a mere fire, there was a definite blast, the copper said.
"It blew me off my chair," he said.
The reporter then joined two dots: a Woolies on the south coast had blown up two days earlier.
It turned out that the Woolies at Warilla had been blown apart by gelignite with a timer attached that had been lowered through the roof.
As police worked on the Maitland job it was looking like a similar bomb had been lowered through a vent near the rear car park of the High Street premises.
Three days after the Maitland bombing, Woolworths in Sydney received a call.
A note would be left at the jewellery counter of their George Street store which also housed the company's executive. The letter was addressed to Mr A. J. Harding.
"This week we exploded two devices in two separate areas of NSW. They were both detonated in the early hours of the morning to demonstrate our ability with explosives and your vulnerability.
"There will be no further night time exercises. If it is necessary for us to bring more pressure to bear upon your company we intend to place explosives in your stores which will explode during peak shopping hours.
"We would like to point out that we are aware of the names, addresses, families of all top management personnel who are the decision makers to our demands. You are totally unaware of who we are.
"At present the media have not created a sensational story nor have the police really committed themselves publicly to the obvious link between Warilla and Maitland. Let's keep it that way.
"If your immediate co-operation is not forthcoming we will proceed with our next programme of explosions.
"The 'Terrorism', for want of a better word, will not be restricted to New South Wales. Our options are many, yours are not.
"We have in our possession enough explosives to embarrass Woolworths for a very long time. When the police are informed of the name that will be used as the code for future contact they will know where the explosives came from and the extent of our supply. It is considerable.
"Numerous locations have been observed over the last few months. If our demands are not met immediately we will proceed with stage two of our plans. Daylight explosions during peak hours.
"We suggest you meet our demands with discreet seriousness.
"We demand: 500,000 dollars in used UNMARKED 20 dollar notes; 250,000 dollars in ten 50 oz gold bullion bars; 250,000 dollars in loose diamonds of one carat or greater.
"Any foolishness regarding the true value of the gold or diamonds will result in great embarrassment to the people we know are the decision makers to our demands. You will carry out the following instructions immediately: (1) Key management all stores nationally to be instructed that when MR DUNMORE rings and tells them there is a bomb in the store they have ten minutes only to clear the store; (2) If police or army personnel enter the store in that ten minutes we take no responsibility for their inevitable injuries; (3) Greg Newling will be instructed that he will carry the ransom to the handover point; (4) Eric McClintock will be in his office for all business hours until the handover for any extra communication that may be required; (5) Further instructions will be given as to where the gold and diamonds will be purchased and the individuals that will make the sale.
"MR DUNMORE."
The reference to Dunmore was a nod to the theft of 259 sticks of gelignite from the Dunmore quarry on the South Coast.
Investigators now believed the extortionists were from that area.
They were getting close, but not close enough with the bombers calling in just after 3pm on Christmas Eve nominating the George Street store as the next target.
The store was evacuated as quickly as possible before the bomb went off at 3.25pm.
No one was killed.
The bombers called in again. Woolworths had had enough.
They put together the ransom as best they could and stuck it in a cricket kit bag while police put together one of the most intricate operations in the state's history.
January 12, 1981, was the day of the drop with the bombers making numerous calls to direct the courier to various locations including the Highway Hotel at Wentworthville, the Rose Bay Hotel at Rose Bay and the Buena Vista Hotel at Mosman.
Then, under the cover of darkness, they ordered that the ransom be dropped into the harbour at the Taronga Zoo wharf.
The courier did as he was told while police watched and waited.
They waited and waited, then bubbles emerged.
Specialist officers crashed into the water and found Gregory Norman McHardie in a diving suit.
He spun a number of stories before he disclosed that he was living at Huskisson on the South Coast.
Living in the same street was Larry Burton Danielson who possessed a number of incriminating documents including a map of the zoo.
They went to trial and all seemed to be running smoothly for the prosecution until there was an extended adjournment for the Easter break.
On Easter Saturday 1982, McHardie escaped Parramatta jail via a garbage truck and remained at large for the better part of two months.
The judge pressed on with the trial without him and both were convicted.
They received 20 years' jail with their non-parole periods of less than nine years, causing outrage when McHardie was released from Cessnock in 1988, while Danielson was deported to New Zealand upon his release from Long Bay.
McHardie struggled to keep on the straight and narrow. He was busted for drugs in 1997 and was charged with a stabbing in Sydney in 2006, where he reportedly referred to himself as "The Bomber". He was later acquitted of the stabbing charge.
Danielson continued to lead a colourful life in New Zealand and tried to pen his memoirs under a pseudonym.
He died in January this year.
