Kirste Gordon’s parents speak out on 50-year anniversary of Adelaide Oval abduction of daughter and Joanne Ratcliffe

Fifty years ago, girls Kirste Gordon and Joanne Ratcliffe were abducted from Adelaide Oval in one of Australia’s most enduring mysteries. Now Kirste’s parents reveal how they coped.

A photo of Kirste Gordon sits on the wall of Greg and Christine’s home, watching over her parents. On the 50th anniversary of Adelaide Oval abduction of Kirste and Joanne Ratcliffe, Kirste’s parents have spoken out in depth for the first time. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Kelly Barnes

Hanging proudly on the wall of their study, a beautiful, larger-than-life image of Kirste Gordon watches over her parents Greg and Christine.

It is not a monument to their missing daughter, but rather a fond reassurance that Kirste is ever present in their life and with them constantly – despite being cruelly taken from their care and nurture 50 years ago.

While their loss is still palpable and lasting, it has not defined nor dominated their lives since.

In their first in-depth interview in the five decades since their daughter went missing, the couple reveal they have refused to become secondary victims to the unknown predator who abducted Kirste, 4, and Joanne Ratcliffe, 11, from a football match at Adelaide Oval 50 years ago this Friday.

Unsurprisingly, Christine and Greg are still seeking answers. But rather than wanting to know what happened to Kirste after she was taken, they simply want to know where her remains are. Both have never given in and ventured down the self-destructive path of hypothesising over Kirste’s last hours.

Greg and Christine Gordon, parents of Adelaide Oval abduction victim Kirste Gordon, at their home in Hackham, Picture: NCA NewsWire / Kelly Barnes

“It might sound callous, but I would like to know where she is, I don’t want to know what happened … that is soul destroying, that is giving the perpetrator time they do not deserve,’’ Christine said.

“But in one way, what do you do with her remains? What I am trying to say is that it is not really that important at this stage. She is here, she is here with us.”

And similarly, while they have never allowed themselves to cultivate dark and depressing thoughts by ruminating over what may have happened to Kirste at the hands of her abductor, they still hold hope that justice will one day confront him if he is still alive.

“We have always come from the point, the idea that we have to get on with our lives,’’ Christine said frankly.

“Right from the start we were determined to be survivors.’’

The day of the abduction

Greg and Christine Gordon were at a function in Renmark, in SA’s Riverland when they received the phone call that would alter their lives.

A former Caledonian Society leader while teaching there a few years earlier, Greg had been invited for the installation of a new chief. The pair had arrived in time for the dinner, planned to stay overnight and be home by lunchtime on Sunday to collect their two girls, Catherine and Kirste, from their parents’ and siblings’ homes.

The evening was young when Christine’s mother, Rita Huckel, called the dinner venue in a panic. Staff quickly located Greg and he spoke to Rita in the reception area.

“It was basically to say Kirste is missing and the police are looking for her, nothing else. We dropped everything, packed up and hopped in the car and headed for Adelaide,’’ Mr Gordon, 82, said.

CIB Chief Superintendent Noel Lenton, right, and Det Sgt Norm Davey, left, working on the disappearance case at police headquarters in September 1973. In the background is a composite photo of the man seen with the missing children.

While Kirste was staying with Christine’s mother, who had taken her to a football match at Adelaide Oval, Catherine – who was two years younger than Kirste – was staying with Greg’s sister for the night.

Like countless other parents with social commitments, there was nothing unusual in such arrangements and the girls loved their grandparents, aunts and uncles.

Greg and Christine said the drive back to Adelaide in their Datsun hatchback was excruciating. Their only source of information during the three-hour drive was ABC radio in the Riverland, which carried precious little news of the search for their missing daughter.

Mrs Gordon, 78, remembers crying for most of the journey. In the absence of mobile phones in 1973, Greg was searching the radio for any information he could glean while his mind was racing. A lasting, ironic memory for both is of the Scottish song ‘Will Ye No Come Back Again’, which played as they drove through Truro. It served to make the tears flow even more.

“We couldn’t make any sense of it, we just didn’t have enough information,’’ the pair recalled.

A police sketch of the suspect in the abduction of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon.

When they arrived back in Adelaide, they dropped into at his parents’ house at Enfield before Greg dropped Christine at her parents’ house and he went to Adelaide Oval with Christine’s father, Bill, where he was briefed on the search by Homicide Squad detective John McCall. Greg recalls being given little detail, simply because there was a paucity of information available even to police at that stage.

At her parents’ home, Christine wasn’t faring any better.

“It was a long time before I had much information because mum wasn’t talking, she was in shock,’’ she said.

“When we got home later that night, we just lay on the bed.’’

The search the next morning

After a sleepless few hours, early on Sunday morning the anxious parents went to the Adelaide railway yards, just a stone’s throw from Adelaide Oval, to take part in a search for the missing girls. It was at that point they first met Joanne’s father Les Ratcliffe. While they were strangers and spoke little apart from polite pleasantries, they shared a sad bond.

Police divers search the River Torrens for the missing girls in September 1973.

The News’ front page reporting on the abduction of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon on August 27, 1973.

As one of the many search strategies implemented by police, Greg and Christine Gordon and Les Ratcliffe attended the railway yards where, at the time, many carriages were laid over. A thought was the two girls may have taken refuge there. As there were many carriages, and most were locked, the plan was for a parent to call to the girls on loudspeaker. Police deployed a Chrysler Royal patrol car, which had a loudspeaker mounted on the roof.

“I was the parent who went in the police vehicle and called in comforting words and tone to coax the girls out should they be there. We drove slowly through the long lines of coaches, calling continuously,’’ Mr Gordon said.

But sadly, there was no response.

Life-size models of the missing girls, dressed by the Gordon and Ratcliffe families, on display in the Woolworths store in Rundle Street on August 31, 1973.

Joanne Ratcliffe was 11 when she disappeared from Adelaide Oval with Kirste Gordon.

Another move by police to engage any witnesses was the use of mannequins dressed as the two girls were, hopefully to jog someone’s memory from the day.

“Having described the garments that Kirste was wearing, Christine and I attended police headquarters and were taken to the room where the Kirste mannequin was located to assist with the dressing,’’ Mr Gordon said.

“The Joanne mannequin was in an adjacent room where Les and Kath Ratcliffe did likewise.’’

When the dressing was completed to the satisfaction of the girls’ parents, police arranged for the mannequins to be displayed and asked for anyone who had seen the girls to come forward.

Once again, the move yielded little evidence.

While the initial days were dominated by searches and some hope remained the girls would be found, those feelings were overtaken with the passage of time. The pair found themselves in a twilight zone before their worst fears eventually became a blunt reality.

“We were in limbo, it was numbing, we were waiting to get information, you can’t do anything’’ they said.

“I can’t remember the timeline, but it became clear that someone had actually taken the girls.’’

Artwork used in 1973 to show where Joanne and Kirste walked – and who was sought after their disappearance.

The Gordons’ remarkable pragmatism

Both schoolteachers, Greg and Christine met in 1964 when they were teaching at Renmark. Greg knocked on the door of the boarding house where Christine was living to speak to another teacher, and when Christine answered the door, the attraction was instant.

By 1973 they had been living in Adelaide for eight years. Greg was teaching mathematics and physics at Adelaide Boys High School and Christine was at home caring for the girls after taking the then-compulsory break from junior primary school teaching when she first became pregnant.

Kirste Gordon’s parents Christine and Greg in August 1973.

In the months after Kirste went missing Greg continued teaching and Christine stayed at home with Catherine, became a fitness instructor, and eventually returned to teaching when the girls were at school.

In December 1973, an opportunity for Greg to spend the following year on a teaching exchange in Singapore arose. In what was perhaps the first sign of the couple’s pragmatic approach to the tragedy that had been thrust upon them, they decided to take the opportunity.

“If we had been part of the investigation itself, it may have been different, but we were not,’’ Christine said.

“The police told us to give our contact details to the High Commission and if they needed us they would contact us, so we did.

“I think if we had stayed here we would have still survived, but because we went away for that 12 months, the pair of us could work out who we were, where all this fitted into our lives without people telling us how to feel.

“We still knew what was going on, we were not cut off, it was the break we needed to have to be able to gather ourselves together.’’

Kirste Gordon aged 4.

It was while they were in Singapore that Christine’s mother Rita finally shared her feelings over what had happened to Kirste, albeit in a limited manner because she was uncomfortable talking about it because she felt responsible. Rita stayed with the pair for two months following the birth of their third child, Ailsa, in August 1974.

“That was good, taking her away from people she thought were blaming her was positive and we could spend some time together,’’ Christine said.

“It took her a while to open up and she did one day. I was able to say to her “it is not you, it is not you.’’

Rita was 78 when she passed away in 2002 – still deeply troubled by Kirste’s abduction.

“She would never talk about it in any detail,’’ Christine said.

“I don’t think she ever forgave herself, she beat herself around. All we could do was tell her we loved her and it wasn’t her fault, the responsibility was solely with the perpetrator.’’

Christine and Greg Gordon at their home in Hackham. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Kelly Barnes

‘We survived because of the kindness of strangers’

Tucked away safely in a wardrobe in a bedroom of the Gordons’ impeccably neat home that they built in 1968 after returning to Adelaide from Renmark is a box full of letters from wellwishers from across Australia.

Just as friends and neighbours cooked and delivered meals in the weeks after the abductions as they loved and cared for them, strangers sent their heartfelt thoughts and best wishes. Each of the letters and cards helped in the dark early days and they remain some of Mrs Gordon’s most cherished things.

“We have survived because of the kindness of strangers. We couldn’t answer any of them because most came without a return address, but it was those things that helped us realise we were not alone, there are a whole lot of people out there who care about us even if we do not know who they are,’’ she said.

That support, along with the responsibility of raising their growing family – which now boasts four grandchildren – their teaching careers and interests ensured their lives were productive, fulfilling and rewarding. After 57 years of marriage their love, respect and support for each other is undiminished.

Greg Gordon playing the bagpipes on stage at a John Farnham concert at Thebarton Theatre. Picture Supplied.

Both have had creative outlets and passions that have soaked up any idle time that may have allowed their minds to wander. One such avenue for Greg has been his love of the bagpipes and almost lifelong involvement with the pipe bands community.

A photograph of him on stage playing his bagpipes at one of John Farnham’s Adelaide gigs hangs proudly on his study wall. His decades-long service and commitment as a tutor and administrator to the genre both in SA and nationally saw him rewarded with an OAM in the 2000 Australia Day Awards.

“What we have done since is part of a tribute to Kirste as well, we have not stood still,’’ they said.

“You have your down moments and they can hit when you least expect them. It may not necessarily be her birthday or any family thing such as Christmas, it might just be something else’’.

One such trigger is Neil Diamond’s Porcupine Pie, a song Kirste liked singing with a friend, or the Scottish tune that brought them to tears when they were dashing back to Adelaide the day of the abductions.

“If you hear it suddenly out of the blue, things like that,’’ Christine said.

“Sometimes we look at the grandchildren growing up and you see them doing things and you think ‘what would she be doing now?’

Greg and Christine said when Catherine, now 52, and Ailsa, 49, were young it was never difficult answering the questions about their missing sister and they had always strived to be open with them. While it may often have been easier to fend off such inquisitiveness, their pragmatism would not allow it.

A young Kirste Gordon.

When Ailsa was in junior primary and understood what had happened to Kirste, she asked her parents if she was a replacement for her.

“We told her ‘no, we had you because we wanted you,’’ Christine said.

“She then asked ‘would Kirste like me as a sister’ and we said “she would love you as a sister.’’

Both are determined not to dwell with due anger at the sheer evil of the perpetrator, choosing to focus on the continued fulfilment of their lives. Besides wanting to know where Kirste rests, their only other desire is that “justice should be done as the community cannot abide by such behaviour’’.

“There are an awful lot of people working to bring that about, we have nothing but praise for the Major Crime detectives of SA police who are continually working on this,’’ Christine said.

“Who knows? But we don’t work in ifs and buts, we don’t sit around speculating.”

When asked if they would like to see the case resolved in their lifetimes, they pause and think.

“We would like it to be resolved at some stage, whether it is within our lifetime or subsequent,’’ Greg said.

“Yes, we would like it to be resolved, but when it is resolved the end result is not really going to make much difference to us.

“It is going to be putting a full stop at the end of a very bad story.’’