He left to buy ice cream for his little brother and never came home. The Canberra suburb of Curtin lost something that afternoon that it never fully recovered.
A Tuesday Afternoon in 1966
Allen Geoffrey Redston was six years old, born in Bendigo, Victoria, and living with his family on Macalister Crescent in the newly developed Canberra suburb of Curtin. He was an adventurous, curious boy who often played with friends at a nearby rubbish tip — the kind of freedom children had in that era, in a suburb still half-built from former sheep paddocks.
On the afternoon of September 27, 1966, Allen's mother gave him some money to buy ice cream for himself and his younger brother Peter. The two boys left together, but Allen sent Peter home early and walked instead toward Holman Street to visit a friend, with plans to head to the Curtin Tip afterward. He waited briefly outside the friend's house, then left the area on his own.
He was not seen again until the following morning.
Found in the Creek
At approximately 8:15 a.m. on September 28, a neighbour's dog drew attention to a spot in the swampy bed of Yarralumla Creek, less than a kilometre from the Redston family home. Allen's body was found among the reeds near Dry and Service Streets. His hands and feet had been bound, and his body was wrapped in carpet and a green and white floral dressing gown — the dressing gown was later traced to a nearby builders' dump, where it had been left with other rubbish. Police determined his body had been moved to the creek after he was killed elsewhere. He had been strangled.
A Description, and Two Earlier Attacks
A manhunt launched immediately produced descriptions of two people seen with Allen near the tip that day: a fair-haired teenager, aged roughly 13 to 15, and a young adult man. Critically, shortly after the murder, two boys came forward separately to report incidents earlier that same year in which two men matching the same descriptions had bound them and attempted to kill them in very similar ways. Both had escaped. Their accounts suggested Allen's murder was not spontaneous — there was a pattern of targeting, and whoever was responsible had done this before.
Despite extensive investigation and a significant search of the local area, neither individual was ever formally identified or charged.
Derek Percy and the Queensland Lead
Two threads have continued to draw investigators' attention over the decades. The first is Derek Percy — a convicted child sadist and murderer considered Australia's most prolific suspected but uncharged serial killer of children. Percy was later confirmed to have been in Canberra around the time of Allen's murder, and an identikit image police released in 1966 of the fair-haired teenager seen with Allen bore a notable resemblance to Percy. Percy was questioned about Allen's case on multiple occasions but never admitted involvement, and died in prison in 2013 without ever being charged in connection with it.
The second thread emerged in 2003, when ACT detectives traveled to Queensland and identified a separate person of interest. In December 2003, a man was formally nominated as a suspect, but investigators were unable to establish a connection between him and the murder that would support charges. In October 2004, police renewed public appeals for contact from two specific people they believed held information relevant to the case.
A Case Still Listed as Unsolved
Allen's murder remains on ACT Policing's active unsolved homicides list as of the most recent public update. The suburb of Curtin has never entirely let go of what happened that Tuesday afternoon — a painting made in Allen's memory by a local student was hung in Curtin South Infants School by the headmistress so that children would remember him. Decades later, former residents writing about the suburb's history still describe the effect his murder had on the neighbourhood: parents keeping children inside for months, the loss of the easy freedom kids had had before.
He would be in his mid-sixties today. No one has ever answered for what happened to him.
If you have any information about Allen Redston's murder, you're encouraged to contact ACT Policing or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Sources
Murder of Allen Redston — Wikipedia
Allen Redston — ACT Policing Unsolved Homicides
Innocence lost to little Allen's murder in Curtin — Canberra CityNews
Pain can never end for ACT murder victims' families — The Canberra Times