‘Only ever one suspect’: Inside a failed attempt on the Queen’s life

Queen Elizabeth II almost fell afoul of an attempt on her life in Lithgow, while embarking on a royal tour of Australia with the Duke of Edinburgh. The purported assassination attempt occurred in 1970, on a royal trip scheduled to coincide with the bicentenary of Captain Cook’s 1770 landing in Botany Bay. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were travelling through Lithgow on the royal train, when their locomotive hit a log which had been reportedly placed across the track by would-be assassins. Despite the attempt to derail the train, it emerged unscathed and remained on the tracks. Former Lithgow Mercury Police Reporter Len Ashworth says the police “only ever had one suspect” – an Australian IRA sympathiser.