Kaniva is a small town in the Australian state of Victoria, not far from the Victoria/South Australia border. In September 1966 the population numbered 2000 including a policeman, Senior Constable Ron Grose. On 27 September 1966 Grose was waiting for a telephone connection to police headquarters in Russell Street, Melbourne, when his line was crossed with another. He could hear two women talking about the Beaumont children.
As Grose listened, it seemed that the women were talking about bringing the Beaumont children back from Hobart. As soon as he was connected through to police headquarters, Grose he spoke to the Homicide Squad. Their reaction was that it was a low act to use the disappearance of the Beaumont children to play a practical joke.
Grose was certain that the conversation he had heard was not a hoax. Whoever had been speaking could have had no idea that Grose had been listening to their conversation. The South Australia police became involved, with the chief of their Homicide Squad, Detective-Sergeant Stanley "Tonner" Swaine, saying that it seemed to be a genuine call. The television reporter Brian Taylor and Jim Beaumont drove 380km to Kaniva to speak to Grose in person. What Grose told them boosted the Beaumonts' spirits for the first time in months.
The lead was eliminated on 13 October when two women rang the Kaniva police. It was their conversation that Grose had overheard. They had been talking about the Beaumont children, but then started talking about some other children who were being brought home from Hobart. Grose had been mistaken and the women had nothing whatever to do with the disappearance of the Beaumont children.
Other false leads: