The Chandlers arrived at about 10 p.m. for the party, with Geoffrey Chandler casually dressed. At about 11.30 p.m., Chandler departed alone and drove to a Sydney Push New Year's party held at the Balmain home of Ken Buckley, a senior lecturer in Economic History at the University of Sydney. Arriving there at about midnight, he met Pamela Logan, with whom he was having an affair. They drove in tandem to her lodgings at Darlington. Chandler returned to the Chatswood party at 2.30 a.m. but decided to depart alone, in accordance with Mrs Chandler's understood preference that she be driven home to Croydon by Bogle. The Chandlers' two children were in the care of their maternal grandparents at Granville.