On Christmas Eve 1862, Attwood Charles Gardner was born at Tareelwung Station, Coonabarabran, NSW. The reason for the choice of his unusual Christian Name is unknown, but one possibility is that it may have been the maiden name of one of his grandmothers. In any case, he must have liked it because he passed the name on to his own son 24 years later.
His parents, George Gardner and Mary Grimes, had married sixteen years earlier at Capertee, NSW. George had arrived in Australia in 1836 as a convict aged 23 years old.
In 1883 Attwood was 21 years old and employed as a coach builder living at Coonamble, NSW. He met 24-year-old Frances Kemp and they had a child, Frances Elizabeth ("Tolla"). They were married on 8 November 1884 in St Barnabas Church. In 1885 their son Attwood Charles was born and named after his father. Two years later Bertha Ada was born and another two years later came Emma Mary. Amy Laura Emily Gardner was born at Gum Carwell near Quambone (NSW) on 12 March 1892. Her father was, at this time, employed as a boundary rider on Mobala station.
Six more children followed: Clara May (1893), Vida Robina (1895), Georgina Jane (14 March 1897 - also at Gum Carwell), Nora Olive Lavina, Albert and Daisy Una Geraldine.
Little is know about the remainder of his life, except that he witnessed his daughter Amy's marriage to James Jolliffe at Quambone in September 1909.