Sunday, Nov 30, 2014 at 00:24
Well, I was here in
Perth in 1999, and I followed the story daily, and I remember it
well.
getoutmore is largely correct, but not 100% correct. The American team turning up was NOT the ONLY reason he was found.
Facts:
1. The W.A.
Police and the other searchers gave up, 12 days after commencing the search.
2. The search was not commenced for a considerable number of days after Bogucki started his trek.
3. The search started when a Gt Northern Hwy traveller found his bicycle abandoned on a track near the Sandfire Roadhouse. This was some days after Bogucki took off.
4. It took another 3 or 4 days to try and establish Bogucki's whereabouts, which involved contacting his parents, plus anyone who had seen or had contact with him, to try and establish his moves, his frame of mind and where he might have gone.
Police immediately suspect you've hitched a ride when they find a mode of transport abandoned - it's not a reason to start an immediate urgent search, just because an abandoned car or bike has been found.
5. The
police blacktrackers found his footprints leading into the desert a couple or three days later - so an official W.A.
Police search was initiated.
Bogucki had a good 10 days and perhaps even a fortnight jump on his searchers.
6. The W.A.
Police search party struggled through a lot of extremely rough tracks and pure desert, trying to follow his trail. WAPOL also used planes in their search. Remember, Bogucki wasn't particularly interested in being found. The black trackers eventually lost his trail in stony country.
7. The W.A.
Police and their associated searchers searched for another couple of days and then decided to give up. They had searched for 12 days and were convinced he couldn't have survived. 99% of people certainly wouldn't, and I reckon Bogucki had some luck on his side, too. That luck revolved around heading Northwards to wetter areas, and also having very favourable, mild weather.
8. Bogucki's parents insisted he was still alive, after the official W.A.
Police search ended, and organised St Clair to find him.
The Americans rolled up after a few more days and did put in some serious effort, including tracker dogs.
9. At that point, the media decided to join the hunt, sensing a major, major dollar earner.
Choppers are one of the best search instruments, and the media has plenty of them, and the money to run them.
The Americans apparently didn't, which kind of surprised me. They're generally the first to get airborne in choppers.
10. The Americans did find items that Bogucki left behind as he moved - further on from where the W.A.
Police left off. I'm not sure how they managed this, a degree of luck must have had some part in it. Maybe they got lucky, maybe their tracker dogs were particularly good.
11. The media were travelling on ahead of St Clairs group with the choppers, scouting around for Bogucki, hoping to spot him first. They did - and there was also a great deal of luck involved here. The Americans were dozens of kms away and certainly wouldn't have caught up with Bogucki for many more days - if at all! The Americans were heading in the right general direction.
12. Once the Channel 9 chopper secured its prize, Bogucki was whipped off to
Broome. This was a carefully devised plan, thought out long before Bogucki was found. The Americans were left to try and claim the glory of finding Bogucki. Unfortunately, they couldn't and can't.
They did raise the interest level again on their arrival - and they did resurrect the search.
It's not factually true to say the American search team was the ONLY reason Bogucki was found.
He was found by a Channel 9 chopper that set out to find him - that piggy-backed on the Americans effort, and which leap-frogged their slow ground-bound movements in a big way - and they got lucky as
well.
It's a moot point that you could argue about for weeks, whether Bogucki would have turned up at a station - or even
Fitzroy Crossing - within a few more days, if he hadn't been found. It's very likely he would have.
He was still in satisfactory shape, if pretty thin, and he wasn't suffering from any health problems or dehydration. He'd found water regularly and he would have found more.
A fit person can go for a long time just on water and little else, and Bogucki was pretty fit.
BBC article - August 1999 - American found after outback odyssey
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Follow Up By: get outmore - Sunday, Nov 30, 2014 at 20:15
Sunday, Nov 30, 2014 at 20:15
thats pretty much my understanding.
my comment relates to the only reason he was found was without the yanks being there and without them being on the trail the media choppers and other crew that also found vital pieces of evidence.... would never have been there.
us Aussies enjoyed deriding thier efforts.. but I definitely maintain they played a huge part in roberts rescue
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