Two professional prospectors planned to drive into the
Great Sandy Desert east of Sandfire . Two vehicles , but one failed at the start and not being affluent they elected to go in one . Vehicle of choice , and compulsion , was a fully rebuilt Series Two Landrover . Started four days ago at two o'clock in the morning by helping by fight the fire which burnt down Sandfire Roadhouse . Four o'clock , helped fight the second flare up . At dawn went north and then east . For two and a half days they ' bush bashed ' along an very overgrown track . At 60km intervals they dropped water in case they had to walk out . 11 o'clock yesterday , had a tea break then started east again . After 5 km , accumulated seeds and brush under the vehicle caught fire . Out of the vehicle and started to fight the fire . Fire took hold , set fire to the scrub and rapidly started to consume the vehicle . They went into the fire and recovered the satphone . No burns , but lungs full of toxic smoke from plastic jerry cans . The scrub fire takes off but a light breeze sends it away in one direction . No water , food or shelter . Vehicle rescue about threedays away .
Satphone to Hedland
police and discussed the problem .
Police Airwing in
Perth were involved because they have the purse for air rescues . Planning processes took a couple of hours and at 2 o'clock the
Port Hedland Port Authority helicopter was tasked . Already , daylight was a problem . Telfer , refuel at the
mine , and then north to the area and out via Sandfire was considered , but search time would be very limited and it would be dark in the search area . Best option seemed to be to truck fuel in drums to Sandfire and work from there early next day .
Police then raised concerns about the health of the prospectors and their ability to survive the night without risk of deteriorating. Decision was to position the helicopter at Sandfire , truck fuel in , and procede at night . This would require an old and silly pilot so I was selected . On arriving at what was left of Sandfire , at sunset , two drums of jet fuel were found .After topping up the helicopter I headed east with one policeman . Next problem was headwinds . We were going to arrive at the search area with virtually no fuel to spare . Nice and dark over the Great Sandy so we spotted the bush fire 40
miles out . Arriving , there was about 40 major flare ups and many more small fires . We picked what seemed the most upwind fire and landed . On the satphone , the prospectors reported we were some distance from them , but were a bit hazy about direction . The policeman went off on foot in the most likely direction climbing some big sand hills as he went . When he returned and after more talk on the satphone we concluded they were at a miniscule isolated spotfire about 10km further upwind . Fuel
reserves indicated only a quick look was possible . Approaching the light we could see dancing men . Trying to land short raised an ash cloud , two hopscotches raised more ash , so it was over the fire and we found clean air for a landing . The policeman retrieved the prospectors and bundled them into the back seats . Plenty of stars to indicate a good take off direction and were soon on the way
home . Fuel remained critical all the way to Sandfire , and , arriving with minimum fuel Sandfire was blacked out [
well it had burnt down ] . Landed next to the highway using light from a roadtrain and whistled up SES with our fuel . The Sandfire ambulance attended but the prospectors were OK , and were happy to settle at Sandfire . Sandfire to
Port Hedland with a nice tail wind and on the ground at 0130HRS . Six hours fifty five minutes flight time .
The prospectors were debriefed by the
police and there was no criticsm of their actions . Nice blokes , very good [ older ] bushmen . Up to the point of the fire they were fully equipped with HF , EPIRB and camping gear . Illustrates yet again that emergencies can leave you with nothing but what is on your body , or what is in your grab bag . Another lesson learned , water in steel jerrycans is better than water in plastic .