TV: 'Miracle in The Desert'

G'day Stephen, I have not seen this before and will now watch it with a critical eye after your comments.
"....endured six weeks without food and 12 days without water..." is pretty difficult to believe even in the cooler month of July!

So often with these big whacky-doo events they take on a different aspect after talking to people within "the know". On the few occasions that I have been directly involved in an event that made media news, the published item had significant errors.

Ah well, I look forward to the desert scenery.

Hi Allan

You will enjoy watching it. From what I was told, there were times when he hid from the rescuers, so he could not be found, but this is never shown in the doco.

Cheers

Stephen

Crikey I was only researching this topic last night...

This policeman didn't happen to be an ex Senior Sergeant from Broome did he?

It's a great doco....That Garrison St. Clair is cool, though I had to laugh when his cap blew off from the wind from the helicopter.

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If anyone knows the whereabouts of the Help sign, somewhere I'm guessing between the Edgar Range and the Mclarty Hills inclusively please let me know.

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Not sure about whether the recovery of costs should be billed to him. Bogucki did not ask to be rescued. Also his parents did donate $25000 to WA's emergency services.

Cheers
Alan

Hi Alan

The Policeman I think was an ex Sergeant, but ex TRG and then firearms instructor, I will say no more, as he will most likely read my reply....he is a great guy and I have had a number of contacts with him since and he is welcome to stay at our house any time he is over here in SA.

You are right about that he did not want to be rescued. But could you hear the news headline if we did not get out there.

Cheers

Stephen

G’day Al,

You’ll have to let me know just what area he was in. That’s a fair bit of real estate between the Edgars and the McLarty’s. While not intimately familiar with the story, for some reason I thought he was found further south on the Anna Plains Track area.

Having travelled that area in July last year (2010) there is plenty of water to be found out there. Much of the GSD forms a massive Palaeodrainage area running in a crescent shape between the 123 and 125th meridians. Again, I’d be interested to see what the BoM rainfall stats were for the area in mid 1999 as much of the soak areas hold water for considerable periods of time. It would also not be too difficult to access water in those areas where the water table is close to the surface. There are also known springs such as Dragon Tree and Elizabeth soaks that provide permanent water. I’ll have to get on Iview and have a look.

This GE image shows the drainage area over several hundred km of the GSD.


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Cheers Mick

Hi Mick,

The clues from the paper are pretty light on.

He was found near a creek near Mowla Bluff, and the Help sign was found "near the edge of a rocky gorge".

I'm pretty sure he left from the Anna Plains track as he came from the Sandfire Roadhouse.

The 1st Special Response Group have a website and an email. I'll see how I get on with them.

Cheers
Alan

"The Policeman I think was an ex Sergeant, but ex TRG and then firearms instructor, I will say no more, as he will most likely read my reply....he is a great guy and I have had a number of contacts with him since and he is welcome to stay at our house any time he is over here in SA. "

Interesting Stephen, very interesting.

Cheers

Deanna

'...a very expensive stunt, that cost the WA tax payers a lot of money and he personally should not have been able to leave Australia until he personally paid for the costs involved in the search and rescue. '

This (general) argument (ludicrous in most cases) has surely been done to death Stephen so I won't go over the same ground yet again. Will be watching the story tho'.