Outback Search for Missing People

Hi Bob

Yes it was only this time last week when 25 year old Mo made that same tragic mistake of leaving their vehicle, with him passing the ultimate price, death.

When will people learn the golden rule no 1 is never leave your vehicle.


Lets hope that the three people are found safe and well.



Cheers


Stephen

Maybe it's time the Government started placing BIG billboards in country areas warning people of the risk of outback travelling and no mobile coverage, passing traffic and being prepared.

With the more and more urbanites buying 4x4's for the school run there will be an ever increasing urge for them to venture off the bitumen and things like this will increase.

About 5 years ago we were travelling through Mutawintji National Park; 175k out of Broken Hill...... about 10am we stopped for morning tea along the track for 1/2 an hour.... after morning tea and no more then 15k up the track we came across a Camry towing a caravan stuck in a very deep muddy floodway...... this track was more suited to a 4x4.

We pulled up and two adults and two kids approached us, one of the adults asked if we had a tow rope and could we pull them out..... they had become stuck at 4pm the day before and had not seen any other traffic.

They were due into Broken Hill the night before, we asked them if they needed to phone anyone.... the reply was NO and mobile phones don't work out here.... we informed then satellite phone do....

They had no UHF radio and if they did they would of heard the boundary rides checking bores and could of got help.

It turned out the guy was with a ranger with the NSW National Parks and Wildlife..... obviously a ranger in a park close to Sydney.

It always worry us travelling in remote areas that one day we will come across something we don't want to see.

Seems amazing to me that boats must carry an EPIRB if they go more than 5ks (I think) off shore yet people head off in the wild blue interior without an EPIRB or radio.

BTW we have an EPIRB in each of our cars cause you just never know.

Radio Australia
"A Victorian woman who was missing in far west New South Wales has been found.

Emergency crews are still searching the area, about 130 kilometres from Broken Hill, for two men who were with her.

Police say they received a triple-0 call yesterday afternoon from a woman who said she was lost about an hour's drive from Broken Hill.

The line dropped out before officers could get more information, but they traced the call to the Mutawintji National Park.

Emergency crews searched until nightfall, and conducted a fly-over of the area.

They found an abandoned car but did not see the tourists, who are from Victoria.

Superintendent Brad Hodder, from Broken Hill Police, says the woman was found this morning in good health.

"About 9:40am we confirmed that the missing female of the party has been located," he said.

"She walked into Acacia Downs around that time and she appears to be in good health. She is currently assisting us with our inquiries in relation to the other two missing persons." "

Slightly off topic but maybe we should consider the coast to the community in funding rescue missions. Maybe there is room for an 'adventure insurance' that people might take out to reimburse all/some of the funds spent on some of the more ridiculous rescues.
This does not suggest this incident or people have been silly as I don not all the circumstances.
Most people on this forum are relatively well informed and new comers use the site to become informed, this is our form of 'insurance', we invest time, effort and money in preparing ourselves for these trips and often to aid/assist other.

It now appears that they have found the woman and one of the men alive, the third person, a male has died.

A very sad ending for one circle of family and friends. Although we don't know the full story, it does show the advantages of staying with the vehicle.

Some of these people that go to the bush have no common sense, do not carry enough water. They do not drive their particular types of vehicles to the conditions. If anything happens they think that another vehicle will come along within 10 minutes to help them! People need to study the weather, terrain and conditions before they visit these areas. Unfortunately some of them think they are still on asphalt in the city. These types of events have happened in the past and will sadly happen again in the future.