Solo tourist rescued in desert
Published: June 1, 2005
A distressed German tourist has been rescued from a remote area of Western Australia’s rugged Pilbara region after her four-wheel drive vehicle became dry bogged up to the axles on a desert track.
But unlike two men who perished recently in the same area, the woman was equipped with water, food and an emergency beacon.
She had tried for several hours to free her Toyota Landcruiser after becoming stranded on the isolated track in the Rudall River National Park, 420km east north-east of Newman, on Monday close to where the two fruitpickers died in April.
The 34-year-old woman was travelling alone through the Great Sandy Desert towards Alice Springs when she detoured through the Fingoon Ranges within the national park and got into trouble, Senior Sergeant Geoff Stewart, of Newman Police, said today.
Bradley John Richards, 41, and his nephew Mac Bevan Cody, 21, had little food and water and no means of communication when their aging Landcruiser broke down.
But the German woman, whose name was not released, was equipped with 100 litres of water, a large supply of food and an emergency beacon known by the acronym EPIRB.
However, Sgt Stewart said she had failed to notify police of her intended route and it would have been near impossible to locate her if not for the beacon.
The woman activated the signal at 9pm (WST) on Monday night and the Australian Search and Rescue (AusSAR) notified Newman police.
A ground party left Newman at midnight and arrived at the national park shortly before dawn yesterday, and after a search plane pinpointed the vehicle it guided the party to the clearly distressed tourist about 9am.
“She wasn’t (in imminent danger of) starving to death or dying of thirst but there was no way that she or her vehicle were getting out of there, which is why she had to activate the EPIRB,” Sgt Stewart said.
“What people need to realise is – and six weeks ago is a prime example – people actually do die out in these areas and it happens on a too regular basis.”
The badly decomposed bodies of Mr Richards and Mr Cody, originally from Warilla in NSW, were discovered by a station worker on the remote Talawana track more than a week after they were last seen refuelling at Cotton Creek.
The German tourist became bogged just 50km from that same Aboriginal community.
“She was very embarrassed and very upset at the trouble she had caused but very relieved to see us,” Sgt Stewart said.
He urged people to lodge an isolated traveller forms before setting out on such trips.
The form allows police to check if a person has safely arrived at their destination by a nominated date, and if not, narrows the search area.
The woman spent last night in Cotton Creek before continuing on her trip to Alice Springs.
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