Drop toilets are back in the news again … for all the wrong reasons!
Just a couple of months ago, a female traveller at the NT’s Henbury Meteorites Conservation Reserve plunged into a two-metre-deep sewage pit after a rusty drop toilet nightmare gave way beneath her.
Now, a camper at a campground in the US state of California has suffered a similar fate after making the ill-advised decision of trying to retrieve sunglasses dropped in the dunny.
The man reportedly fell into putrid sewage and remained there for 15 minutes until he was rescued. He apparently emerged largely unscathed, but did require ‘a hosing down’ from the fire crews in attendance.
Do not enter! People have got into serious trouble trying to retrieve dropped items. PIC: Cizza
In the NT incident back in April, the woman spent three hours waist deep in human waste before she was rescued. Her family had been unable to summon help because there was no phone signal in the area.
Many grey nomads were shocked by the incident.
“Outback toilets need to be serviced regularly and the floors need to be of concrete, and the walls of corrugated iron, or other washable material,” said one. “They need to be washed out and re-stocked weekly, and they need to look ‘inviting’, well lit, workable and secure, right from when first seen.”
Other recent similar toilet nightmare incidents include:
In 2024, Country Fire Authority crews had to rescue a man who got stuck in a loo near Wodonga in Victoria.
And overseas, a Swedish man got stuck in a toilet for a prolonged period after making the bizarre decision to climb into it in search of a dropped mobile phone.
And in 2023 in the US state of Michigan, a woman had to be pulled out of an outhouse toilet after she fell in while trying to retrieve a dropped Apple watch.
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