A 60-year-old caravanner has been rescued by police after becoming lost and disorientated in remote bushland in WA’s Mid West.
Susan Buckless had been camping with her husband and a friend near the Golden Grove Mine, about 50 kilometres from Yalgoo when she split up from them while on a bushwalk.
She told the media she had attempted to find her way back to the campsite for a cup of tea but had lost sight of distant ranges she had been using as a landmark to help find her way.
It was the start of a terrifying eight-hour ordeal before she was found. She had nothing with her but a mobile phone with low signal and a near-empty water bottle.
A WA Police image captures the moment Ms Buckless knew she had been found. PIC: WA Police
“I tried to stay as positive as I could, I kept thinking I had to get back because I’ve got my husband, my mum, our girls, our grandchildren . . . I had to be found,” she told the West Australian newspaper. “The more I kept walking, the thicker and thicker the bush was getting and I knew I was lost.”
Luckily, her phone’s signal was just strong enough for her to be able to contact Triple-0 and WA Police began their search.
The ABC reports that Ms Buckless was ultimately able to share her coordinates with police by using the maps on her phone and, from there, a police drone operator was able to pinpoint her location.
“They said, if you’ve got anything that you can wave and attract the drone, do it,” she told the ABC. “I had a white drink bottle and I thought, well, I’ll wave that around as well.”
Ms Buckless was found about three kilometres from the campsite. She was uninjured and in good health.
Midwest Gascoyne Police District Inspector Jayd Morawski told the ABC that officers then hiked in to meet Ms Buckless. And walked her back to the campsite where she was greeted with ‘waiting arms.’
“I think she had a welcome beer at that point in time,” he said.
Police told the ABC that the incident was a safety reminder for anyone planning on camping and bushwalking to carry a personal locator beacon or satellite phone as part of their planning and preparation.
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Not cheap items, $400 for a personal epirb & $800 for a hand held satellite phone.
Better to just not wander off from the group & stay on formed tracks.
Glad that she was found safe.
Actually $300 for a PLB and compared to one’s life it is not much of cost really. Let alone the cost of others trying to find them.
Agreed
It’s wonderful news she was found
Yes & she was very lucky. A PLB for between $300 & $400 & lasting 7 years or more really is quite cheap ‘insurance’ . You don’t even need to be in remote areas to find they are life savers. I was told of a chap who whilst driving went off the road with car overturning, jamming him inside, out of sight of the road. He was found dead some days later. With a PLB he would have still been alive.
Get hand held GPS we both carry one. Set up camp mark spot on GPS BEFORE any walks haven’t got lost yet.
I’ve just been told about an app called “what3words” which has the entire world mapped in 3 square metre blocks. Every block has its own three words. The ambulance 000 know about it. Only downfall is you need reception.
There is a free app available for both I
iPhone and Android called Emergency Plus which includes both GPS co-0rdinates and 3 word location information.
Being avid ‘Grey Nomads’ we always carry our PLB with us whenever we’re on the road – as mentioned, you don’t have to be in a remote area to possibly need help, it could save your life, and for $300, it’s a worthwhile investment.
I’m surprised that the police were unable to get the drone to lead her back to the campsite once they has found her?
It’s really easy to get lost in the bush, you might only be 2 metres off the track and can’t find it. Keep an eye on the sun and prominent landmarks. If you have a phone send texts, reception fluctuates it only needs a micro second to send a text so quite often a text will go through even though you have no visible bars. There is an app called Gaia GPS which if installed on 2 phones can give you the direction of the other phone, it probably has more functions that, we used it recently and it worked excellently. Of course if you have poor reception that might hinder its operation. The best bet is to stay on the track. If you get off the track, turn back immediately and use trees and landmarks to walk in a straight line. If the track disappears turn back immediately. Be very observant you might only wander off a few metres and it’s easy t get disoriented.
We took a wrong turn in outback northern SA, we could have been in serious jeopardy if a friend hadn’t noticed that the moon wasn’t in the right position relative to where we were going. He realised because we were watching the moon the night before, it should have been on the right and a bit behind us and we had been driving directly at it for some time. We travelled at least 50 kms in the wrong direction, that extra 100 kms could spell serious fuel issues. We were heading into serious nothing, it was a station track as there are no towns in that direction or signs anywhere.