Three days on, missing bushwalker found alive and well

A 31-year-old Canberra woman who was lost in the Namadji National Park, south of Canberra, for three nights was found this morning alive and well.

A helicopter pilot engaged in the search first spotted the woman just after 9am today (Saturday, September 6), hovered over her location, and radioed her coordinates back to the Police Forward Command inside the park.

Guided by the pilot, within 10 minutes a team of ACT Policing Specialist Response and Security (SRS) members reached the bushwalker’s location. The grateful woman, dehydrated and hungry but uninjured aside from cuts and bruises, was then assisted by police down the hill to a clearing, from where the Snowy Hydro Southcare rescue helicopter then airlifted her directly to The Canberra Hospital where she is in a stable condition.

The woman, from Macarthur, had been reported missing around 10.40pm on Wednesday, September 3. She had left to go bushwalking that same day around 8am. Her vehicle was located in a car park in the Orroral Valley, where a track sign-in book had indicated her intention to walk to the Nursery Creek Swamp and Rendezvous Creek areas.

The search effort involving police and ACT Parks rangers began at first light the next day (September 4) and was ramped up yesterday (Friday, September 5) with two helicopters and the further assistance of State Emergency Service volunteers as ACT Ambulance paramedics remained on standby at the Forward Command post. An area of around 22 square kilometres had been targeted by the search teams, with ACT Policing as the coordinating body.

ACT Chief Police Officer Mike Phelan today travelled down to the Police Forward Command in Namadji National Park to personally thank the officers and volunteers for their efforts in the search.

“This was an outstanding effort by all concerned, with excellent inter-agency cooperation, and produced a positive outcome of which everyone involved can be proud,” CPO Phelan said.