Bushwalk Australia

From TasPol:

https://www.police.tas.gov.au/news-events/media-releases/bushwalker-safety/

Monday, 1 November 2021 - 1:35 pm.

Police are reiterating the importance of being properly prepared when bushwalking, after the successful retrieval of two people from the South Coast Track in Tasmania’s south west today.

Emergency services, including the Westpac Rescue Helicopter, responded after a Personal Locator Beacon was activated shortly after 10am.

The PLB was registered with up to date details, which helped police confirm details about the walking party and their intentions.

“The group of four Tasmanians had begun a multi-day walk in Melaleuca on Thursday, but unfortunately exhaustion set in and two of the group could not continue,” said Senior Constable Callum Herbert.

“As we get closer to summer it’s important for everyone to remember that conditions can change quickly, and Tasmania’s wilderness can be challenging.”

“Luckily this group was well-prepared, and did the right thing by requesting assistance.”

The two walkers were located about midday, near the Ironbound Range and were airlifted back to Dover.

A couple from Tasmania Police Facebook

Tasmania police and emergency services have responded to two separate rescues in past 24 hours.

On Saturday the 7 November 2021 at 4:30pm, police were contacted in relation to a lost walker who was near the summit of Cradle Mountain. The walker was trying to make their way back to Kitchen Hut when they became disorientated and lost the track markers due to inclement weather conditions.

At 6:30pm, police were notified of a medical emergency in relation to a separate walker suffering from chest pains who was in the Waterfall Valley Hut area. The walker was in company of other people and were in regular contact with Ambulance Tasmania. The Westpac Rescue Helicopter was activated but had to turn around due to poor weather conditions.

A Search and Rescue party and 2 paramedics were dispatched to walk into Waterfall Valley Hut. The Search and Rescue party reached the walker at 4.30am.

At 10pm, a Personal Locator Beacon was activated which belonged to the missing walker near the summit. A Search and Rescue team from Launceston was dispatched, and located the PLB.

Contact was made with the missing walker and based on their description; the walker was located at 6am this morning suffering from mild hypothermia.
Both of the Westpac Rescue Helicopters were dispatched to the two incidents this morning and successfully retrieved both walkers from the areas. Both walkers were transported to the LGH with minor injuries.

These two incidents follow a similar operation from Friday where another walker was separated from their walking party who had to be retrieved by winch from the side of a steep embankment. Tasmania Police would like to ask all walkers that they remain vigilant when walking in a group and keep an eye on each other.

While all the walkers in the recent rescues were well prepared, it is important that walkers are aware of their environment and the varying climate conditions that can change rapidly. Careful consideration should be given to both immediate and long range weather forecasts. If you find yourself in trouble, contact emergency services and please follow directions that are provided.

Deciphering that TasPol post is rather difficult!

From Tasmania Police

A man suffering from symptoms of fatigue was rescued this morning at Frenchman's Cap with the Westpac Rescue Helicopter, following the activation of a personal locator beacon (PLB). The man's PLB was out-of-date, leading rescuers approximately 2 kilometres from his actual location.
When venturing into Tasmania's wilderness, people are encouraged to:
• Ensure you’re prepared with appropriate equipment – take a map and torch, clothing and footwear to suit any conditions, regardless of the season take a waterproof jacket; adequate food and water, first aid kit.
• Research the intended trip – ensure the trip is within your abilities and fitness level, and you have a route plan, map and check the expected weather forecast.
• Let someone know before you go – ensure someone knows your route and expected return time.
• Always carry a fully charged mobile phone and a PLB and consider a portable charger to extend battery life.
• If you are heading out into Tasmania’s wilderness, download the Emergency+ application. This is a free smartphone application that uses GPS functionality to help identify an accurate location in a time of emergency.

I get fatigued walking home from the shop sometimes. Will have to remember to call the chopper next time.

Hey, sometimes the full two hour session on the exercise bike is too fatiguing. Can they send a chopper crew in to complete it for me?

I still reckon they should charge people for a helicopter evacuation

Tas Tom wrote:I still reckon they should charge people for a helicopter evacuation

Only mainlanders.

Once again - totally inappropriate comments with no basis of knowledge of the circumstances.
Disgraceful!
Time to call out trolls wherever they are.

Up here in Qld, Emergency services have been called out 112 times to the three Glasshouse mnts peaks — Mount Tibrogargan, Mount Beerwah and Mount Ngungun in a two year period to March 2019. The pitchforks come out every time regarding the rescued should pay. It's all free though. There have been deaths and many serious injuries. I believe if they realised they have to pay that death count would increase due to more risks taken. On the other hand they may not even attempt it.

The south coast track group were Tasmanian. How do we know if the other rescues weren't either?

Every states have their fare share of rescues.

I'm just not sure you should call the chopper for being fatigued on a bushwalk.....

At a guess, he was out for the day from whichever hut (or even from the carpark), got tired and shagged out, confused, maybe disoriented, the weather was going off - for which he was underequipped - and was running out of time to get back safely. That's doing a lot of reading between the lines of what's in the police announcement.
Now, in those circumstances, OK, call in the chopper; it's better than risking death from exposure and/or the time and expense of a full-on search for a missing walker but .. it's best to avoid those circumstances in the first place.

I'm not at the point of saying we should charge for call-outs. Frivolous call-outs, yes, but the authorities would have to be able to show that they were needless. This one sounds like the classic problem of being unable to fix stupidity and/or ignorance. He overestimated his capabilities. We've all done that at some time.

Still going to take the *&^%$#! out of him, but.

The TasPol statement is very poorly worded. "Symptoms of fatigue" could mean any number of things.

north-north-west wrote:Still going to take the *&^%$#! out of him, but.

Haha exactly. Love taking the *&^%$#! out of people who have frivolous chopper rides abusing the resource....

matagi wrote:The TasPol statement is very poorly worded. "Symptoms of fatigue" could mean any number of things.

True. However, the lack of clarity does throw up a number of questions for an exacuation in the Frenchmans Cap area.

You are never very far away too from a hut on a well marked track, and unless you are on the road - Vera section there's one downhill from your location. Could they have made it to the hut? Even in the dark it's easy enough to follow, and the long daylight hours at the moment mean this is unlikely to have been an issue. Perhaps they made it to a hut, had a couple of days of rest and realised that they weren't recovering and couldn't make it out. Ambition got the better of the bodies capabilities.

It's a popular track plenty of folk around. Were they offered assistance? Are people too caught up in their own lives, ambitions, Instagram-world to offer help, lollies, hydration etc? Maybe it was easier to call a chopper than help someone?

Could Parks new booking system have played a part in encouraging this person to start their bushwalk in trying conditions? 'that's you're date, if you want to go, then you must go on that day.'

The reality is that I don't think everyone who heads to Frenchmans Cap understands that it is quite an undertaking. If you are stepping up from bushwalking in The WOJ or OLT, then you are going to struggle. Take your time, add in an extra day to your plans as it's a *&%$#! wonderful area to take in. Take time to say hello to other walkers, ask for or give assistance if needed. It's more important and rewarding than climbing a mountain!

doogs wrote:You are never very far away too from a hut on a well marked track, and unless you are on the road - Vera section there's one downhill from your location. Could they have made it to the hut? Even in the dark it's easy enough to follow, and the long daylight hours at the moment mean this is unlikely to have been an issue.

If this person was on the Vera - Highway section, then surely pitching a tent and resting would be an option? Or are people going in totally reliant on huts? It's looking like Frenchmans may get to the Overland-like policing where Parks staff are doing gear checks before issuing passes.

People do - or try to do - Frenchmans as a daywalk. I would not be surprised if they went in with just basic daywalk gear.
Of course, when TasPol say "Frenchmans Cap" it could be anywhere in the NP. Doesn't necessarily mean the summit area.

north-north-west wrote:People do - or try to do - Frenchmans as a daywalk. I would not be surprised if they went in with just basic daywalk gear.
Of course, when TasPol say "Frenchmans Cap" it could be anywhere in the NP. Doesn't necessarily mean the summit area.

I came across two blokes who did Lake Vera to the Cap summit and back in a day because they baulked at carrying a pack up Barron Pass. They were struggling to even stand up and where definitely a bit stressed about their ability to walk back out again the next day. It's a big day out for anyone not used to that sort of thing.

Doing the summit from Vera makes more sense than from Tahune if you're on a three-day itinerary.

I once was fatigued too after a long day walk to the cap. And really *&%$#! weather and strong winds. A random guy at the hut, gave me a sip of scotch from his flask. If you are reading this mate, I think I forgot to say thank you. I was too fatigued.

What people don’t seem to realise is that whenever POLAIR is sent to pick up someone who is “tired” or has a blister they are unable to attend to more “real” emergencies somewhere else. Whenever an EPIRB goes off it goes straight to AUSSAR who treat it as highest priority because they have no way to determine the nature of the emergency until the helo is on the ground. This potentially means that someone in say a car crash can’t be sent straight to the Royal because the Helo is on a blister run….

Tazz81 wrote:What people don’t seem to realise is that whenever POLAIR is sent to pick up someone who is “tired” or has a blister they are unable to attend to more “real” emergencies somewhere else.

Another example why a Satellite Communicator is arguably a better option in many cases. Allows situations to be triaged appropriately... "we have a snake bite/cardiac episode/anaphylactic event, come ASAP" versus "we have a broken leg, they're ok for the time being" versus "we're lost AF but holed up comfortably, a little help when you can pleeez".

I know there's much debate over relative signal strength and how emergency requests are processed to local rescue agencies, but being able to receive replies that the rescue request has been received, updates on rescue ETA and supporting first aid information in the interim would be and have been quite invaluable too.

The man's PLB was out-of-date, leading rescuers approximately 2 kilometres from his actual location.

This is complete BS. That’s not how PLBs work.

South_Aussie_Hiker wrote:

The man's PLB was out-of-date, leading rescuers approximately 2 kilometres from his actual location.

This is complete BS. That’s not how PLBs work.

Yeah I'm curious about that statement. "Out of date" being weak battery or old style non-GPS unit? I thought the latter was no longer monitored.

headwerkn wrote:

South_Aussie_Hiker wrote:

The man's PLB was out-of-date, leading rescuers approximately 2 kilometres from his actual location.

This is complete BS. That’s not how PLBs work.

Yeah I'm curious about that statement. "Out of date" being weak battery or old style non-GPS unit? I thought the latter was no longer monitored.

New PLBs don't require GPS functionality. Most people pay the little extra to get the GPS function. Possibly the one used had no GPS, but that does not mean it is 'out of date'.

While old PLBs (not 406 MHz) don't have satellite monitoring, the 121.5 MHz signal that they and current PLBs use is monitored by aircraft and some land bases systems. However it has been quite some time since older PLBs have been sold - the batteries would have expired by now.

Agree that the statement of "PLB was out-of-date, leading rescuers approximately 2 kilometres from his actual location" is not correct.

Be thankful they at least referred to PLB for once, instead of EPIRB

I know it's semantics, but if your salary comes from my taxes, I ask you get basic terms correct.

Fatigue could be understated. He may have started with seven others, left with nowt but the *&%$#! axe.
Or maybe he actually suffers Chronic Fatigue (of which I guess 'fatigue would be a sign or symptom)?

From Tasmania Police

Search and Rescue members rescued a woman from the Franklin River area this morning.

Around 8.10am emergency services responded to a request to assist an injured rafter at Rafters Basin.

The woman, aged in her 50s, was winched into the Westpac Rescue Helicopter around 10.50am and flown to the Royal Hobart Hospital with a leg injury.
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@Westpac Rescue Helicopter Tasmania
@Rotorlift Aviation
@Ambulance Tasmania

From Vigilante News

The Tasmania Police Westpac rescue helicopter has been activated to the Southwest for two walkers that are unable to continue to walk the south coast track.

It's a fatiguing track compared to the OT.....