Police considering calling off search for missing bushwalker

[FatCanyoner]

G'day folks,

This is a really sombre story I just read re a bushwalker who has been missing three days in Queensland. It sounds like Authorities now believe he may have died...

BRISBANE, Aug 6 AAP
Police face the tough decision of whether to call off the search for a bushwalker in north Queensland who's been missing for three days in freezing conditions.
The search for the 46-year-old man, lost in the Eungella National Park northwest of Mackay, is expected to resume at first light on Tuesday.
Officers, State Emergency Service volunteers and locals have been scouring thick bushland around Mount Dalrymple since Saturday.
Officers fear he may be seriously injured or dead.
They say the man began descending the mountain alone about 10 minutes ahead of the group on Saturday.
He's dressed only in shorts, a T-shirt and a thin jumper, and conditions have been freezing.
Inspector Peter Flanders says Deputy Police Commissioner Ross Barnett will decide when to call off the search.
``Those conversations with the deputy commissioner will probably begin, I'd say, tomorrow,'' he told reporters in Mackay on Monday.
``We will do everything we can to make sure we have exhausted every single possible avenue to see whether we can find this man.''
Searchers were clinging to the hope he might still be alive, but the situation was very grave.
``The reality is we need to consider the fact that he might be seriously injured, and given the amount of time we also have to consider that he may no longer be alive,'' he said.
On Sunday night - the man's second night outdoors - the temperature had been predicted to plunge to between 0 and 3 degrees Celsius.
``The human body can only exist for so long in those (conditions) without warmth and without food and without water,'' Insp Flanders said.
The man's family was distraught, he added.

[David M]

Three days seems to be a rather short time to call off a search doesn't it? I would have thought he could still be alive if injured or lost and especially if he lit a fire (that's why I always carry a lighter). I didn't realise it could get so cold in Queensland.

I hope he turns up alive.

[FatCanyoner]

Totally agree David. In NSW we had that guy who survived 12 days lost in the middle of winter. And I assure you the Blue Mountains in winter are colder than north QLD!

[colinm]

I would have thought he could still be alive if injured or lost and especially if he lit a fire (that's why I always carry a lighter).

Thermal imaging shows no fires? What then? If he had a fire, why not send smoke?

He left 10 minutes ahead of his party, descending, so couldn't have gotten far, one would have thought ... they knew where he started, they can estimate how far he'd have been able to get, so one would imagine the search area would be well constrained.

Not sounding hopeful, on the face of it. Hope he's ok, of course.

Colin.

[frenchy_84]

I didn't realise it could get so cold in Queensland.

I hope he turns up alive.

Eungella township is at around 900m ASL and Mt Dalrymple is 1260m combined with the clear skies we have been having of late, the mornings do get abit chilly even at sea level

[Nuts]

Have you been up there yet Frenchy. Eungella is a magic place.. Lost, lightly clothed at temperatures like that it would be a nightmare. Thick rainforest, wet. I doubt the average person would get a fire going even with a lighter. Wet, hungry, cold and lost.. terrible,still, there is possibly some other factor in considering concluding the search so early?

[FatCanyoner]

I've just seen the latest, which seems to suggest they are still searching... still no luck!

BRISBANE, Aug 7 AAP - A search for a missing bushwalker on a notorious Queensland mountain is set to enter its fifth day.
Soldiers and police are searching Mount Dalrymple, near Mackay, for a man last seen beginning a lone descent of the peak on Saturday afternoon.
Locals from Eungella, near the mountain, say people get lost there ``all the time'' because a lot of the tracks were destroyed by cyclone Yasi.
Eungella General Store owner Wendy Storer says rumours about the search have been circling in the small community.
``There's a lot of word around town,'' she told AAP.
Some locals said police may have discovered a palm frond bed used by the 46-year-old bushwalker.
Authorities are worried he may have succumbed to near-freezing overnight conditions or that he may be seriously injured.
Ms Storer fears for the man's safety with wild pigs and venomous snakes common in the area.
It will be freezing on Tuesday night and leeches are found all over the mountain.
``If he's alive, the poor bugger's probably covered in the things,'' she said.
AAP mjs/mm/

[Bluegum Mic]

Brissy channel 7 news said they are widening their search and have bought the army in so fingers crossed.

[David M]

Was he carrying map, compass or GPS?