Snakes, crocs and pigs overcome in epic story of remote survival

Facing off against packs of feral pigs, venomous taipans and deadly crocs: How an expert Indigenous tracker and modern search teams united to find a Cape York elder missing in remote bushland for days.

FACING off against packs of feral pigs, venomous taipans and deadly crocs an expert Indigenous tracker and modern search teams united to find a Cape York elder missing in remote bushland for days.

On August 3 the alarm was raised when 60-year-old Burt Wikmunea went missing from his Aurukun home.

But it didn’t take long for word to spread of the respected Wik elder’s disappearance and an army of locals was quick to enlist and scour the surrounding area.

The team from RESET (Remote Environment Skills Employment and Training) led by Tim White was heavily involved in the search for the known dementia sufferer.

“It was absolutely incredible,” he said.

The Aurukun community banded together to search for local man Burt Wikmunea who went missing on August 3 and was located on August 6. Picture: QPS

“Someone shouldn’t be alive after spending three nights in the bush up here.

“This is so incredibly dangerous, we had a police officer with a high-powered rifle aimed at the swamp. And our fears were Burt would be down in the swamp and eaten by a croc.

“How does someone survive in a swamp surrounded by pigs and crocs?”

Raised in the traditional way, Mr Wikmunea grew up in Aurukun learning to live from the land in an imparting of bush skills passed on through lived survival experience spanning a millennia, Mr White said.

Cape York locals search for Aurukun local Burt Wikmunea. Picture: QPS

“I would probably suggest, while he had dementia in the real word it may have been some help in keeping him alive because his mind regressed back to what he learnt as a young fella,” he said.

Mr White said the Aurukun elder was eventually found 650m from the township protected from sight by thick bull rushes of a swamp after an exhaustive three-day search.

“The bush is so dense and so thick and he was so well concealed, we’re at the end of the wet and there’s an abundance of grass,” he said.

“If you stepped to the left you would have missed him.”

The search party poses for a photo outside the Aurukun police station. Picture: QPS

Mr White credited the positive search outcome to the coming together of modern search techniques and ancient skills of traditional tracker Michael Woolla.

“Literally his vigilance to identify disturbances led to the advising of the SES and provided the framework and governance of search patterns and the pairing of that knowledge was the reason the search was so successful,” he said.

“Without each other we couldn’t have done it and the celebration when we found him monumental.”

Riders join the search for missing Aurukun man Burt Wikmunea. Picture: QPS

But the effort was not without risk or hospitalisation of a RESET team member.

Walking in a line through thick bush searchers became hemmed in between a sheer cliff and a wall of vegetation.

That’s when a pack of wild pigs came storming through the bush.

“The pigs became quite aggressive and in a few seconds the pigs were running in all directions,” he said.

“As it came through the dense foliage it knocked him aside and the pigs tusk lacerated his forearm.”

Burt Wikmunea was eventually found on August 6. Picture: Supplied

Mr White described the survival of Mr Wikmunea as human life prevailing against all odds in a supremely hostile environment.

“The guy, against all odds from many angles, survived the harshest environment in Australia surrounded by deadly animals,” he said.

“Just imagine the cacophony of animal sounds at night whose sole purpose is to hunt prey; it must have been absolutely terrifying.

“We most likely will never know how he survived, but either way he survived and it’s an incredible outcome.

“We are immensely proud of what we achieved.”

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Originally published as Snakes, crocs and pigs overcome in epic story of remote survival