Mistake Creek dirt bike crash one of three RACQ CQ Rescue missions

In what has been described as an ‘epic’ mission to retrieve a teenage girl from a remote Queensland cattle property, a helicopter crew had to refuel twice to get her to hospital overnight.

In what RACQ CQ Rescue has described as an ‘epic’ 7.5-hour mission to retrieve a teen injured in a dirt bike crash, a helicopter crew had to travel more than 400km from the Mackay coast to reach the girl.

The seriously-injured teen was at a remote property at Mistake Creek, more than 400km from the CQ Rescue base, when she crashed about 4.30pm on Thursday.

The rescue crew flew so far south-west to reach the patient, it had to refuel at Clermont en route to the property as well as on the return leg at Moranbah before arriving at the Mackay Base Hospital about 2am.

The 16-year-old girl was riding a dirt bike on a remote cattle property at Mistake Creek when she crashed.

She suffered serious abdominal, leg and pelvic fractures and required aeromedical evacuation to hospital for treatment.

Queensland Health tasked the rescue service about 7.20pm to fly to the property — about 100km west of Clermont — with a doctor, critical care paramedic and rescue crewman on board.

“The dust, darkness and remote nature of the property proved incredibly challenging for the crew when attempting to land the rescue helicopter near the homestead,” a RACQ CQ Rescue spokeswoman said.

“The teenage girl was administered pain relief and treated by the flying trauma team in an adjacent paddock before being loaded into the helicopter for the long flight to hospital.

“She arrived on board the chopper in a stable condition at Mackay Base Hospital more than

nine hours after her accident occurred.”

The girl remains in a stable condition.

It was the ninth mission in just three days for RACQ CQ Rescue.

The helicopter crew also helped Queensland Police Service with an aerial search after four children were taken from a home near The Leap, north of Mackay.

After an hour-long search of the Hampden area and along the Bruce Highway about 2pm on Thursday, RACQ CQ Rescue was re-tasked to a near-drowning in the Whitsundays.

A Victorian tourist was airlifted from Hamilton Island, about 90km north of Mackay, after an immersion incident on a boat anchored in waters nearby.

The patient, 43, was taken to the island and then taken to Mackay Base Hospital in a helicopter in a stable condition for further treatment.

He was discharged from hospital Friday morning.

This week RACQ CQ Rescue flew to Townsville twice in 24 hours to transfer critically ill and injured patients, to Ilbilbie on Wednesday night for a cardiac condition as airlifted multiple hospital patients from Proserpine and Moranbah to Mackay.