David Layton, Brad Warwick, Peter Notley on Burnett missing women

A group of local trail bike riders who found two missing women in rugged bushland north west of Brisbane have spoken about the extraordinary series of events that led them there.

Five trail bike riders who helped find two women lost for two nights in rugged and near-freezing South Burnett bushland say they started looking “exactly where we thought they were”.

Peter Notley, 43, Brad Warwick, 44, Adam “Scoutman” Dow, 39, David Layton, 48, and Johan Erkens brought about a swift end to the two-day search for missing Nanango prospectors Michelle Lyn Melbourne, 54, and Nikita May Bennett, 36, on Sunday.

The two women had gone missing after leaving the Nanango Tarong Rd about 11am on Friday, June 23. They were on their way to fossick for gold at the Seven Mile Diggings, which is an old mine site 11km south east of Nanango.

On Friday night, the alarm was raised that the two had not returned home.

Search efforts started on the Saturday but failed to locate the women, meaning they had to endure a second night lost and cold.

The quartet of friends (Mr Notley, Mr Warwick, Mr Dow and Mr Layton) went to the search basecamp on Saturday to see if they could help.

They left without joining the search, but Mr Notley said they had a clear idea of where they thought the women were.

Nikita May Bennett and Michelle Lyn Melbourne disappeared after leaving Nanango Tarong Rd at 11am Friday, June 23, 2023. They were found two days later by a group of trail bike riders.

“That’s our playground,” Mr Warwick said.

“I know those tracks with my eyes shut.”

The four jumped on their bikes about 5.30am on Sunday and started riding around the Seven Mile Diggings, where they were soon joined by Mr Erkens on his bike.

Mr Warwick said it was about 7.45am when they first heard the women.

“We could quite clearly hear the ladies calling out to us,” Mr Warwick said.

Adam Dow, Peter Notley and Johan Erkens were among the group of five who helped locate two missing women lost in the South Burnett for two days.

Mr Layton said it was an exciting and uplifting moment which sparked the group’s “sense of urgency”.

A new problem soon emerged: echoes.

They could hear them yelling out, but the initial thought that they were just on the other side of the mountain was soon shattered.

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Brad Warwick raced to the police base camp after they found the missing women near Muller’s Falls, about 20km from Nanango.

“They were further away than what we thought,” Mr Warwick said

It was not until almost an hour later they finally pinpointed where the women were holed up: in a demountable “hunting hut” on the other side of a gorge at Muller’s Falls, about 20km outside Nanango and within a 1km radius of where their belongings were.

Mr Layton said the gap was about 500m wide, “very deep with very steep walls”.

“We couldn’t reach them,” Mr Warwick said.

“I’m still stumped as to how they got to the other side of the Muller’s Falls.

David Layton said there was a gorge about 500m-wide between the group of men and where the two women were sheltering in a demountable “hut”.

“It’s inaccessible in a 4WD from the other side.”

Mr Notley said heading towards them meant descending down an 80-degree slope littered with big boulders.

The “hut” was equally puzzling with Mr Notley and Mr Warwick saying they had never seen it before in their countless forays into the Diggings.

He returned to the search basecamp while his friends stayed behind and tried to reach the hut. They were unable to.

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The area around where the women were found was rough and strewn with boulders. Brad Warwick said he was “stumped” as to how the women wound up on the side of it they did.

Mr Warwick said searchers were ecstatic when he broke the news, and motorbike-mounted officers returned with him to the site, and gained access.

The two women were then airlifted out and taken to Kingaroy Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Mr Layton said Mr Warwick’s knowledge of the area, Queensland Remote Area Trackers, and the police searchers all deserved a fair share of the praise for the successful outcome.

The group of bike riders have yet to meet either of the women rescued yet.

Mr Notley said he would be keen to change that.

“We’d love to say g’day to them,” he said.