Emotional moment missing Adelaide family is rescued in outback NSW
An Adelaide mother has told of a desperate two days lost in outback NSW with her family, as emotional footage of the moment they were rescued has been revealed.
SA News
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An Adelaide family stranded in outback NSW for two days had to drink puddle water infested with bugs to survive.
Footage has emerged of the moment mother Darian Aspinall, 27, and her two young children aged two and four – along with their grandmother, Leah Gooding, 50 – were travelling from Queensland to Adelaide when their Google maps directed them off track and they got bogged.
The family were found by a helicopter crew who spotted their vehicle along a dirt road in southeast Tibooburra in far northwest NSW on Tuesday.
Ms Aspinall told 7NEWS she thought her family would not survive.
“I honestly thought we were going to die, me and my mum had a tearful moment,” Ms Aspinall said,
The family survived off a bag of lollies and 1L of water until they became desperately thirsty.
“It was 48 hours at this point, so I went for a solo walk … and I found a puddle, it had bugs in it, dirt, but it was survival mode,” she told 7NEWS.
“We ended up with about 2L of puddle water, the kids sculled it, we sculled it, we didn’t care at that point, we were so dehydrated.”
AeroTech Hems pilot Nick Shrew said the family were waving their clothes in the air in an effort to get his attention.
“The ladies there were waving at us and so as we passed down one side I opened the window and waved back at them to let them know that we’d seen them,” he said.
“It was plainly clear when we landed and got out of the aircraft the sense of relief that they had, it was an emotional moment.”
It is believed that the family walked for four hours for help before returning to their car.
Detective Inspector Tom Aylett warned residents against GPS systems that reroute to roads “that aren‘t accessible” in a press conference on Tuesday.
The family were taken to the local hospital for treatment and returned to Adelaide on Wednesday.
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Originally published as Emotional moment missing Adelaide family is rescued in outback NSW
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