Hopes of finding missing man alive in the outback diminishes as Police conclude search

Police have stopped searching for a 67-year-old man missing in the state’s scorching outback, as hopes of finding him alive fade.

A 2003 aerial shot of a remote dam on the Welbourn Hill cattle station, 33kms southeast of Marla in SA’s outback. Picture: Lindsay Moller

The search for a missing man in the state’s Far North outback has come to an end after more than six days since he was first reported missing.

The hunt began after the 67-year-old man was reported missing by staff at the Welbourn Hill Station, a 3400sq km pastoral lease east of Marla around 3.30pm on Saturday, February 4.

Police ended the search on February 10, after the man wasn’t found despite an extensive search of an area around Welbourn Hill, near Marla.

Police braved the scorching heat, with the help of local patrols from the APY Lands, Oodnadatta and Marla, plus extra help from PolAir and Mounted Operations, SES members and volunteers from Welbourn Hill station.

Police say they will continue to monitor the region, and urge anyone with information about his disappearance to contact the police assistance line.

It is understood the man lives alone in a shack at the station and the alarm was raised when staff could not find him during a regular welfare check.

Several SES crews and police faced 40C temperatures during the search, in an effort to locate the man.

Peter Moore – who owns the Pink Roadhouse, at Oodnadatta, about 160km east of the search area – said it was unlikely the man would be found alive.

Peter Moore owner of Pink Roadhouse. Picture: Pink Roadhouse Facebook

“As far as I know he was a bit of a recluse and had some health conditions including dementia, so all those factors made finding him even more urgent,” he said.

“We’ve had 41-degree temperatures for two days and today is the third. You don’t walk in the desert in that type of heat, in fact you don’t even work in that heat.”

Mr Moore said road closures would make search efforts even more challenging.

“I think they’ve had around 40 to 80mm of rain and all the roads are closed going into the area they’re searching,” he said at the time.

“That’s why they’ve got the chopper and police on horsebacks.”

Marla is about 970km northwest of Adelaide and 400km south of Alice Springs.

Originally published as Hopes of finding missing man alive in the outback diminishes as Police conclude search