Two people chasing perfect photo saved by police dog after getting lost in Budderoo National Park
Two Instagrammers were lucky police dog Dravec was on the beat to save their lives when they became lost in the bush while chasing the perfect photograph.
NSW
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Two Instagrammers were lucky police dog Dravec was on the beat to save their lives when they became lost in the bush while chasing the perfect photograph.
The seven-year-old Malinois was last month awarded the Service Dog Hero Award for finding the pair lost in Budderoo National Park near Kangaroo Valley.
On March 3, male and female bartenders from Darlinghurst went to Budderoo to take Instagram pictures at the Gerringong Falls.
When they arrived at Budderoo Plateau carpark it was 5pm and they took the 8km trek to the falls, Dravec’s handler Senior Constable David Cole said.
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Family and friends called police at 12.30am the following day.
“I got there 1.30am, it was pitch black, there was no moon that night,” Sen Con Cole said.
Polair failed to locate the pair using thermal imaging equipment so it was time for Dravec to take over with the hound picking up the scent of the pair seven hours after they had passed through bush en route to the falls.
“Dravec is trained to follow the most recent human scent and because it had been about seven hours since they have been through there, the trail was gone,” he said.
“So then he starts looking for the windborne scent.”
They reached the top of the falls and Snr Con Cole could see a light coming from the bottom.
“I shouted out to where the light was coming from but I didn’t get a response,” he said.
“I had concerns they were injured. The track isn’t marked down to the bottom of the waterfall so I had to put a harness on Dravec and like abseiling I had to lower him down. I told him to stay at the bottom as I made my way down there. Finally I made it down and … we found them sitting on a rock in the middle of the creek.”
The young woman had fallen into the water and was cold but both of them were otherwise uninjured.
Snr Con Cole said he was accustomed to relying on canines after working with them for 17 years. Last week he and his other dog Stella rescued another two lost hikers on Mount Keira.
“There are countless jobs where we have no other means but to use our dogs to find offenders, track people or discover them concealed in bush,” he said.
“Dravec is trained to bite and apprehend a fleeing offender, or vice versa, if someone attacks me or another police officer he will know to grab hold of a person to allow me the time to try another tactic on them.”
Sen Con Cole said the police dogs have saved his life before when he had been in “hairy situations where someone is trying to harm me and the dog is able to grab hold of them.”
NSW Police has dozens of dogs specialising in general duties, drug detection, cadaver sniffing, blood hounds and search and rescue dogs.
The dogs are located in Sydney, Newcastle, Port Macquarie, Lismore and Ballina.
Originally published as Two people chasing perfect photo saved by police dog after getting lost in Budderoo National Park
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