William Tyrrell: Police divers scour dam at Kendall
Experts say any evidence, including human remains, could have only been washed a short distance away from the main dig site. Police divers have been called in to search downstream.
Mid-North Coast
Don't miss out on the headlines from Mid-North Coast. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Police divers began searching a small dam less than 100m downstream from the William Tyrrell dig site on Thursday morning as the search for the missing boy continued to expand.
Hydrologist Dr Jon Olley has told searchers that any evidence, including human remains, would have only moved to the dam if they had been dislodged over time from their original resting place.
The dam is only about the size of a tennis court and is filling up with overnight rain.
The creek which runs through the main dig site off Batar Creek Rd meanders underneath the roadway and into the dam.
The divers will also do a line search through the slow-running pools within the creek back towards the dig site.
Although the dam would have been searched before, with it now being over seven years since William disappeared from the Kendall home, there is a chance that anything once on dry land had been dislodged.
Dr Olley has also told searchers that any evidence once on the surface could have slowly seeped into the soil over time.
At least one flood, in 2019, has run through the area since William vanished.
The team of divers submerged into the dam as an excavator continued to painstakingly scrape the top of the bare earth at the main dig site near Cobb and Co Rd on Thursday morning.
Each bucket is being sifted by hand by police while other officers use hoes to dig around the base of gum trees.
It is now the 11th day of the search of what police have described as a significant area of interest and possibly the resting place of William.
Other police were clearing thick scrub south of the creek for further excavations.
The search is expected to continue for weeks.
EARLIER
Police divers will be brought in to search downstream from the main dig site on Thursday as the search for the remains of William Tyrrell painstakingly continues at Kendall.
The team of divers were sent to the Benaroom Dr home where William was last seen in 2014 on Wednesday afternoon, using a camera mounted on a pole to investigate the inside of a water tank underneath the back balcony.
The camera was also used to look in an underground septic tank situated in a garden bed less than 10 metres away.
Both tanks have been searched in the past.
But the divers will head to the main search site off Batar Creek Rd on Thursday morning to search downstream from the digging area.
It will include a small dam – about 20 metres by 30 metres – which the creek drains into.
Hydrologist Dr Jon Olley has told Strike Force Rosann investigators that water movement through the area near Cobb and Co Rd – the site which has been identified as significant by detectives – could have only carried any evidence, including human remains, less than 100 metres away.
The small waterway meanders adjacent to Cobb and Co Rd and underneath Batar Creek Rd, where rain has created large pools of slow running water.
It comes as specialist police spent their 10th day slowly sifting through soil at the ever-expanding search site.
An area along the northern side of the tiny creek has now been completely cleared by police and Rural Fire Service personnel.
An excavator continued to slowly drag up fresh earth before police sifted through the soil by hand.
Tents and tarpaulins continue to cover much of the site to keep the dirt from becoming too muddy.
Rural Fire Service crews also returned to an area south of the creek to begin clearing further search areas using chainsaws and industrial-sized whipper-snippers.
The patch of scrub and creek has been identified as a significant area of interest for detectives continuing to search for evidence to what happened to William seven years ago.
Several items have already been bagged and sent away for further analysis in the first nine days of the search, which is expected to continue for weeks.
Nothing of significance is believed to have been unearthed on Wednesday.
The search is expected to continue for several weeks.
Hundreds of sandstone blocks to protect critically endangered birds
Never mind the bollards: Hundreds of sandstone blocks have been left on a Coffs Coast foreshore to protect critically endangered shorebirds increasingly at risk of extinction.
Remember their names! Best 125 NSW teens chasing Waratahs U15 squad spots
They are the top 125 U15 rugby youngsters in NSW given the chance to impress in the Gen Next Cup as they chase a spot in their first Waratahs squad. See who made the cut.