Ahmad Raza charged after allegedly escaping St Heliers Correctional Centre at Muswellbrook

An afternoon trudging 12km through glorious Upper Hunter farming land has also meant a trip from the perks of minimum security to the harsh confines of maximum security for a wannabe escapee caught in a matter of hours.

Ahmad Raza, 29, is alleged to have escaped from the minimum-security St Heliers Correctional Centre at Muswellbrook. (File picture)

An hours’ long sojourn through some picturesque Upper Hunter farming land has also transported a wannabe jail escapee back into the harsh confines of maximum security prison.

Pakistan national Ahmad Raza, 29, had been seeing out his six-year sentence at the relatively comfortable surrounds of the minimum-security St Heliers Correctional Centre at Muswellbrook – where he had permission to be outside the perimeter of the jail as part of his work commitments.

But authorities will allege Raza disappeared sometime on Saturday – he was last seen near the jail’s kitchen and laundry about 11am and was reported as a suspected escapee when he could not be located at 2.30pm.

But as a large-scale manhunt was kicking off to find the inmate, a landholder at McCully’s Gap made a phone call to local police about a fellow walking through his property.

It was 4.50pm and it was Raza, and the rural property on Dolahentys Branch Rd was about 12km from the jail’s perimeter.

St Heliers Correctional Centre in Muswellbrook is a minimum security prison. (File picture)

He was arrested and returned to the custody of Corrective Services NSW before being issued a court attendance notice on a charge of being an inmate escape/attempt to escape from lawful custody.

Raza will appear before Muswellbrook Local Court on August 19.

In the meantime, his maximum security clearance has been replaced with a reclassification as a maximum security prisoner.