Yang Chen: Missing woman found five days after disappearing near Gorge Falls in Tallebudgera Valley

A Gold Coast university student used survival skills she learned from a surprising source to survive five days lost in the bush.

A GOLD Coast university student used survival skills featured on TV shows like Man vs Wild to help endure five harrowing days trekking through dense bush after she went missing.

Yang Chen, 26, became separated while bushwalking with a man aged in his 50s near Gorge Falls in Tallebudgera Valley last Wednesday.

Heavy downpours forced Gold Coast Water Police and other agencies to call off the search several times due to safety concerns.

Yang Chen recovering in hospital on Monday.

Ms Chen’s friend was initially sure his companion had drowned in raging waterways swollen by floodwaters and search efforts were split between water and land.

Water police Acting Senior Sergeant Mitch Gray said Ms Chen repeatedly spotted a search helicopter flying overhead each day between Friday and Sunday.

But the exhausted, hungry and dehydrated student was unable to find a clearing to attract attention, despite her frantic efforts.

“If she hadn’t stayed near a water supply I’m fairly confident on Sunday she wouldn’t have been alive, or at least in the condition we found her,” Act Snr Sgt Gray said.

Yang Chen perched on the cliff where she was discovered.

“She mentioned she’d watched the wildlife survival TV shows and thought to apply some of that stuff.”

Eventually, Ms Chen was found on a ledge about halfway up a 60m cliff by authorities, a short time after a bushwalking team unknowingly passed right by her.

Searchers asked Ms Chen to sit still while they bravely scaled the rock face to collect her.

“Our guys were very nervous. She was on the edge of a cliff, so she looked very unsteady on her feet,” Act Snr Sgt Gray said.

Ms Chen had used a plastic milk bottle she found to collect water and curled up in a banana sack to stay warm, unaware she was near a plantation and a potential lifeline.

Members of the Gold Coast search and rescue team with missing Chinese woman Yang Chen who had been missing for five days near Gorge Falls at Tallebudgera. Picture: QPS

MOMENT YANG CHEN WAS RESCUED

She had her mobile phone when she embarked on her hike, but lost the device, which had no signal, when her belt dropped from her waist because of severe weight loss.

Ms Chen had left hospital by late Tuesday morning and was reportedly in good spirits, though she had wrongly feared she would be made to pay for the search.

Act Snr Sgt Gray said Ms Chen had a will to survive and held out hope through her ordeal.

He said before heading out bush preparations should include carrying an EPIRB (emergency position indicating radio beacon) and a fully charged phone.

Police were increasingly concerned Ms Chen would not be found alive. Picture: Jerad Williams

Inexperienced bushwalkers like Ms Chen who find themselves lost should try to remain in one area.

“In this scenario, if she had just followed the creek downstream it would have actually returned her to the car park,” he said.

Act Snr Sgt Gray said Gold Coast Water Police co-ordinate between 70-80 missing person operations annually, split between land and marine rescues.

He said “one or two a month” generally get lost in Gold Coast national parks.