Why Bill Tomalin is one of Tassie’s most rescued bushwalkers after decades exploring

Self-described ‘lazy Pom’ and former high school teacher Bill Tomalin has been rescued more times than many while exploring Tasmania’s bush. Here’s why.

Bushwalker and outdoor educator Bill Tomalin has been rescued 10 times over his life time.

For most bushwalkers, calling search and rescue is a rare, once-in-a-lifetime event. But for veteran outdoor educator Bill Tomalin, it’s happened ten times over six decades of exploring Tasmania’s wilderness.

Mr Tomalin, 84, a former high school teacher, has spent his life leading students through some of the state’s most remote and rugged landscapes. And while he’s saved plenty of people in the wilderness, at times he’s also needed saving himself.

Bushwalker and outdoor educator Bill Tomalin has been rescued 10 times over his life time.

“When I look back, I don’t know how the hell we got away with it,” Mr Tomalin remembers.

His journey into the Tasmanian bush was unexpected. A self-described “lazy Pom”, he arrived at Huonville High School in 1963, lured by a generous teacher’s salary and good conditions.

“I fell in with the right people, and suddenly my life opened up to adventure activities,” Mr Tomalin recalls.

“I had no experience. I wouldn’t even walk to the bus stop in England if I could avoid it!”

But in Tasmania, he quickly became one of the teachers parents trusted to lead their children into the wild.

In the 1970s and 80s, Tasmania’s outdoor education scene was booming, with few regulations. Over the decades Mr Tomalin has fought against what he describes as the “over-regulation” of outdoor subjects, which “takes the adventure out of it”.

Bushwalker and outdoor educator Bill Tomalin sailing at Lake Silver.

“It was far less policed back then,” Mr Tomalin said.

“People are far more worried now than they’ve ever been.”

For decades, he led students on remote expeditions — bushwalking, rock climbing, caving, and kayaking – before eventually finding himself as state co-ordinator for Outdoor Ed.

At his peak, Mr Tomalin was out bush 36 weekends a year taking students on trips.

Calls for Help

Bushwalker and outdoor educator Bill Tomalin has been rescued 10 times over his life time.

His first search and rescue experience came in 1974 on Adamsons Peak, when a fellow teacher collapsed in excruciating pain.

“He’d walk 100 metres and keel over, then sit down and feel fine again,” Mr Tomalin recalled.

Not knowing the cause, he sent his two most capable students to walk out and call for help.

Some hours later, 30 police officers showed up.

“Three days later, he was in emergency surgery for a strangulated hernia. He could have died,” Mr Tomalin said.

Mr Tomalin’s most terrifying rescue happened when he was bitten by a snake in the Western Arthurs.

“I knew all the first-aid training. I knew I’d be fine,” he said.

“But emotionally, I was thinking, ‘I really hope I’m right.’”

Westpac rescue helicopter. Picture: Westpac/ Channel 7

He was choppered to safety, and the case became a St John Ambulance training study for snakebite treatments in the state.

In 2014 he was rescued from the Jupiter Range when a sudden blizzard hit while he was bush walking with two friends, forcing them to descend into treacherous terrain.

“I slipped, wrecked my ankle, and started shivering uncontrollably, hypothermia” he remembers.

His friends wrapped him in a sleeping bag, fed him hot soup, and called for a chopper rescue.

In 2020, aged 80, Mr Tomalin’s final rescue was off Lake Explorer, with a calf muscle rupture (his second).

Bushwalker and outdoor educator Bill Tomalin at Mt Ida in the Walls of Jerusalem National Park.

Over sixty years, Mr Tomalin has been rescued four times, and called for help six times for students or fellow walkers. The emergencies ranged from burst ovarian cysts and appendicitis, to a fractured hip and severe foot injuries.

Eventually, a few years after turning 80, he decided to step away from the outdoor life that had been both his profession and his passion.

“The body just doesn’t bounce back the same way,” he admitted. “I didn’t want to be that person who pushed it too far.”

Originally published as Why Bill Tomalin is one of Tassie’s most rescued bushwalkers after decades exploring