Australian and Victorian stories of survival in the bush
The miraculous discovery of missing man Robert Weber is just the latest tale of survival in the bush in Australia. These are some of the most famous and heartwarming from our history.
THE Australian environment is beautiful, but get caught unawares or unprepared and it can also be deadly.
Which makes some of the tales of survival dotted throughout our history so amazing and memorable.
Just last week 58-year-old Robert Weber was found safe and well almost three weeks after he was reported missing. He was found by Gympie MP Tony Perrett and Perrett’s wife on their property, having survived for 18 days on “wild mushrooms and dam water”.
These are some more of Victoria’s, and Australia’s best tales of survival that had amazed and thrilled us.
WILLIAM CALLAGHAN
MT DISAPPOINTMENT should be renamed Mt Miracle following the happy ending to the ordeal of missing teen William Callaghan last year.
The 14-year-old, who has autism and is non-verbal, went missing for 46 hours in freezing conditions in June. He was eventually found by one of the hundreds of volunteers and emergency crews who took part in the search.
“I’m immensely relieved,” his mum, Penny Callaghan said.
“I am really overwhelmed. He is as well as can be expected under the circumstances.”
Among William’s first requests was for McDonalds.
MORE: MASS’S MANSFIELD FARM SUPPORTING AUTISTIC KIDS AND THEIR FAMILIES
JEAN PATRICK EVELEIGH
IF THE heartbreak of losing their home wasn’t enough to bear, one East Gippsland family then had to endure another horrific ordeal when their little boy went missing early last year.
Thankfully, this story had a happy ending.
Jean Patrick Eveleigh went missing from Waterholes, north of Bairnsdale, last January. His parents’ property had been burnt out during the East Gippsland bushfires.
About a day later the four year old was found safe and sound, covered in dust after spending the night in the bush.
THE COOPER-DUFF CHILDREN
THIS story became well-known across Australia, and was part of school texts.
In August 1864 siblings Isaac Cooper, 9, Jane Cooper, 7, and Frank Duff, 3, got lost in the Wimmera scrub. It was nine days before they were found. Jane in particular was feted a hero for taking care of her brothers during that time, and there is a memorial stone erected for her.
It will now be brought to life on Horsham’s first silo art mural. According to the local council, the artwork will aim to retell and refocus the story from the perspective of Yanggendyinanyuk, an Indigenous man who located the Cooper-Duff children.
CLARA CROSBY
ANOTHER case of a babe lost in the woods, this one from 1885 in the Yarra Ranges. Clara Crosby set out to visit a neighbour, but got lost on the return trip home to Woori Yallock. When the girl was found three weeks later she was reported by The Weekly Times to have been “nearly dead from hunger and exhaustion, at a spot on the Cockatoo Creek, distant about two miles from her home. She had supported herself by eating berries, roots, and herbs.”
REG FOGGERDY
DESPERATE times call for desperate measures when it comes to what people will eat in order to survive.
Reg Foggerdy got lost while hunting a camel in WA, 170km east of Laverton. He survived on ants and without water after he got lost for six days in 2015.
By the time he was found he was “extremely dehydrated”, Superintendent Andy Greatwood told ABC.
“His last couple of days of survival were achieved by lying down under a tree and eating black ants, so that’s the level of survival that Mr Foggerdy has gone to.
“[He had] no water whatsoever for six days.”
ROBERT BOGUCKI
It was heralded as a bush miracle.
Robert Bogucki, an Alaskan, was found by a media crew in a helicopter after being missing for six weeks in the Great Sandy Desert. He had been the subject of two search-and-rescue missions, one by Broome Police, the other by US-based 1st Special Response Group.
”You know the things I’ve seen and the things I’ve experienced, I can’t really say specifically what it was,’’ the gaunt Alaskan fireman said.
“I do feel satisfied that I scratched that itch — whatever that was — that sent me out there in the first place.
“So as far as saying exactly what it was, the feeling I have right now is a real feeling of confidence God will take care of you, I guess.
“But I don’t want to do any more thinking about that in the days to come.’’
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