BM Gazette 31 July 1991: On Saturday 27 July 1991. 56 searchers set off from the Golden Staircase on Narrowneck Plateau to look for a man who had been missing for five days in freezing winter weather. The search for the man began after his mother had received a letter from him posted by a bushwalker, the previous day and had phoned police. They eventually found him but by then he was suffering from hypothermia and had been unconscious for two days. He was eventually winched up to a NRMA Careflight helicopter and taken to Westmead Hospital, where he was described as being in a serious condition.
During the search one of the bushfire brigade volunteers, Dale Patterson, fell down a steep embankment suffering a severe laceration to his head. Careflight airlifted the victim to Clairvaux Oval. He was then taken by ambulance to Katoomba Hospital.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t the only volunteer injured, Julia Laurie, of Lawson Bushfire Brigade, stumbled heavily during a search in difficult terrain and twisted her knee. She was unable to walk the three kilometres to the base and was also lifted out by Careflight, only this time a horse collar was used.
A four legged volunteer was also rescued. When a bushfire brigade member’s dog followed the police rescuers back to the helicopter when it landed at the Narrowneck helipad, it was decided to take the dog in the helicopter leaving the owner to walk the hour and a half out of the valley!
The whole operation took from about six hours. Sgt. P. Tunchon co-ordinated the search and rescue. Forty members of the BM Bushfire brigade and SCAT paramedics as well as the Police Rescue Squad took part in the search. the pictures show (top) the missing man being carried from the helicopter and (bottom) Dale Patterson being carried to the waiting ambulance.
