Christopher Webber was born in England and lived in Sierra Leone and Sri Lanka before moving to Australia. He has been bushwalking in Australia and overseas for more than 50 years, and led walks for the All Nations Bushwalking Club. At the beginning of 2020, after the Federal government cut TAFE funding significantly, he was made redundant, after 15 years’ service with TAFE and the Department of Education. Noticing that the incidents described in this book are happening again and again, he decided to try writing a history book that might help reduce their frequency and alert visitors to the issue. In 2021, he won first prize for his presentation about the book at the AFAC21 Fire & Emergency Services Conference. The presentation celebrated how well the local emergency services work together, an essential ingredient for the almost routine success of Blue Mountains search and rescue operations.
Christopher has been a member of Blue Mountains SES since 2001, and a SES member for 25 years. He is the recipient of the National Medal, the 2019-2020 Bushfire Citation, the NSW SES Long Service Medal, the National Emergency Medal and other awards. He has been involved in many searches for missing persons as well as other dramatic events described in the book. He has published two military history books, many articles, and a World War 2 hex -and-counter type historical simulation game. He wrote the training manuals for his IT courses.
He worked in the IT industry as a trainer, project manager, software tester, website content editor, and IT support technician for over 30 years. He has a degree in Ancient History, specialising on the Thracians and ancient warfare. He made significant contributions to the ancient & medieval historical strategy game Field of Glory 2. He studied History, Science, Journalism, IT, Adult Education and Training, and the Masters of Emergency Management.
Incidents in 2019
DEATHS/yr (Average)
Plane Crashes/yr (average)
MISSING/ YR (average)
People often climb over the fence and walk onto the ledge at Katoomba Falls, not realising that the fence is there because people have fallen to their deaths from this location. Police Rescue are kept busy telling people to move away from the edge.
How I Became interested in Mis-Adventure
As a member of the All Nations Bushwalking Club, based in Sydney, for 50 years, I was very much aware of the need for safety in bushwalking. The club had a perfect safety record despite having a very busy programme of walks of all types. I attended the TAFE Bushwalking Safety Course and became a walk leader. From 1995 I worked as an IT guy and trainer in the health industry and my mother is a nurse, so I was very concerned with health issues and occupational health and safety.
In 1986 I joined Burwood SES, and, after a short break, in 2001 joined Blue Mountains SES. Although a member of the headquarters group, I took part in searches as well, and there are, on average, about six searches that involve the local SES unit each year. On most searches, you don’t find out what is going on, just what you have to do (and due to privacy and confidentiality considerations, you don’t ask). It’s been very interesting to find out what happened afterwards.
Previous Publications
◦“How this engineer saves lives in the NSW Wilderness” Create 22 July 2021 https://createdigital.org.au/alan-sheehan-engineer-search-rescue/
◦“The German Funnies”, World At War #50 Oct-Nov 2016 pp 68-71
◦Sealion, The Proposed German Invasion of England, Hex and counter board game, Decision Games, 2017
◦The Gods of Battle – The Thracians at War, Pen & Sword, Barnsley, 2011
◦“Odrysian Cavalry Arms, Equipment, and Tactics“ British Archaeology Reports International Series 1139, Vol 2, 2003, pp 529-554
◦The Effect of Peltasts on Greek Warfare, Ancient Warfare XV.6 pp. 27-28
“The Thracian Mercenary”, Ancient Warfare IV-6 pp38-43
◦Book Review: “The Thracians in the Roman Imperial Army”, Ancient Warfare V-6, p. 55
◦Book Review “War Horse” by Louis Di Marco, Ancient Warfare, 2010
◦The Thracians 700 BC-46AD, Osprey Publishing, Oxford, 2001.
◦“The Thracians Colourful Barbarian Warriors from the North”, Wargames Illustrated, August 2001, pp 44-48
◦I have also published articles in Australian PC World, Engineering World, Slingshot, and other magazines/journals.
Recent Happenings
In 2019, there were 276 rescue operations involving outdoor adventure activities, the largest involving 11 people. There could easily have been 400 people rescued in total.
NSW National Parks says 683 people rescued in the last year, Digital Safety Upgrades announced
683 people had been rescued during land searches by police during the 2022-2023 financial year
Man Dies in Wollangambe Canyon
The death of two women in Wollganmbe 1, 2 January 2021, received a lot of media attention, but there have been many incidents there. Most recently, on March 23 2023, 39-year-old Munib Dar from St Ives got caught between rocks and died. He was close to the exit but I...
Leura Infinity Pool claims a victim – Not Worth it for A Selfie
The Infinity pool at the top of Leura Falls, below Leura Cascades, beloved by social media, has claimed a victim. Police Rescue is so annoyed by this darling of social media that they made a video about it. https://www.facebook.com/reel/829625805503457 They gave it...