A man in his 40s has survived a gruelling and perilous 40-kilometre trek through knee-deep flood mud in remote Outback Queensland, culminating in a dramatic, last-minute helicopter rescue.
A Desperate Journey Through Saturated Terrain
The Mount Isa-based LifeFlight aeromedical crew was tasked on Monday morning with locating the man, who had become stranded roughly 140 kilometres south of Hughenden in Central Queensland. His journey had begun in Toowoomba, heading north towards Hughenden, when his vehicle became bogged on a flood-damaged road on Saturday night.
LifeFlight pilot Andrew Caldwell described the challenging conditions. "(He) had gone down this road that was essentially quite damaged from the floods and the amount of rain that this area's received," Caldwell said. Operating approximately 500 kilometres from their base, the crew initially found the deserted road closed in both directions with no sign of the man at his last reported coordinates.
Tracing Footprints in the Mud
The breakthrough came when the helicopter crew located the man's vehicle about four-and-a-half kilometres south of their initial search point. The car appeared to have become stuck during an attempted U-turn, leaving it hopelessly bogged.
Scanning the saturated landscape, the rescuers spotted a single set of footprints leading away. "The whole area is completely saturated and the black soil in the area is just thick, heavy mud — sort of ankle to almost knee-deep in some places," Caldwell explained. "We could see these beautiful footprints just walking southbound along the track. He must have been carrying at least two, three kilograms of mud on each foot for a while."
The crew followed the trail, noting the man had wisely stayed on the road. However, with fuel running critically low, they faced a difficult decision: continue the search or turn back to Hughenden to refuel.
A Lucky Find and a Second Rescue
At the last possible moment, the crew spotted what looked like a star picket in the distance. There, they finally found the exhausted man, roughly 38 kilometres from his abandoned vehicle.
"The gentleman had his phone, but it looked flat," Caldwell recalled. "He had no shoes, no water, no food. He just looked absolutely exhausted. You could tell on his face that he was sick of walking." The man was dehydrated but otherwise in reasonable condition given his ordeal.
He was swiftly airlifted to Hughenden Airport, where Queensland Police officers transported him to the local hospital for assessment and care.
In a separate but related mission, the same LifeFlight helicopter later rescued two other men, also in their 40s, whose ute had become bogged about 70 kilometres south of Hughenden. The pair had been stranded overnight, with one requiring medical attention. They were also flown to Hughenden Airport and taken to hospital.
Major flood warnings remain in place across vast areas of Queensland, reminding residents and travellers of the ongoing dangers posed by the saturated landscape and damaged infrastructure in the state's remote regions.
