TWO young men rescued after going missing for five days in flooded and boggy gulf country lived by cooking rotten meat on a shovel and masking the flavour with garlic.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Luke Andus and Solomon Love, both 19, were found camping next to the Gregory River, about 40km southwest of Doomadgee, where their car had bogged on their way to Doomadgee for housing construction work.
The 24-hour search began when their employer raised the alarm that the boys, from Cairns, did not report for work and had not been heard from since last Friday.
<#start#>
Spotters in one of several commercial and police planes searching the large district between Burketown, Doomadgee, Gregory Downs and Normanton, located the boys about 12.30pm yesterday.
The RACQ NQ Rescue Helicopter was called in and the weary but thankful travellers were extracted about an hour later.
Co-pilot Brett Knowles said Andus and Love told his crew they did not know if anyone was out looking for them, even though fixed wing aircraft had been flying nearby.
"They reckoned that another day out there and they would be getting really worried," he said.
Click on the image to see more photos.
Mr Knowles said the men told him they had been drinking water from the flooded river, strained through their clothes, as they had only brought a few cans of soft drink and some water with them.
"They had some meat in the esky, but the ice had melted and it was a bit rotten.
"But they cooked up the shovel for a while to burn the paint off it, put in some oil and heaps of garlic and cooked the rotten meat."
He said the men were in good health with no injuries.
They were flown to the Doomadgee Hospital where they passed a physical and were allowed to go on their way to meet their anxious employer.
Mr Knowles said the men's white Nissan four-wheel-drive ute was heavily laden with the builder contractors' tools and was bogged too deep to be moved.
Mount Isa Police District Inspector Trevor Kidd said at one stage the boys walked for a day to find help, but returned after they realised they would be better off next to the vehicle.
Mr Kidd praised the "great support" received by station owners who used their own staff and vehicles to help in the search, and the commercial aircraft operators.
He sounded a warning that if you travel in this area to let other people know.
"Because of the poor judgement of these two men a lot of people have taken a lot of time and money to find them."
Mr Kidd said police were notified of the men's absence late Tuesday and commenced "a full-blown" search immediately.
Mr Knowles said when he and rescue crew captain Terry Gadenne and crew Ashley Milroy met the boys "they were just ecstatic".
"Their spirits lifted 150% and about 1000 handshakes later were still saying thanks."
