Tip after weekend rescues

EMERGENCY services are urging nature enthusiasts to pack personal locator beacons or at least a spare battery pack for mobile phones to make any potential rescue easier.

State Emergency Service volunteers were busy over the weekend, with a 25-year-old man winched from Mt Tyson on Saturday afternoon, and a 23-year-old woman stretchered to safety after breaking her ankle on the Bump Track near Port Douglas.

SES regional duty officer Matt Currey said 13 SES members helped stretcher the woman who broke her ankle 2.5km to the top of the Bump Track on Saturday morning, getting her to an ambulance after an hour-long rescue.

Mr Currey said the SES were then called to a searchand-rescue at Mt Tyson, above Tully, for a 25-year-old, who had become disoriented and walked off the track.

Three SES members assisted police in a search of the track, speaking to the lost man on his mobile phone and trying to use the device’s GPS location to pinpoint him.

After beginning the search at 2pm, and with light quickly fading, the man was winched to safety by the QGAir Rescue 510 helicopter about 6.30pm.

Mr Currey said the SES and QPS searchers were safely off the mountain by about 8pm.

Mr Currey said it was important for people to be prepared when they headed into the great outdoors – with food, water and a battery pack.

“If they’re in phone range, we can get their GPS data; we can get them to download an app to tell us what their GPS location is, and they can send us a screenshot,” he said.