AUSTRALIAN FOUND AFTER 18 DAYS SURVIVED ON MUSHROOMS, DAM WATER

A missing Australian man has been found alive after surviving on wild mushrooms and dam water for three weeks.

robert Weber, 58, was last seen on Jan 6, leaving the Kilkivan Hotel-motel, 210 kilometres north of brisbane, Queensland, in his car with his dog.

Search efforts were called off earlier this week, but he was discovered on Sunday by a local politician and his wife.

Police reported that Weber was safe and well, despite “suffering exposure to the elements.”

He had become disorientated in the heat, but managed to stay close to a dam. “He left on foot and became lost and remained at a dam where he survived by sleeping on the ground, drinking dam water and eating mushrooms,” Queensland police said in a statement.

Weber ran into trouble when his ford falcon became bogged down on an unfamiliar road.

He waited in his car for three days, but was forced to abandon the vehicle when his water ran out.

The car was found by search-and-rescue teams on Jan. 17, but Weber and his dog had long since moved on.

He was discovered more than three kilometres away from his vehicle by the local MP for gympie, Tony Perrett, and his wife, who told the Australian broadcasting Company: “We’d been past this dam on numerous occasions over the last week and when we saw him there it was just quite extraordinary.”

Perrett had decided to continue searching for Weber, despite police calling off the extensive ground and air hunt a few days before.

“He said he was trying to get to Caboolture and he got disorientated ... he became lost and didn’t know where he was,” Perrett added.

Weber became separated from his dog at an unknown point and it has yet to be found.