A 66-year-old woman who spent the night missing in South Australian bushland has been found alive and uninjured by police on Wednesday morning.
South Australia Police Superintendent Paul Isherwood confirmed that emergency crews located the missing hiker at Mount Remarkable just hours after a multi-agency search was launched at 8.30am.
Speaking to ABC Radio Adelaide on Wednesday morning, Superintendent Isherwood said she was safe following her night in the bush. "We found her just a few minutes ago and she's quite safe and well now," he said.
The alarm was first raised at 9.15pm on Tuesday after the woman failed to return home from her hike. She had set out on the popular trail with a friend earlier in the day, but continued to the summit alone after her companion returned to town at about 4pm.
Police dispatched the PolAir helicopter to begin an overnight air search across the region on Tuesday evening. Emergency services also conducted a ground search of national park trails overnight, but found no trace of the woman.
Mount Remarkable National Park is situated in the Southern Flinders Ranges, approximately a three-and-a-half-hour drive from Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. The park is popular among hikers for its mountain trails and scenic natural terrain.
Multi-agency search operation launched
The search effort expanded significantly on Wednesday morning with the launch of a multi-agency operation involving police patrols, Mounted Operations officers on horseback, and State Emergency Service (SES) volunteers searching on foot.
Search crews contended with damp ground and swollen waterways following recent rain. SES North duty officer Ben Birbeck said volunteers had been dealing with wet conditions in the area. "We've had a long wet period in the region, so there's a bit of dampness and water in the area," he said.
A local resident told the Daily Mail that recent heavy rainfall had made the trails tricky to navigate, despite maintenance work carried out by national park staff following a bushfire about 1.5 years ago.
"The trails are very well maintained, and since the fire about 1.5 years ago, we've had the National Park guys up there maintaining it. But we've had a lot of rain recently, so there's bulk water and the creeks are roaring," the resident said.
"They're up to one metre deep in some parts, and moving fast. People who have lived here for 60 to 70 years have never seen it like this, so conditions up there are tough."
The resident added that temperatures had dropped overnight, increasing concern for the hiker's safety. "It was also fairly cold last night, colder than other nights recently. The signs aren't too good," they said.
National park rescue efforts
The State Emergency Service is a volunteer emergency organisation that assists police with land searches, storm operations, and rescues in regional Australia, while PolAir serves as the police aviation response unit.
The rescue at Mount Remarkable comes just weeks after 18-year-old Lily Hooper went missing while hiking in Nattai National Park in New South Wales. In that case, her body was found eight days later following an extensive search operation.
