Resilience and Preparedness of a Traveling Family: Australian Rescue Services show their Professionalism
Australian Rescue Services show their Professionalism
Publication date: 2021-11-17
Update 2022-08-04: Culture section added.
Time for some happy news. An Australian couple with two children whose ages I guess at 4 years (son) and 7 years (daughter), were doing a tour of Australia including its outback in a clockwise direction from Perth. Having been through Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland, they were heading back towards Perth via South Australia.
At Birdsville in south western Queensland they'd spent a night at a hotel and then headed out across the Simpson Desert towards Oodnadatta on the “Birdsville Track”.
Timeline
The November 2021 timeline is based on the reports listed in sources below, though it was rather a challenge to dig it all out and cross reference it.
7th Sunday
The family heads into the Simpson Desert on route via the Birdsville Track to the nearest resupply point on the other side of the Simpson.
Evening of 7th
There is torrential rain, a "massive storm". "It was the worst storm we've had." "And, we've camped through a cyclone before. This felt worse, felt scarier."
Monday 8th
They pushed on, with difficulty.
10th Wednesday
The family have left the Simpson "technically" and were approaching the mud flats between them and their destination.
Family's campervan becomes bogged.
[Image: AMSA as published by the ABC. Note the flag. It has little contrast with the terrain, but does with the vehicle. It is not a civilian maritime flag, but does seem to indicate distress.]
They have food for 4 days, but can stretch it. They have many more days of water, and can stretch that too.
For the next two days they are considering options. Can we dig ourselves out? Will another traveler come to help?
What they did not know, was that all roads were closed. We'll come back to that.
12th Friday
At 10am the family activate their EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon). By 14:30 water and a satellite phone have been dropped by AMSA (Australian Maritime Safety Authority), contact is established, no injuries, (I assume supply levels are assessed), and the family seem mentally well.
Police are in contact with the family three times a day from here on in until rescue.
17th Wednesday
This seems to be the day of the rescue, though it may have been the day before, via winching to a police helicopter.
All are well. Case closed for AMSA, and handed off to community services by the South Australian (SA) Police.
Responses to Reporting
Firstly, well done Daniel Keane! He was on the story very soon after the EPIRB was set off and AMSA had delivered their first package of the satellite phone and water. (It should be noted that the ABC keep updating their stories, and its damn hard to keep track of them. ABC Radio Perth have in the last few hours been removed as the issuing group within the ABC of the initial story).
ABC's radio network is a critical national service. It is used to amply other essential services like weather warnings from the Bureau of Meteorology, warnings by State Emergency Services and many others. I image that the story would also have been carried on ABC's South Australian network.
Another great effort by the ABC reporters, apart from commentary by family, press releases by the SA Police, and AMSA, was speaking with the proprietors of local "pubs", Oodnadatta Pink Roadhouse owner Peter Moore, and Mt Dare Hotel owner Graham Scott. People living in densely populated cities and towns, or densely populated continents like Europe have little understanding of the importance of these "pubs". They are social meeting places, and provide essential services. In many of these "towns", the "pub" is it. It is the post office, and the petrol station too. The network of these "pubs" work together to form a travel safety network. I am certain that the family will have spoken to either the police or a "pub" proprietor in Birdsville and told them of their destination and approximate arrival time to Oodnadatta or wherever their destination was. The destination "pub" or police station would have been called and informed about the travelers, including their vehicle’s registration and their expected arrival time. It is this network of police or pubs which initiates search and rescue for many an ill prepared traveler in central Australia. So, I was very happy to see reporting of comments from these proprietors, largely about how long it would take for the roads to become re-usable, because they know, whereas communications officers for the South Australian Police in Adelaide do not.
Nonetheless, there were three elements of the reporting that I would liked to have seen given more attention given. As the event is now off the "radar" I'll use this little article to pay them more attention.
Touring the Great Southern Land
The parents are giving their two children one of the most wonderful gifts they will receive. But, "shouldn't that girl be in school?!". They are all "in school", learning about the country in which they live, the beauty it possesses and the challenges it poses. Those two children have just been given an incredibly valuable lesson too.
They witnessed their parents acting to support each other in a time of adversity. They were all required to limit their behaviour for the well being of all (no playing outside for the children, to avoid injury and "dirtiness" because they could not obtain rapid medical assistance and the water was being preserved for drinking, not washing). Additionally, their parents had planned for their trip, and even in a very unexpected circumstance did not panic, fell back on each other and their preparation. And, blow me down, those kids got a helicopter ride!
Again, this trip for all of the family, but especially the children, is a magnificent gift of experience and learning, and the parents should be praised for creating the possibility. They are obviously supported by their wider family too.
The father states:
The kids certainly get a lot of experience from our travels, so we wouldn't change that for the world.
Yessir!
Search and Rescue
It may seem strange that the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) was involved in the rescue support and planning, especially to people unfamiliar with Australia's geography. Why would a maritime agency be assisting a rescue in a desert? The answer is simple. They have the best equipment. If you think it is difficult to find a campervan on the edge of the Simpson Desert, trying finding a yacht in the middle of the Great Southern Ocean, in a storm that covers a thousand square kilometres. I am not joking. A french “round the world” sailor was rescued by AMSA and the Australian Navy in a rather dramatic rescue just a couple of decades ago, hundreds of kilometres from the Australian mainland on the most violent of seas under horrid skies.
I recall this is why EPIRB technology was developed, for sea rescue. So, AMSA has the gear, and excellent pilots and a well developed emergency radio network, certainly with satellite coverage. I'm guessing here, but imagine the rescue response proceeds as follows. AMSA get the EPIRB signal and see that its on the edge of the Simpson Desert, in the area of Oodnadatta and they call the SA Police. The Police would have called the "pubs" at Birdsville, Oodnadatta and other locations. Okay, we've likely got this family of four in a campervan, equipped with solar panels. They are reported to be pretty well organised. Okay, great. Hey, AMSA, things don't look like a panic, but we need contact to ascertain injuries and supplies. Activate "standard response X".
We come back here to the closing of the roads. Why? To minimize the number of rescues that will be needed. But that stopped other travelers from helping the bogged vehicle!? Yes, but its a lot easier to rescue one or two cases than ten.
I encourage readers to look at the photos and videos from AMSA in the source articles. Firstly, note that these are real. See the telemetry data, date/time, location, direction, declination etc.. These data are partially cropped out in some of the images, but not in the videos. Next, look at the video control, particularly the zoom levels, used by the AMSA video recorder. Why is there a video recorder on an AMSA rescue plane? For their training, and post incident response analysis. These people are very serious about what they do. The pride they hold in their roles is earned by this level of seriousness and dedication.
This is the first part of my “beef” with the ABC. This was a textbook rescue in the best of circumstances. The travelers were well prepared. They had water, food and an EPIRB. They only used it when they knew they must. But, once used, AMSA (a national rescue service) coordinates with the SA Police (the state based service) which coordinates with the community network, the "pubs". One can be certain that the Bureau of Meteorology and other national information services, not least the ABC, were involved. This is a national, state and local integrated response. One can see effectiveness in this a response, involving emergency personnel, outreach, and leadership. This is what a professional “bureaucracy” can do.
The initial AMSA response is described as from Essendon. I presume this is the suburb of Melbourne, which has an air field. This is confirmed on the video telemetry by “VIC CENT”. The distance to the rescue location is about 1900 Km, with a flight time, based on 800 Km/h, of 1.75 hours. Obviously, a search to spot the vehicle needs be made upon arriving in the area. They have the coordinates, but you don't drop a rescue package to a coordinate, you have to identify the vehicle. So, add another 20 minutes. So, it took less than two hours for AMSA to contact the SA Police, establish a little "task force", gather relevant information and launch the initial rescue drop. That’s pretty damn good involving national, state and local community resources across two time zones.
Then, watch the professionalism of the drop. Firstly, note the balloons "slowing" the drop; a big pink balloon, a smaller cubic balloon of yellow and black and a smaller orange balloon. The balloons will be filled with of helium (or other less dense than "air" gasses) to slow the decent, and the colouring is such that they can be seen in any environment, storms at sea, desert or snow capped mountains. The pilot and release person achieve a precision within a few hundred metres. What next? They circle around and video the collection of the package. Why? Because recovery is the mission. After flight return, the core video footage suitable for public release is provided to the ABC for their news, with the far more extensive footage kept for their own review purposes.
[Image: a frame from the AMSA video of the first drop. The package and balloons can be seen to the upper right of the vehicle.]
Post rescue, the couple declare that once they saw the plane, they felt safe, "they know where we are". The delivered satellite phone enabled them to contact their families. I can imagine the watertight, but easy to release capsule in the package with the phone. Within would be instruction in both pure graphics and English. Press the “on” button. Wait for activation. Press this button (or type this number) for connection. It was then, with that connection that the parents could release their worry about their children.
Initial assessments are made; health both physical and mental, and supply status. Okay, we've got time. Phew. Its then up to SA Police to coordinate the response. Initially they were looking at a ground based rescue effort, but the mud flats were mud, and would be for many, many days (thanks “pubs”). So, an air rescue was planned. Aviation fuel was pre-delivered to refueling locations and a police helicopter was dispatched from southern South Australia, while in the meantime contact was maintained, and AMSA delivered some additional food supplies. The ‘copter flew, and refueled, pilots were exchanged, the rescue was performed, landing and more refueling was done, the media were there, the emergency services disappeared into the background, and stories were released.
It was a textbook operation. A display of the civilian rescue services involving a national organisation, AMSA, the state based SA Police, and the community based network of the "pubs", reported on by many an Australian media organisation but lead by the ABC, all with the support of other agencies like the Bureau of Meteorology.
The ABC (and other media) were there for the human interest news reporting, as they should have been. There is also a lesson here, and this is the second part of my “beef” with the ABC.
Why did this go so well?
It was the under-reporting of this by the ABC which galled my gall bladder. They quote, in the last section of their last report, "Adventurer and survivalist Michael Atkinson" with his following statement:
So they were unlucky and you really do need to plan for the worst and hope for the best in these situations and their planning seemed to have helped them out.
Yes. But, I call bullshit on the ABC and dereliction of duty. I'm a little angry, so will come at this slowly.
What would AMSA and the SA Police have felt when they had established contact and discovered that the family had no injuries, food for days and plenty of water? Hmmm? This is the "Phew!" above. "Thank god, we don't need to go into a rush. We need to be ready for other potential rescues after this unexpected deluge."
BECAUSE the family's parents were prepared and calm, the emergency services were given time. I have never been an emergency service person, but I imagine that of the resources they crave, equipment and time, they would take time on every occasion. With that gift their resources can be optimized.
The lesson here is to be like this family. Unless you want to spend a couple of decades with the local Aboriginal community and learn about the region, you do what they did. They had ample water, food for days and an EPIRB. They restricted their children from playing outside to reduce the risk of medical injury (snakes, spiders, accidents, …), and reduce water consumption. They were controlling their risks.
It is the almost complete lack of transmitting this message that annoys me most with the otherwise good reporting by the ABC.
All praise to the family's parents for taking their children on this wonderful tour, being so well prepared for what they faced, supporting each other in adversity to demonstrate to their children what partnership is made of and falling back upon that common trust and their own resilience when the chips (or axles) were down.
Well done family, and Australia's rescue services.
This message is what Australia’s rescue services wish to be received by ill-fortuned European travelers who are rescued every few years: “Have an EPIRB, lots of water, some food, and DO NOT LEAVE YOUR VEHICLE.”
And, hey, if you’ve got a flag, fly it.
Sources
"ABC" is the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the government funded national broadcaster of Australia.
Perth family bogged in Simpson Desert could be trapped for weeks, but parents relieved to hear they are safe, Daniel Keane, ABC, 2021-11-14
Perth family surrounded by flooded roads now facing extreme heat in Simpson Desert, ABC Radio Perth / By Daniel Keane, ABC, 2021-11-15
Zavros family grateful after being rescued from remote Simpson Desert, Gabriella Marchant and Stacey Pestrin, ABC, 2021-11-17
Melbourne to Oodnadatta Flight Time, Distance, Route Map, Airport Distance Calculator.
Culture
Missy Higgins - Carry You (Official Video), Missy Higgins and Tim Minchin, Carry You, uploaded to youtube 2020-01-23
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