Hiker recounts overnight ordeal after fall at Carnarvon Gorge

A Rockhampton mother has described surviving a fifteen-metre fall while walking alone on the Carnarvon Gorge Great Walk in Queensland. The accident happened in April, not this week. Donna Neil has now shared how emergency communications and an experienced volunteer helped her through the night.

Neil was on the second day of the 87-kilometre route when a hiking pole became trapped between rocks. She said pulling it free caused her heavy backpack to throw her off balance. She fell down a steep slope, suffered severe back pain and lost some of her water.

With no phone reception, she used a satellite messaging device to raise the alarm and contact her husband. A helicopter initially sent towards her was diverted to a more seriously injured patient, leaving her to prepare for a night outdoors.

A volunteer familiar with the trail walked about fifteen kilometres through the dark and reached her around 2am. He stayed until the helicopter could arrive. The account is a retrospective survival story, rather than a report of a new missing-person operation or a current closure of the walking track.