TWO NIGHTS IN BUSH

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21715, 24 February 1936, Page 15

TWO NIGHTS IN BUSH

ADVENTURE OF LITTLE CHILD

FOUND BY BLACK TRACKER

(FROM OCB OWK COBEBSPOHDENT.)

SYDNEY, February 13*

Australian bush-bred children are tough, and, if Joyce Fielding,, aged 22 months, is a true example, their toughness begins at an early age. Without food and withlittle wafer, Joyce survived privation, intense heat, and terror in the bush for two days and two nights before she was found in scrub land on Goondibluie station, near Mungindi. Tiny sandal tracks, their pattern telling of aimless and anxious wandering, led a search party to the little girl, who was sleeping under a tree. The girl's mother, wife of a boundary rider on the station, had taken Joyce and her three other children to the Goondibluie woolshed to watch the shearing! It was during these operations that Joyce wandered away unnoticed. When it was realised that the child would not be easily found, the frantic mother reported the disappearance, and the shearers ceased work to join in the search. Police organised the search, in which 100 men, with 20 cars and 30 horses, took part. Some of fhem came as far as 100 miles to join in. Joyce wore only a light frock and sandals, and her head was bare to the fierce sun. It was feaVed that the child, unable to obtain water, might be unable to withstand the constant exposure to the scorching sun. An additional anxiety was the knowledge that fierce wild pigs and eagles abounded in the district. The search throughout the night and day following her disappearance was unsuccessful. A halt was called on the second night, but with the dawn, the search was resumed. Then tiny tracks were found. Only a few of the searchers had retained hope of finding her alive, but among them was a black-tracker who persisted in his diligent search * or .footprints. He found them at i. as :'*,_ The girl had lost one sandal, but the remaining one was traced in the hard ground. The tracks doubled and crossed, and were constantly confusing to the searchers. The only water procurable was'from bores' and from marks in the mud near, one it was plam that Joyce had appeased her thirst there. It was difficult tracking country, wittf sand and black-soil areas interspersed with hard, red land and j scrub. The footprints were lost oh the hard red surface and Were hot found again until the searchers spread °ut in a six-miles'wide fan and had gone three miles in that formation. .

Then some of the girl's clothing was found on a bush. The track! were plainer from then on, and it was not long before a black-tracker SSf U ?°£ her » asleep. She awakened at his approach, and ran into his arms. She had withstood her £ tni« & T? kahl Z wel1 ' and was so little distressed that she. strueSSn 4is reach : he *» sobbi *g Parents when they arrived.