Lost Stockman Relates Ordeal

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30156, 13 June 1963, Page 13

Lost Stockman Relates Ordeal

IN.Z. Press Association —CopgngM) . DARWIN, June 12. A youthful stockman, Sidney Dale, was flown to hospital in Darwin today to recover from 27 days in the bush during which he ate only pig weed, wild grapefruit and vines.

Dale, who is 19. weighed abuut lOst when he rode from a mustering camp on May 16.

Today be weighs about 6st, ana looks like a survivor from a war-time concentration camp. Unable to retain food, he is being fed intravenously Dale was found late yesterday oy a crocodile shooter Apart from his loss of weight, he was in remarkably good health and was eager to tell his story from his hospital bed He said: T was lying m the sun—l must have been nearly unconscious- when the crocodile shooter found me. don’t even remember his name He asksd me if I was the lost stockman, and I told him I was He gave me a piece a fresh papaw—the firs* proper food rd bad since I was lost but I couldn't keep it down

“I didn't have a gun or a knife, and couldn’t catch any

game. I saw a few lizards and tried to catch them, but couldn’t. “When I left the camp I couldn’t get back. After three da.; ny horse left me. and I’ve been walking ever since

“At night I just lay on the ground and slept. Sometimes i* was very cold. “My feet are very sore, because I had no boots I didn’t have any matches to make .fire. I was just about done, when the croc shooter found me. I think I could have lasted only another couple of days. “Fm very happy now, but this experience hasn’t made me decide to stay in towns. I want to live out in the bush, and I’ll be back on a horse as soon as I can." Dale said he had seen planes which searched for him for several days. He found a tobacco tin and flashed it at one, “which came so close that I could almost touch it."