LOST TRAMPERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 96, 20 October 1936, Page 10

LOST TRAMPERS

FOUR SYDNEY YOUTHS

ORDEAL IN BLUE MOUNTAINS

(From "The Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY. October 14.

Suffering from exhaustion and lack of food, four young Sydney hikers were found in the densely wooded and rugged Grose Valley in the Blue Mountains after they had been missing for nearly a week and after airmen and several large parties of civilians and police had searched for them. The hikers had become separated, and when discovered, two; of them were together and the others by themselves.

The hikers were John Bermingham, 22, and his brother, Gerald Bermingham, 17, John Rogers, 19, and Frederick Lane, 17. They went to' the Blue Mountains last Saturday week, and when by Monday they1 had not returned, their parents reported them missing. For the remainder of last week police led the parties* through, the wild bush' valleys, the searchers* task being made .more difficult by the smoke of the numerous bush fires. Civilian and military aeroplanes flew at heights varying from 5000 ft to-a few feet above the tree tops.

It was not until last Saturday afternoon that news of the finding of the youths reached the Blue Mountains townships, but actually two of them had.been found on Thursday. A police party's coo-ees • had been weakly answered, and breaking through dense undergrowth the searchers came upon Rogers and Lane. The pair could barely speak, but pleaded for food. They were completely exhausted and their clothes were torn and their bodies scratched. They ate ravenously. They could not give coherent replies to questions, but were able to tell the rescuers that the Bermingham brothers were "six miles further back."'

At 3 p.m. the 'same day the searchers had covered another two miles of dangerous country when they found one of the Berminghams lying on the bank of the Grose River. He appeared to be in a bad way, but recovered sufficiently after being given food'to say that his brother was "twenty miles further back." Realising the serious plight of the other Bermingham boy, the party pushed on in the' direction of Blackheath, but night overtook them and they were forced to camp. They set out again at dawn next day-and several hours later found the last of the four. On seeing his rescuers he ran forward crying, "Are you looking for me?" ' .

< The whole party rested. Then one of the searchers became desperately ill through food poisoning. He was treated as well as possible, and had to be assisted along the creek bank and up cliff faces and gullies. .