OUTBACK HEROINE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 63, 14 March 1940, Page 21

OUTBACK HEROINE

RIDE TO SAVE SON

FOUR DAYS THROUGH FLOODS

(From "The Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY, February 21. Australia is acclaiming a heroine, of the outback—Mrs. John Wright, of Mount Oxide cattle station, in sparsely Central Queensland, j She rode for four days through rain and floods.seeking medical aidvfor her unconscious six-year-old son, who was j slung across her saddle. For 84 miles j she continued the desperate race with death, swimming the horse across swollen rivers, struggling on through drenching rain, and at night seeking whatever shelter offered, while she kept vigil beside the suffering child. Mr. Wright and a daughter were marooned in Dobbyn, 84 miles away, by floods, and Mrs. Wright was alone at the station- homestead, when six-year-old Johnny was stricken with appendicitis. She decided that she must seek medical assistance. There was no means of communication at Mount Oxide, and the nearest doctor wasat Cloncurry, 200 miles away. The woman saddled a horse, placed the sick child across her knee, and set out for the railhead at Dobbyn. With the country in a state of flood, horseback offered the only means of travel. Supporting the child in a blanket, and with a small store of food, she made what would have been, even for a man, a highly dangerous journey. "I knew if I could get to Dobbyn they'd send him on to Cloncurry, where the doctor is," said Mrs. Wright. "It was no use trying to. get a trap through. It was raining hard. Johnny was moaning. When we came to the first creek, it was pretty deep, but we made it. I had a job keeping the horse up and hanging on to Johnny. With the pain, he wouldn't keep still. We pushed on all day. JUST KEPT GOING. "When it started to get dark, I looked for shelter, and found a bit of a cave. But the rain came in. Johnny kept moaning. I had some corned beef and damper. But Johnny wouldn't swallow anything. I couldn't eat. As soon as it was getting light, we started off. We just kept going. I don't remember much and only stopped to give the horse a breather. • "Gunpowder Creek is about halfway. It was dark then, but I could see the creek was a torrent. Johnny was unconscious. He was just a dead weight. We stayed in a deserted homestead. I just sat beside Johnny; I I couldn't eat or sleep. "It was still raining in the morning. The creek was higher than I've ever seen it. I couldn't find the ford. I swam the horse acx'oss. I knew Surprise Creek would be worse, but I didn't think about it. The horse kept getting bogged, but we just went on. It seemed slow going. I thought I'd never make it.

"It was dark again by the time we got to Surprise Creek. I couldn't find shelter. So 1 covered Johnny with the saddle cloth and put his head on the saddle, and sat with him under a gum tree. I don't know how we got across the creek in the morning. Halfway I thought the hssse was going: under. But we did it. Then we just struggled on until we came to Dobbyn, with the poor horse hardly able to stand on its feet. I don't know what happened then. I think I just fell off its back.

"I'm all right. Ml that mattex-s is that Johnny's doing well in Cloncurry Hospital, where they took him by train for the operation.

"What will 1 do now? I'll be riding back home with my husband," Mrs. Wright added. Good as her word, Mrs. Wright, after a good rest, set out on the return journey, again on horseback.