EPIC OF THE BUSH.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 2728, 10 July 1925, Page 8

EPIC OF THE BUSH.

ANTS SWARM ON BODY TERRIBLE ORDEAL STRICKEN STOCKMEN’S PLIGHT. SYDNEY, July 2. Stricken down by a seizure while mustering, a stockman has had a terrible experience in outback Queensland. Details have just reached Sydney ol' the man’s terrible ordeal. Ants swarmed over him, and the agony of ml stings became almost unbearable. Every movement he made in an effort to drive them off only added to his torture. The story is told by Mr. George Pollock, who lias just returned from his electorate in the far north-west of Queensland. The victim was a man named Fitzgerald, head stockman on Buckingham Downs station. On June .14, during a spell of bitterly com weather, Fitzgerald was mustering cattle on a remote part of the run, Known as Cotton Bush. There he contracted a heavy cold, but, as the cattle were already mustered and had to no driven 20 miles to the nearest water, Fitzgerald took little notice of his illness, thinking that it would wear off. Instead he became rapidly worse, and two days later complications set in. He became so ill and the pain was so excruciating that he was compelled to lie on his back. So he sent his musterers ahead with the instructions to take his cattle on to water, and, rolling himself in a blanket on the gound, he dis,patched a black boy on his best horse to the nearest telephone to acquaint the manager of Hie station or his plight and to ask for aid.

The boy rode 45 miles to an outstation which is connected by 'telephone with the head station 36 miles further on. Fitzgerald, who was lott alone, hud only a water bag full of muddy water to sustain him. His plight became'worse. Scenting a weak victim the ants swarmed over him. He was over a hundred miles from the nearest assistance capable of bearing him to a doctor. Unable to rise and tortured by the ants, it came as a great welcome to him -when drizzling rain set in. The cold was intense, but the cold drove away the ants. Fitzgerald luckily had a tent fly, and, in spite of the extreme pain, he managed to pull it over him, and resigned himself to await the arrival of the manag-

The boy who had been sent for assistance reached the outpost late at night and phoned the manager, who immediately tilled up a car with petrol, and. taking a supply of blankets and brandy, left the station alon e at 10.30 at night to find Fitzgerald. All he know to guide him was that Fitzgerald was from 20 to 25 miles from the nearest road, and to get there he would have to go through a range of hills, and then travel over a dozen miles of broken gullies and across rocks and spinifex country, in all it meant a journey of 70 miles by road, followed by even worse travelling through the bush.

Bailie found Fitzgerald about daylight. His sense of direction was almost uncanny. How he found Fitzgerald has since puzzled the oldest and most experienced bushmen. Fitzgerald, when found was in a bad way. ip was placed in the car, and the return journey of 180 miles to the Cloncurry Hospital commenced Every jolt of the car over rough ground brought Fitzgerald pain, but the hope of eventual relief kept him cheerful. The following morning Fitzgerald was out of danger.