“ PROPER NIGHTMARE.”

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20649, 25 June 1935, Page 10

“ PROPER NIGHTMARE.”

Police Officer Stricken on Lonely Trail. (Special to the “ Star.”) , SYDNEY, June 8. Constable Victor Hall, of the Northern Territory police, had a terrible experience while he was travelling alone to Sydney. Stricken with a severe attack of malaria on the Barkly Tableland, in the territory, with the nearest help 200 miles away, he lay in his blanket alongside the track for two days and nights in a semi-conscious condition. He had resigned himself to death when, by a fortunate chance, a party of artesian bore patrolmen found him and took him 300 miles to Camooweal, Queensland, for treatment. “ It was a proper nightmare all the time,” said Constable Hall. “ From the first I struck trouble when I left Wave Hill on May 4 to begin three months’ leave. I had a touch of the fever and it grew worse as I went along. The road to Katherine was beastly. It took me six days to do the 300 miles. No car had been across since the wet season more than three months ago. All through the track was washed away, and at places the grass had grown five feet high on the road, making it difficult even to see it. Then the malaria got me properly. “ I battled on in an effort to make Camooweal. In Sandy Creek on the Barkly Tableland I got bogged down to the running boards. I was full of fever and it took me four hours and a-half to dig out the car. That finished me. I could hardly stand. When about 300 miles from Camooweal I knew that I would have to lay up in the shade of my car. I lay there smothered in blankets and tossing about in a half delirious state. How long I was there T had no idea. “ I weighed up the chances of my living. I knew full well that at times months elapse without anyone passing along the track, especially so soon after the rainy season. I drank water by the gallon, until I began to worry about running short, but long before that the bore service truck arrived on the scene and I was saved.” &