LOST IN BUSH

Hokitika Guardian, 4 February 1929, Page 7

LOST IN BUSH

TiIREE-YEAK-UT.D BOY. OK EAT FIBER BLAZING. FOUND ALIVE AND ASLEEP. SYDNEY, January IS. To be lost all night in blazing 'scrub ami to emerge alive and unharmed was the amazing experience ol' a threc-vcar-uld Banhstown hoy named Leslie FawceLt, who wandered away from his home while his mother and father were lighting bush fires on Monday last. Excellent hush craft by a sergeant of police enabled the search parties which scoured the neighbourhood for traces the child, to locate his whereabouts from the cawing of a flock ol crows. The little hoy was left asleep in the bedroom of his home at Bankslown, a suburb of Sydney on the Georges River Mis mother and father were among a party of residents who were lighting terrific bush fires which swept through the district during the present hot spell. When his parents returned home they discovered the absence of the little hoy and informed the police. The scrub for miles around was ablaze and little hope was heitl out for the discovery of tho/boy alive. Several search parties were orgr ,and the search started a lew hours before nightfall. Every inch m country a hilly and rough neighbourhood was combed. Several old water holes and a disused well were dragged for traces of the lad, as it was thought that he may have taken shelter from, the fires in the water and-.become drowned. Finally the searchers came to Georges River, which is a deep and strong running stream flowing into the I’m Port Hacking. Though they refused to give up ali hope it was confidently expected that the body of the bov- would he discovered in the river. When daylight on Tuesday came dragging operations were commenced on the river, hut without success. Jt was then decided to make further search of the blackened ruin of the scrub country again. Parties traversed almost every acre of the country and finally Sergeant Wiblin, of Bankstown found traces of the hoy’s progress through the gullies and hills, which convinced him that the boy was still alive. Jiis party followed the trail lor nearly three hours Indore their attention was attracted by the agitated movements of a flock of crows which was flying hither and thither over a little glen at the head of one of the deep gullies. Scaling down steep rocks and over wide gorges they finally discovered the three-years-old boy asleep in a glade seemingly accessible to none except tue most experienced and intrepid climlier. How the lad escaped from ‘being dashed to death over the hundred and one precipices in the vicinity is a mystery which will never he solved. He was almost unharmed and except for torn clothes and a blackened face was quite cheerful He wanted something to eat and his mother. Searchers were overjoyed when they were, able to bring him home to his parents who had been in other search parties, but lmd long before given up hope. They wore mourning him as dead when the police brought him hack to his home. The boy had wandered many miles during the .30 hours that he was missing, but in his wanderings he had returned to within a mile and a half of Ills' home.