Search team criticised

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 3, Issue 40, 18 March 1986, Page 6

Search team criticised

Local identity and possum trapper, Dave Oddy, gave the Bulletin his vieWs on search and rescue recently. He was speaking particularly of the search on Mt Ruapehu before Christmas. First of all he said that big search parties were useless -because they obliterated all signs. "It is far better to approach a search area with just one or two experienced bushmen," he said. He said he would also have taken a dog, although they are not permitted in national parks, because a dog could pick up the scent of a person at night or day. He said the search group should consist of local people only and police, if they were involved at all, should have been in the district for several years and not there just because they were police. In fact he said the police should preferably not be involved unless someone was dead. He said he did not go to the recent meeting held to discuss a local search team because he did not know about it and there were many others like him. "All this walkie-talkie business is just a waste of time for the real bushman — they want them to stop themselves from getting lost," he said.