• Grampians NP. Christian Bass/Unsplash
    Grampians NP. Christian Bass/Unsplash
Close×

When it comes to bush rescues we love a happy ending and this story has it all.

On a bushwalk with his two kids in Victoria's Grampians National Park, Brian Griffiths fell off a cliff suffering injuries including a fractured skull. Fortunately Brian's two kids went straight into rescue mode.

Daniel (12) carefully scrambled down the cliff to retrieve their dad's phone whilst Sarah (9) went looking for help.

She found help when she bumped into Michelle and David Martin - who by chance are the creators ExplorOz Traveller, a mobile phone app designed to help people get off the beaten track with no internet service.

They had been mapping the walk when the incident unfolded 600m from the carpark where the trail starts on Mount Difficult Road.

Michelle told ABC Victoria Statewide Drive she could not believe her eyes last weekend when she saw Sarah running from the bush, waving screaming for help.

"She was obviously in a lot of shock," she said. "I didn't think it was real but very quickly it became apparent it was real.

"I keep pinching myself, [that] we were able to be there for that poor little girl."

They asked Sarah where her father was, as they could not see him nor her brother. The girl led the couple about 20m off the track towards the cliff that was concealed by scrub.

Within moments, her brother Daniel appeared and soon after, Brian Griffiths stumbled into view.

"He had managed to get himself up, obviously with adrenaline," Mr Martin said. "He collapsed at our feet and he was obviously in a very bad way."

They could not call an ambulance as there was no mobile phone reception.

So, the couple began the long, slow and difficult walk back to the car and called an ambulance along the way.

Mr Griffiths faces a long recovery but says his children, though "rattled", will bounce back with an amazing story for school.

comments powered by Disqus