The Barrington Tops Wilderness Area offers a good variety of snakes, unpredictable weather conditions, loose scree and stinging trees to name a few hazards.
Consider being bitten by a snake or having a large branch fall on you in the gusty winds that frequent the Barrington Tops Wilderness Area. The way out is normally the way in: by foot. Could you or your group perform the extraction in the steep terrain and thick vegetation?
A snake bite has occurred during at least one search.
Triple or double canopy coverage often precludes the use of helicopter extraction in many cases.
Strong competency in remote area first aid is a necessity. Venture a few hundred meters into the bush from a road in the Barrington Wilderness Area and you are in a remote location.
Carrying a registered PLB (Personal Locator Beacon) is viewed as essential as is an appropriate first aid and survival kit. Additionally, simply carrying great equipment does not mean much without appropriate training on its’ use.
Activating a PLB does not mean emergency services will come and extract you in a few hours. Simply locating you could take days.
Notifying a responsible person of your intentions in as much detail as possible is also viewed as essential. The more information you provide, the quicker you can be found.
We do not believe that searching for VH-MDX should be conducted by other than truly competent off-track, remote area bushwalkers or by emergency services competent in remote area operations.