EPIRB Activation and Rescue – Shoemakers Bay

At 6.20pm on Thursday 19 January 2017, The Australian Search and Rescue Co-ordination centre in Canberra, notified Tasmania Police that they had detected an EPIRB in Shoemakers Bay on the South Coast of Tasmania. The GPS EPIRB had sent co-ordinates of its position via satellite to AUSAR.

The beacon was registered to a gentleman who had registered a walk on the South Coast Track with two other gentleman.

The Westpac Rescue Helicopter was activated and flew to the campsite on the South Coast Track at Shoemakers Bay.

The Ambulance Tasmania Intensive Care Flight Paramedic and Tasmania Police rescue crewman were winched to the campsite, where they found the registered walking party. They had activated the beacon on behalf of another walking party, a Mother and her two girls, from East Fremantle, WA. One of the girls had slipped and fallen down an embankment with a vertical drop at the base, falling on to rocks below. She sustained bumps to the head, substantial grazing and an injury to her arm.

The girls mother was winched to the aircraft, followed by the girl and the paramedic. They were then transported to Ryan’s Point at Cockle Creek, the helicopter returning to the South Coast to retrieve the other daughter and the rescue crewman.

All three were then transported to the Hobart Cenotaph where the girl was transferred to a waiting ambulance and taken to the Royal Hobart Hospital.

The Family were well prepared for the walk with good quality equipment.