Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie spoke with Territory Support Division Superintendent Shaun Gill about the harrowing rescue of two men in the Daly River region

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Katie spoke with Territory Support Division Superintendent Shaun Gill about the harrowing rescue of two men in the Daly River region · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: But we know harrowing new details of a Lucky Daily
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: River Region escape flowed through late yesterday afternoon. Two men
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: were obviously rescued on Saturday after they boat struck an
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: underwater object and sank at Clear Creek on Thursday. Now
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: joining us on the line is the Northern Territory Police
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Territory Support Division Superintendent Sean Gill. Good morning to you, Sean.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Good morning Cody, Sean.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: This sounds like an absolutely horrific situation that these poor
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: blokes were in. Can you tell us a little bit
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: more about when police became aware.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: So we actually became aware on Saturday afternoon after these
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: persons have been located. So it's a bit of a
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: long story, but essentially the two people who rescue these
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: people are actually friends of mine, so they contact the
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: mystery social media and I said, well, being the Divisional
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: super of Water Police, I said, this is the police
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: follow up requirement as well, and particularly as as well
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: documented these people were having to drink their own urine,
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: so they need to actually go and get checked out
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: by a medical assessment fairly quick as well, because there's
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: always implications for kidneys when people start doing that. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: so I was told by social media in a nutshell,
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  Speaker 2: and then we escalated from there. But did that credit.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: They did actually ring the police later on as well,
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  Speaker 2: because I worried that their repair was still activating so
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  Speaker 2: it could have caused another search, so they were still
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: thinking about that as well.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Sean, it sounds like a horribly traumatizing situation for these
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  Speaker 1: poor blokes as I understand it. They were picked up
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: by another boat, but not before a crocodile had given
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  Speaker 1: chase as they swam to an isolated shoreline. Can you
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  Speaker 1: tell us where did this all happen exactly?
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  Speaker 2: So it's called Clear Creek, which is about ninety minutes
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  Speaker 2: downstream from the Daily river boat ramp. So essentially, as
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: you said, they we're traveling along on a boat. We're
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: not exactly sure of the circumstances of how it's sunk.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: I know that they did hit an object about ten
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: k's earlier, they said, so whether that was taking on
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  Speaker 2: water or not, we're not quite sure yet. But they
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: come to a point where the vessel just went under
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: almost straight away, so they did everything they could. They
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: tried to grab what they could, but while I were
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  Speaker 2: doing that, they're splashing that aroused the interest of a
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: croc who was having a go at him for one
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: of a better word. So they were throwing things at
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  Speaker 2: this crock to keep it away. And then one of
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  Speaker 2: the persons I spoke to he said that while I
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  Speaker 2: doing swimming along and trying to hang onto an eski,
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  Speaker 2: because they got hold of that, the crock was submerging
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: near him. So as one of them said, you know,
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  Speaker 2: they didn't know if the croc was going to get
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  Speaker 2: him more then he said, the only thing you do
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: is not panic and try and get the shore. So
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  Speaker 2: that's what he did, so all credit to him. Horrible situation,
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: and so you know, you've got a boat going down,
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  Speaker 2: you've got stuff floating everywhere you're trying to get it,
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  Speaker 2: and then there's a crop trying to make a meal
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  Speaker 2: of you as well.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: It is unbelievable. Honestly, It's what horror movies are made of.
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  Speaker 1: It's incredible that these two guys have survived such a
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: traumatic ordeal. Sean once they sort of once they they
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: found somewhere or they My understanding is that they found
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: a bit of an island, But like, what kind of
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  Speaker 1: of landscape are we talking about there? Is it somewhere
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: that was quite easy to crawl up on, or what
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  Speaker 1: was the go.
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  Speaker 2: I look, from my knowledge, I've been in a few
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  Speaker 2: times my selfishing, and you know, I'd probably best describe
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  Speaker 2: it as a mud pit. Like it's they're walking around
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  Speaker 2: in deep mud. There's not a lot of shade's there's
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  Speaker 2: a few little trees that they could get some a
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  Speaker 2: little bit of shade on, but nothing nothing made to
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  Speaker 2: not full time shades. So they were essentially just stuck
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  Speaker 2: on a mudpit where they were getting monstered by everything
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: that was trying to buy them, including midges and the like.
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: They got one bag. They had their personal clothing, so
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  Speaker 2: they had enough to get long sleeve shirts, so probably
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  Speaker 2: anything they didn't suffer from was sunburnt. But you know,
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  Speaker 2: they're covered in mud to try and keep the midges
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  Speaker 2: off them. They actually had matches that they managed to
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  Speaker 2: get a camping box and they managed to try and
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  Speaker 2: couldn't even like fires because all the areas they couldn't
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  Speaker 2: get anything going. So they got a little bit going
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  Speaker 2: for a while, but they couldn't do anything to sustain
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  Speaker 2: lying a fire. As I say, They tried to write
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  Speaker 2: help on the beach, so they were doing everything they
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  Speaker 2: could to save themselves. I know that they found plastic
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  Speaker 2: bottles and like I think they found an old Bundy
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  Speaker 2: run bottle or something like that as well, where they
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  Speaker 2: knew that they were in trouble, knew they didn't have
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  Speaker 2: any water, so they found them straight away and they
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  Speaker 2: started urinating in bottles like that, So they were thinking
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  Speaker 2: way ahead. But and I know that they were looking
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  Speaker 2: moisture off leaves. So they've done everything they could to
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  Speaker 2: save themselves. But it's just a timely reminder and say,
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  Speaker 2: you know that when you do these long trips, particularly,
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  Speaker 2: and it can come up really quick on you when
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  Speaker 2: people need to be prepared.
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  Speaker 1: You've been a police officer for a long time, Sean,
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  Speaker 1: have you ever heard anything ever you heard a story
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  Speaker 1: quite like this in your years of policing.
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  Speaker 2: I've heard it similar, but this one's this one is
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  Speaker 2: right up there in terms of how horrific it was
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  Speaker 2: for them and just things going bad. And you know,
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  Speaker 2: from everything that sounds like everything that possibly could go
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  Speaker 2: bad did go bad. The important thing to know to
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  Speaker 2: here is it it's not through any It's not through
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  Speaker 2: any lack of planning. You know, they bought a new eperb.
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  Speaker 2: They advised one of the appropriate websites of their trip details,
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  Speaker 2: but unfortunately they went down. They went for a four
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  Speaker 2: day trip, and they went down on day one. As
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: I said to him, if they would have went down
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  Speaker 2: on day three, it been a different story. Yeah, So
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  Speaker 2: they're extremely lucky to be found, and I'll can tell
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  Speaker 2: you they're extremely grateful to be found.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: By the time they got them, I bet they were.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: Now in terms of as you've said, they've obviously done
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: the right thing. They were actually pretty well prepared. But
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  Speaker 1: by the sounds of it, the boat went down so
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  Speaker 1: fast that they weren't actually able to grab some of
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: those essentials that you might usually grab. I mean, like,
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  Speaker 1: are there many lessons for those other fish shows out
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  Speaker 1: there listening this morning in terms of I guess, ways
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  Speaker 1: that you can make sure that you potentially avoid a
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  Speaker 1: situation like this one.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, there's a few things, like as you're saying,
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  Speaker 2: and what we're looking at is a small things here,
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  Speaker 2: But if you've got an EPERB in a vessel, make
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  Speaker 2: sure it's easily accessible. A lot of people stick them
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: under their hats or things like that. If a boat
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  Speaker 2: goes down that quick, I can tell you now, you
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  Speaker 2: won't have time to do that, so they need to
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  Speaker 2: be prepared for that. Other things that like the learning
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  Speaker 2: from this particular event. If you're going on a long trip,
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: it's probably worthwhile to reporting more than if you can
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: report in daily. That's probably a good thing just to somebody,
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  Speaker 2: because that gives us if we launch to a search
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  Speaker 2: or we don't hear from you, at least it gives
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  Speaker 2: us a shorter time frame to try and find somebody.
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  Speaker 2: And finally, and there's something probably that I'll be doing,
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  Speaker 2: even it's just a personal fishow is like some sort
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  Speaker 2: of grab bag, so you can grab water, you can
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  Speaker 2: grab essential as you can take with you in a hurry.
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  Speaker 2: That they're very very accessible. If you did have to go,
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  Speaker 2: then you can grab it and just go. But you know,
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  Speaker 2: an inhospitable part of the world. And I spoke to
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  Speaker 2: these two by one of them in particular, and they
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  Speaker 2: both still traumatize by this, and you know, they both
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  Speaker 2: have kids. They both thought about their kids, they both
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  Speaker 2: thought about the worst case, and they are able it
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  Speaker 2: can possibly happen. So it's quite horrific and it's good
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  Speaker 2: to sobering reminder. You know that this is an inhospitable
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  Speaker 2: part of the world, and people need to be aware
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  Speaker 2: that things can happen, and they need to be prepared
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  Speaker 2: as much as they can and be able to make
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  Speaker 2: sure does activate. Then it's an easy place to.
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  Speaker 1: Activate these poor buggers. It sounds like an absolutely terrible situation. Sean,
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  Speaker 1: Before I let you go, I know you said, obviously
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  Speaker 1: they are both traumatized health wise, how are they tracking.
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  Speaker 2: Look mentally? I think they've still got scars. But that's
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  Speaker 2: why I can't portray how horrific this really was for
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  Speaker 2: these poor, poor people, you know. But they they're not
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  Speaker 2: in a position to talk about it on media unfortunately,
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  Speaker 2: because it'd be great if they could, because they'll just
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  Speaker 2: portray how bad it really was. In terms of physical
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  Speaker 2: I know that they've they've had medical assessments, They've they've
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: got some follow up because there's always some kidney function stuff.
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  Speaker 2: I'm not I don't think there's anything significant out of it. Again,
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  Speaker 2: I'm not a doctor, but I think they've just got
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: some follow up through the through the doctors in the life.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: But you know, they did everything they possibly could to
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  Speaker 2: save themselves. They did all this all the right preparation,
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  Speaker 2: but it's just the time of reminder that things can
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  Speaker 2: go bad, and they can go bad really quick. So
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  Speaker 2: we just asked people to consider that and don't learn
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  Speaker 2: everything you've got into your hats or something when you're
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: on a long trip, particularly and it's not something you
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  Speaker 2: can easily access. You know, it's They're lucky and unlucky
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  Speaker 2: at the same time. Yeah, and you.
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  Speaker 1: Know, well done as well. Hats off to those people
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  Speaker 1: who obviously picked them up as well that other boat
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  Speaker 1: that came along and noticed that they were there.
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  Speaker 2: Oh. Look, and this is probably the hardest bit for me.
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  Speaker 2: They're actually friends of mine when I have to pay
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: them a compliment, which actually kills me to do this,
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  Speaker 2: but they they did notice something was wrong. They noticed
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: that when they were down there, they found a swag
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  Speaker 2: up on the birch and they started to see some
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  Speaker 2: stuff floating around. So they started looking around and they
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  Speaker 2: thought something was wrong somewhere. So, as much as it
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: pains me, I have to pay them a compliment. And
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  Speaker 2: they did the right thing. And they actually did search
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  Speaker 2: around and found these two blocks waving frantically at them,
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  Speaker 2: so they kind of learned pretty quick that something was wrong.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: Well, Sean, do people know who they are, do you
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  Speaker 1: want to embarrass them on the radio as well to
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: pay them that compliment.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: They're not they're not that keen on being named, unfortunately,
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: but they know who they are. I'm pretty sure they'll
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: figure them out fairly quick. But well, you know, like
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: all credit, you know, all credit to them. They did
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: find them, and they weren't due to come back till Sunday,
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: you know, and we probably would have been notified Sunday
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: and the search may have started Monday. So by then,
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: if you play it out, there's there's quite a while
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: and they could have been in some serious trouble by then. Yeah,
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: but you know, it's not through lack of planning, I
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: have to say that. And I'm certainly not criticizing they
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: tried everything, but let's just it just goes to show
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: how in hospital it can be, particularly when you do
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: you're off the beaten track a little bit.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: Absolutely well, Sean Gil, the Territory Support Division Superintendent, I
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: really appreciate you having a chat with us this morning.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: This sounds like such an unbelievably horrific situation for these
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: two blokes. I'm sure I speak for the whole community
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: when I say, I'm so glad that they are okay
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: after what's been a really traumatizing situation for them