Media Release

Evening Round-up

Search for missing tourists, Mt Garnet: Police are currently searching a large area around the Mt Garnet area for three missing people. Around 4.30pm this afternoon police received a triple 0 call from a 68-year-old Cairns man saying he was travelling with a Japanese couple in their 80s and they were lost.  The group had taken off from Cairns on a day trip to Chillagoe but had taken an incorrect turn up a dirt track and their car was now stuck in a washout and unable to be moved. From the information received the group is lost in a network of old mining tracks between Irvinebank and Mt Garnet. The search conducted by police crews from Herberton, Mt Garnet, Dimbulah and Chillagoe have has been searching possible locations in their divisions. A rescue helicopter is also searching the area. The search is concentrated on an area from Irvinebank to Mt Garnet and approximately 20 kilometres on either side.  The area is extremely remote and very rugged with numerous tracks not listed on any maps. The group is driving in a blue Hyundai Getz hire car and has no food or water and minimal clothing.

Man dies after fall, Mount Tinbeerwah: A 59-year-old Sunshine Coast man has been located dead at the base of the lookout at Mount Tinbeerwah. Around 11.10 this morning a local rock climber located the man’s body. The man was reported missing earlier in the day by a relative. Preliminary investigations indicate the man has fallen from the lookout to the base of the mountain. The SES vertical recovery team was able to recover the man’s body by 2.30pm. There are no suspicious circumstances.

Serious crash, Toorbul:  The Forensic Crash Unit is investigating a single vehicle crash that has left a 37-year-old man in a critical condition. Around 2.30pm a 37-year-old was driving a tip truck towing a box trailer laden with a water tank east along the Pumiscestone Road.  Preliminary investigations suggest that as the man negotiated a right hand bend the water in the tank may have caused the trailer to fishtail.  The man lost control of the truck causing it to roll several times and come to rest on its side. The man sustained serious head injuries and had to be cut from the wreckage and airlifted to the Royal Brisbane Hospital. The road was closed and traffic was diverted around the scene.