Rockhampton mother shares survival story after shocking fall from Carnarvon Gorge

A Queensland woman has spent the night alone and injured on a remote outback trail after surviving a 15m fall down a steep mountainside while solo hiking.

But thankfully Rockhampton mother-of-two Donna Neil lived to tell the tale of the dramatic misadventure while hiking the 87km Carnarvon Gorge Great Walk, north of Roma in Central Queensland, in April.

WATCH VIDEO ABOVE: QLD mum survives horror fall in remote outback

Neil had been walking the tough five-day hike as a training run for the one of Australia’s most iconic long-distance walks, the Northern Territory 230km Larapinta Trail.

She hoped the training walk would allow her to test out her equipment, food and water rationing. Little did she know, she would also be forced to put her survival skills to the test.

On the morning of the second day of the hike, Neil left the Big Bend campsite at first light and made her way through a rugged and beautiful part of the trail.

“It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen,” she said.

“I could see where centuries of water had smoothed the rock. It was incredibly beautiful.”

She made her way through sandstone cliffs inside the gorge, so narrow in some parts he could reach out her arms and touch both sides, before beginning a steep climb up a track carved into the mountainside at an area known as Battleship Ridge.

While she was making her way up the steep section of track, one of her hiking poles lodged between rocks at the base of a tree.

As Neil yanked it free, the unimaginable happened. The weight of her 18kg backpack tipped her off balance and flung her sideways down the mountainside.

“I lost my balance when I yanked my walking stick out of the rocks,” she said.

“It was a sheer edge. I did a sort of backwards cartwheel fall and thankfully when I landed the backpack broke my fall.”

Neil fell 15m down a steep section of track she had just ascended, landing on a 50-degree slope which made it difficult to move and not slip further down the mountain side.

When she came to a stop, the first thing she felt was a sharp, stabbing pain in her back that got worse when she tried to move.

She was out in the open in the hot sun, with only a small amount of water left after a drink bottle on the side of her backpack smashed in the fall.

Shocked, injured but alive, Neil went into survival mode — immediately protecting the water she had left.

Unable to move without pain, she nevertheless managed to pull out some items from the top of her backpack.

Neil had a solar charging mat at the top of her backpack which she used to charge her flat phone battery, however, she had no reception to call for help.

But she was prepared: one of other items she had packed was a ZOLEO satellite communicator, a two-way satellite messaging device used by hikers during emergencies.

Using the satellite device she raised the alarm with emergency services before messaging her husband, Jeff.

Messages arrived intermittently, sometimes taking up to half an hour to come through, but the main message was clear. Help was coming.

The LifeFlight Roma-based helicopter team was sent to rescue Neil but en route they were rediverted to a more seriously injured patient.

Neil was told the rescue crew had been retasked and prepared herself for a long, uncomfortable night alone.

Neil said her husband did his best to comfort her but texts were often delayed and battery power needed to be reserved. Even so, her husband told her he would keep vigil with her all night until help arrived.

“The sun went down about 6pm and the moon didn’t come up until about 10pm,” Neil said.

“Those four hours were really, really dark. I was worried about snakes.

“When the bird song settled, I could hear animal noises in the long grass on either side of where I was.”

While Neil contemplated a long night alone, another hiker — one of the men who had originally surveyed The Great Walk —was already making his way out to her.

Bryce Duke, an SES volunteer, got the call about an injured hiker stranded at Carnarvon Gorge with no help expected to arrive until morning.

With a fully stocked backpack, Duke — an off-duty LifeFlight officer — was fully prepared to head out into the night and make his way to Neil on the trail, having walked it eight times before.

For six hours, Duke hiked 15km through the dark to reach Neil about 2am.

“When I saw Bryce’s torch light I burst into tears,” Neil said.

“I immediately had so much trust for the person in front of me. He really reassured me that I was going to be OK.”

Duke was able to give Neil over-the-counter pain relief medication, Hydrolyte, warm blankets and, most importantly, comfort.

“She was very grateful when she saw me coming up through the trees,” he said.

“There was a lot of relief on her face. I just introduced myself and said I’m here to help and I’m staying with you until the LifeFlight helicopter arrives.”

For the next five hours, Duke stayed by Neil’s side. Her pain worsened during the night, with Duke able to provide vital updates to rescue crews.

At first light the next day, a Lifeflight helcopter took off from Roma piloted by Pete Marris to rescue Neil.

“We train for this sort of operation regularly, and I think the big thing is that you’re not just training individual skills, you’re training to operate as a crew, each doing their own job and trusting others to do theirs, working together to get somebody safely out of a very difficult situation,” Marris said.

“By the time you arrive at a job like Carnarvon Gorge, everybody knows their role.”

Although beautiful, Carnarvon Gorge poses a challenging rescue environment, with Neil’s location on the steep mountainside adding to the complexity.

Neil first heard the helicopter before seeing it come over the hill towards them.

“It was an overwhelming feeling of absolute relief,” she said.

“When I first saw the LifeFlight helicopter, I thought: ‘They are here to get me’.”

A critical care doctor and critical care paramedic were winched down to assess Neil and put in an intravenous line to administer pain relief.

She was winched up and flown to Roma Hospital where doctors told her she was lucky the backpack had absorbed the worst of the impact, likely saving her from more serious injury.

While excruciatingly painful, she had suffered only minor tissue damage which eventually healed.

Despite the ordeal, Neil did not to let the accident scare her from hiking again when she had recovered.

In June, she completed the 230km Larapinta Trail.

Her husband, Jeff, said he’ll never forget the efforts of the LifeFlight crew — both those on and off duty — to save his wife.

“There’s no way we could have got Donna out on foot,” he said.

“LifeFlight got my wife home again.”

Rescuer Duke said: “It’s always a good thing to go and help people.

“That’s what we sign up for. If someone’s in need, we drop what we’re doing and we go and help.

“Donna would have been in a world of trouble if a helicopter had not been available.”