‘Intense’: Inside couple’s incredible survival
A Gold Coast couple has opened up about the extreme lengths they went to in order to survive for three days in crocodile infested outback Queensland.
Tony and Lisa Foggs were stranded near Clark Creek and Dorunda Station in far north Queensland after their 4WD sunk into crocodile infested waters.
Trapped with their two pets, the couple had no choice but to flee through the passenger window and make quick dash to dry land, but not before Tony dived under to grab the two dogs - Bluey and Bingo - who were also lucky to survive.
But after abandoning the vehicle, the couple quickly realised they were stranded in the middle of no where.
Using old XXXX beer cans for collection, the couple had to drink water from the muddy creek.
“That was our water source for the next three days,” Tony told Nine News.
Despite being on dry land, the threat from crocodiles was far from over, with Tony arming himself with “a pointy stick” and spending “the night defending ourselves from a croc, potentially coming up the bank and having us for dinner.”
“You start thinking nobody’s coming, you know somebody’s coming, but your brain’s ticking over,” Lisa said.
Sleeping under a rudimentary hut made from gum tree branches, it wasn’t until friends reported them missing that the pair were discovered by rescue crews.
A rescue helicopter from LifeFlight then found the pair after a 6 hour flight up north.
“The couple had written two big SOS signs in the dirt and were frantically waving up at the helicopter as we flew over them,” said rescue pilot Michael Adair.
“She’s sort of resigned herself to the fact that this might be it, so hearing the helicopter come over the top and once we were actually out – it sounds silly, but you touch her and give her a hug and she knows that she’s not imagining it and she’s actually going to be saved – yeah it was pretty intense.”
While the pair escaped with their lives, they now face the prospect of rebuilding their life after losing most of their possessions, with the incident occurring while the couple was in transit to Kowanyama in The Gulf of Carpentaria where they were moving to live and work.
“We’ve literally lost everything,” Tony said.
