Recent heavy rain and the traditional holiday period has led to an “unpredictably busy” month for police rescue officers in the Blue Mountains.
Blue Mountains Police Rescue squad co-ordinator Ian Colless said the second half of January saw a spike in rescues in the local area, prompting a warning to bushwalkers to be prepared when setting out on a trek.
A total of 16 people were rescued in seven separate incidents in the Mountains from January 15 to 31, many of whom had set out ill-equipped to deal with conditions.
“On some occasions they just haven’t taken into account the prevailing conditions,” Sergeant Colless told the Gazette.
“Obviously we have had a lot of rain, with rain comes a bit of a rise in creek levels and water in fast-flowing creeks, and people just aren’t prepared or expecting that sort of activity when they go down to some of these areas.
“We have had a couple of incidents [near Wentworth Falls and Glenbrook Creek] where the creek has actually swollen, which has consumed part of the track work and which is leading to people trying to find a way around and becoming lost or becoming stuck due to the high rising waters.
“People aren’t expecting there to be a fast flowing creek, they look on a map and just see it’s a pretty benign looking creek feature. But it can fill very quickly with the run-off, particularly down in through Glenbrook and Wentworth Falls and other areas.
“What are usually a semi-dry canyon or creek can become quite a torrent very quickly.
“December, January are probably our busier periods only because it’s a period of vacation for a lot of people . . . We don’t normally find a spike much time during the year but occasionally we have a busy period. January this year has been unpredictably busy.”
The fact some rescues could have been avoided if bushwalkers had prepared led to frustration for rescuers, he said.
“It is frustrating but the police are obviously always here to help when people get into difficulties,” Sergeant Colless said. “Sometimes when people could have made better planning and preparation to avoid some of these issues, then it does become frustrating that we could have avoided it in the beginning.
“Obviously accidents will happen that no one can prepare for and that’s part of going out on adventures, I suppose.”
The frequency of rescues has led to the police pushing the ‘Think Before You Trek’ message, a safety initiative between the NSW Police Force and National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) that aims to provide bushwalkers and adventurers in the Mountains with a free loaned Personal Locator Beacon (PLB).
Bushwalkers should remember the acronym TREK when setting off, Sergeant Colless said.
“Take adequate supplies and provisions for what you’re doing, Register your intentions with either friends, family or police, the use of Emergency beacons is recommended when you’re going outdoors in a remote area, and Know your route and stick to it,” he said.
“Basically, TREK is just teaching people to plan and prepare for the activity you’re undertaking to try and prevent some of the issues we are seeing here.”
When activated, the newer type of PLB provided an encoded GPS location that could lead rescuers to within 10 to 15 metres of a bushwalker in distress, Sergeant Colless said.
Bushwalkers could register a trip intention form, available online, with Springwood, Katoomba or Hawkesbury police stations, the NPWS office in Blackheath, or visitor information centres at Echo Point, Glenbrook and Oberon.
“The trip intention form gives us a lot of information should something go wrong and saves us a lot of time,” Sergeant Colless said.
For more information and safety tips, log onto www.police.nsw.gov.au/community_i ssues/crime_prevention/trek.
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