Visitors in rescue mission

Police have praised tourists who helped rescue a woman trapped in a gorge in Karijini National Park for hours after breaking an ankle, saying their help was vital to getting her out. The 28-year-old was exploring Hancock Gorge last Wednesday when she slipped on a wet rock and fell, breaking and dislocating her ankle. Tom Price officer-in-charge Acting Sergeant Tim Rainer said police would not have been able to rescue her without help from tourists at the gorge. “It’s school holidays here at the moment, so we are pretty low on volunteer numbers because everyone else has taken off on holidays, so it left us pretty scarce,” he said. Police were notified of the incident at 11.30am with Tom Price Police co-ordinating the response. Sgt Rainer said a multi-agency response was used, including Tom Price SES, Tom Price volunteer fire and rescue, St John Ambulance, and park rangers. The rescue effort took several hours, with the woman reaching the gorge’s surface at about 6pm. “She was loaded on to a stretcher, then stretchered across pretty difficult terrain,” he said. “There were a couple of water crossings to get across as well in which the stretcher is placed on some flotation tubes, and she was floated across those water crossings. “Then it required a rope lift up a ladder that enters into the Hancock Gorge there.” Sgt Rainer said the woman’s ankle was bent 90 degrees “from where it was meant to be”. In a post on Facebook, the woman’s mother, Linda Watson, thanked responders for helping her daughter. “She underwent surgery last night and is currently in RPH recuperating — a long haul ahead,” the post read. Sgt Rainer said it was important for people to be careful when going through the gorges where conditions were changing all the time and could be unpredictable.