Lost hiker tells of battle to survive
A lost hiker given up for dead said he survived five weeks in some of Australia’s harshest terrain because of willpower and army survival training.
Benjamin Maloney, 27, was declared medically fit and released from Royal Hobart Hospital today, two days after he emerged from rugged wilderness in the island state of Tasmania.
Lost for 37 days, Maloney went 14 days without food, suffered dehydration and hypothermia and lost more than 32lbs in weight.
Willpower and survival skills learned in the army helped him to survive.
‘‘I wanted to survive,’’ he said.
Maloney emerged from the wilderness on Friday and met some hikers, who gave him food and took him to a hospital.
He had set off for a 12-day mountain trek on March 14, and was last seen on March 15. He was reported as being overdue on March 28.
An extensive search failed to locate Maloney by April 2, and police had all but given up hope of finding him alive. His parents held a memorial service for him five days after the search was called off.
Maloney said his food ran out two weeks before he was rescued, forcing him to ‘‘decide I didn’t need food’’.
Instead he ‘‘chose to eat (wild) mushrooms if they were nice and tasty’’, but spent most of his days crawling through thick scrub - all the time with a determination to battle his way out.
‘‘I had to bush bash my way through, I had 20 odd days where I was bush bashing every day,’’ he said.
