A young woman found herself trapped upside down for hours after slipping between two boulders while attempting to retrieve her mobile phone during a hike in Australia’s Hunter Valley region.
Identified in reports as Matilda Campbell, the incident occurred earlier this month as she fell into a three-metre crevice, marking the beginning of a seven-hour rescue operation that posed significant challenges for emergency services, who needed to move multiple boulders.
Despite successfully using a winch to remove a 500kg rock, rescuers faced the complex task of extracting her from the “S” bend where she was lodged.
“In my 10 years as a rescue paramedic, I had never encountered a job quite like this. It was challenging but incredibly rewarding,” said Peter Watts, a paramedic reflecting on the rescue. The young woman had already been upside down for over an hour before help arrived, following unsuccessful initial attempts by her friends.
Emergency services shared images showcasing the precarious situation, with the woman hanging between the boulders and the intricate efforts made to stabilize the area while creating a gap sufficient for her rescue.
Mr. Watts described the young woman as a “trooper” during a subsequent interview, expressing the team’s astonishment at the circumstances surrounding her fall.
Amazingly, the woman emerged with only minor scratches and bruises, though she did not manage to retrieve her phone. In a post-incident message, she expressed gratitude to her rescuers, stating, “Thank you to the team who saved me; you guys are literally life savers. Too bad about the phone though.”
