CRS Pleased To Assist With Wombeyan Rescue

The Squad was called in to assist the major cave rescue operation at Wombeyan over the weekend. Local VRA Berrima, Goulburn Police Rescue and Ambulance were already on site when CRS arrived. All the personnel worked well together and the Squad was pleased to be of assistance.

A number of specialist techniques were used to assist in the extraction of the casualty and included: re-engineering the cave to increase access; vertical haul systems to lift the casualty up vertical climbs and traverse lines to transport the casualty horizontally over rough ground. Member and inter-agency training came to the fore for the smooth running of these systems in this operation.

In this instance the caver was exceedingly lucky to survive as he had not informed anyone of his whereabouts or intentions. Obviously this goes against all the established safe caving procedures of:

1. Always inform someone of your intentions, including a time of exit
2. Do not cave alone
3. Have appropriate equipment, including food and water, for the cave you are entering

Further details of safe caving as promoted by the Squad and the Australian Speleological Federation is available at the ASF's Cave Safety Guidelines: http://www.caves.org.au/s_cave_safety.htm

For further details please contact VRA Media: 1300 872 777