THREE bushwalkers lost overnight in the Yarra Ranges National Park near Healesville walked out, wet but safe and well on Monday morning.  The three walkers, a man aged 70, his wife age 56 and the couple's 22 year old daughter, all from Benalla, sparked a large search of the area on Sunday evening and early Monday morning when the trio failed to meet-up with friends at Donnelly's Wier, Healesville, by 5.30pm Sunday.

The three had set off from Mt St Leonard, near Healesville, at 1pm on Sunday, to walk the 12 kilometres to Donnelly's Wier, but when they failed to arrive a search involving the Police Search and Rescue Unit, local police and State Emergency Service (SES) volunteers was mounted for the group.

Police Vehicles patrolled fire and access tracks and an SES foot party searched the bush until the early hours of Monday morning when the search was called off.

However, the three walked from the bush and to a house not far from Donnelly's Wier at around 10am on Monday, and notified authorities.  One of the bushwalkers, Joan Reynolds blamed poor signage along the track for the party taking the wrong trail.  Mrs Reynolds said the family were experienced bushwalkers and were well prepared with correct clothing.

She said they lit a fire during the night, and were able to find their go out in the morning. (I left the grammatical mistakes in for authenticity purposes.)  An SES spokesman said after the family set off from Mt St Leonard they found their way onto the Monda Track taking them in the opposite direction from Donnelly's Wier, and further into the bush.

Bike riders rescued

SES volunteers were also called to rescue two mountain bike riders who had set off from Donnelly's Wier, but abandoned their bikes when the tracks became too rough to ride on Sunday.

Continuing their journey on foot the couple rang for help on their mobile phone when it began to get dark and they were unable to make their way back to the wier.

Taken from the Mountain Views Newspaper 7/4/99