Eight years ago almost to the day the head of Victoria’s maximum security Barwon Prison vanished.
David Prideaux was 50 when the experienced hunter went on a trip with his brother-in-law in Victoria’s rugged Alpine National Park on Mount Stirling and simply vanished.
The terrain along the Buckland Spur Track is notoriously harsh, and is trekked by experienced bushmen who know most of everything that could go wrong.
But vanish he did. Gone without a trace.
Ever since, conspiracies about what happened to the prison boss have abounded – from being killed by gangland figures to faking his own disappearance.
Barwon Prison boss David Prideaux went missing on Mount Stirling while on a hunting trip in 2011. His body has never been found
Tomahawk Hut on Mount Stirling. Mr Prideaux signed the guest book there before heading out to hunt deer. He never returned
Mistakes happen when one goes bush. Just ask former Victorian Water Minister Tim Holding, who fell off Mount Feathertop while attempting a solo hike back in 2009.
Mr Holding was found, but Mr Prideaux was not so lucky. Everyone who knew him said he was prepared.
He was no slouch when it came to living it rough.
But the timing of Mr Prideaux’s disappearance could not have come at a more interesting time in Victoria’s criminal history.
Melbourne underworld kingpin Carl William had only a year earlier being bashed to death inside the very prison Mr Prideaux was in control of.
Williams had been giving information to police about a murder that involved an allegation that one of their own had organised a hit on an informer.
Police had made arrangements with Mr Prideaux for release visits, where Williams could rat on his underworld friends.
The police had made a deal to pay the school fees of his daughter in return for the damning information.
Williams was bludgeoned to death inside Barwon Prison while reading a front page story of that very deal.
Matthew Johnson prepares to murder Carl Williams as he reads a newspaper containing a front page article that outed him as a rat. Barwon Prison officials later came under fire for housing Williams with a man known for his hatred of police informers
It was a messy end to what had been a bloody period of unbridled murder in Melbourne.
A history that now extended to the very concrete blocks where the surviving members of the so called ‘Underbelly War’ were being housed.
When Mr Prideaux went missing, reports suggested he had possessed copies of statements on a CD ROM made by Williams and his father, George, including the allegations of police involvement in corruption and murder.
The Australian reported that during the eight-day search for Mr Prideaux, a work colleague found sensitive files in his four-wheel-drive vehicle parked at the remote Tomahawk Hut, on the Buckland Spur Track, where he was last seen.
Police were unable to find the CD-ROM in the car and later searches of Mr Prideaux’s home in suburban Melbourne and office failed to turn up the disk.
Rumours that he had been taken out by gangland figures started to emerge from unlikely places.
Paul Prideaux was vocal about what he believed may have happened to his brother.
His public thoughts divided his family amid accusations of betrayal, adultery, conspiracy and murder.
The former bank robber was the black sheep of the family.
Both David and his other brother Peter, had been prison staff.
‘I’m going to cop a barrage of abuse for speaking out about this, but I’m doing this for my [late] father,’ he told crime reporter Adam Shand in 2013.
‘I know he would be saying, “Get in there boots and all and find the truth”.’
One of seven boys, David Prideaux had a love for the Aussie bush and was no stranger to the kind of terrain he went missing in.
He had taken off with his hunting partner, Robbie Dale, who is married to David’s elder sister Janine, for a four-day trip.
Matthew Johnson inside Barwon Prision. He murdered Carl Williams about a year before David Prideaux went missing in the bush. Some have linked his disappearance to his involvement with Williams turning rat
The prison boss was apparently obsessed with ‘risk management’ and had been prepared for the cold and formidable conditions.
On June 4, he signed the guest book at Tomahawk Hut: ‘Thanks to VicHuts, cheers’.
Robbie Dale later told police that he and David had set off from the hut at 7.45 the next morning. They separated with a plan to circle the same mountain in opposite directions and meet back at the hut for lunch.
David had a new rifle and camo gear, with a high visibility beanie to avoid any unfortunate hunting accidents.
He had binoculars and a backpack loaded with food, water, a UHF radio, compass and a GPS.
He even had a space blanket in case he had to spend the night in the open.
But he left his mobile phone in his LandCruiser at the hut – there was no reception anyway.
When David didn’t return for lunch, Mr Dale went back out to look for him.
It would be close to 9pm before he called the police. He hadn’t been able to get phone reception either.
More than 100 police, search and rescue officers, State Emergency Service and volunteers from the Bush Search and Rescue descended on the area at first light.
Carl Williams’ statements were allegedly being held by David Prideaux at the time of his disappearance. A murder prosecution against a former police officer died with Williams’ death. Some say Mr Prideaux may have been able to give evidence about those statements
Two helicopters with thermal imaging technology were flown in and rescue teams scoured the bush of foot, on horses, trail bikes and in four-wheel-drives.
Another 40 family and friends came up from Melbourne and from interstate to search too.
Police didn’t get around to formally interviewing Mr Dale until much later in the week.
It was a move that would later come under fire as the Prideaux family turned the search into one for answers.
Police had also broken into David’s car to get his phone, but failed to forensically test the vehicle.
It was then used to bus searchers about – contaminating any potential evidence.
As the days dragged on, things started to get stranger.
Two clairvoyants claimed to know where he was, and there began to be supposed sightings of the missing prison boss.
One hunter claimed to have seen David 25km away on the Zeka Spur Track, a place familiar to the Prideaux family.
But the snow came in and the search was called off.
The investigation turned to the Williams case, which saw prison staff come under fire for allowing the murder to happen.
Paul Prideaux later claimed he had been told by underworld connections that his brother was approached by two people he knew on the Buckland Spur Track; one was a prison warder.
While one kept David busy, the other shot him three times in the back.
His body was buried in a shallow grave nearby on land owned by a well-known crime identity.
The search resumed again in October that year over nearly 50 square kilometres.
Not a trace of him was found.
That Christmas a story appeared in a Melbourne newspaper that stated it was likely Mr Prideaux’s remains had been eaten by wild dogs which spread his bones over several kilometres.
The reporter received a letter from the Prideaux family saying they hoped he choked on a bone during his Christmas turkey dinner.
David Prideaux was boss of Barwon Prison (above) which houses some of Victoria’s worst offenders
If Mr Prideaux had been eaten by dogs, where was his clothing, rifle and backpack?
None of it has ever been found.
Then the stories began that Mr Prideaux had actually faked his own death and had fled to live with a secret lover.
About a year after he vanished, The Australian broke the news that David had been having an affair.
Within days, the Herald Sun published a story police were investigating a sighting of David in the West Australian resort town of Broome.
The newspaper sent a reporter there, who found nothing more than a few beers and some seafood dinners he charged back to Rupert Murdoch.
Weeks after his disappearance, a family member claimed that he was 90 per cent sure he’d seen David in Melbourne’s east, driving a Nissan Navara.
The prison boss had been a Toyota fan and a staunch family man.
If he was on the run, he never again touched his bank accounts or credit cards.
While David’s body remains unaccounted for, the theories and speculation will continue.
The reality is probably more tragic.
Rescuers said the vegetation was so dense where David went missing that rescuers walking metres apart were invisible to each other.
In 2012, Peter Prideaux told the Herald Sun he knew his brother was not alive.
‘I’m convinced he died of natural causes very quickly and was unable to tell anyone of his location,’ he said.
He dismissed the conspiracy theories as ‘bulls**t’.
Peter said his brother loved his family and friends too much to ever go underground.
‘He wouldn’t have lasted 18 minutes, let alone 18 months,’ he said.
In July 2014, Deputy State Coroner Iain West declared David Prideaux officially dead.
Mr West said he was satisfied there was no credible evidence to suggest David was still alive or had been murdered.
‘(Police) believe that he died from a major medical event or a serious accident that caused him to be incapable of movement or communication while hunting in the vicinity of Tomahawk Hut,’ he said.
As far as the law is concerned, David Prideaux was claimed by the forest.