Stranded couple survive three days in crocodile-infested waters with no food after 4WD blunder in Far North Queensland

A Queensland couple stranded deep in the heart of Croc Country have been whisked to safety after a terrifying three-day ordeal fleeing crocodiles and drinking muddy floodwater.

Rescuers found the pair aged in their 50s, on Saturday after their 4WD was swept away by floodwaters while travelling between Normanton and Kowanyama in far north Queensland.

LifeFlight pilot Michael Adair said the couple had all but given up of being found after two nights stranded in the outback.

‘These people had resigned themselves to dying and seeing the look on their faces when they saw us and realised they weren’t going to die – that’s the reason we do this,’ he said. 

The pair driving along a remote road when a torrent of water washed their 4WD off the road crossing the Clark Creek

The couple and their two dogs managed to escape but their vehicle and all of their belongings were swept away.

The couple endured 40C heat, unrelenting insects and drank muddy river water in order to survive, as their dogs limped in tow. 

An extensive search was launched after the missing couple didn’t reach Kowanyama by the expected arrival time.

The LifeFlight crew spotted to ‘SOS’ messages scraped into the dirt and the couple waving frantically next to it

But flooded roads meant that Queensland Police was unable to search by land. 

The LifeFlight crew scoured 500km of desert and eventually spotted an enormous SOS written in the dirt six hours into the flight on Saturday and the couple waving frantically from below.

When he descended, the couple couldn’t believe they were being saved.

‘They said ‘thank God you’re here, we didn’t think anyone was coming’,’ Mr Adair said.

‘The wife told us she had been hearing voices in the bush from exposure and had convinced herself that nobody was coming to help them, so she was very emotional when we hugged her,’ he said.

The couple revealed they had been terrified while stranded in the harsh, remote environment without any tools or resources.

They were also stalked by a crocodile during the two-night ordeal and tried to construct makeshift shelter from branches and leaves to ward off the predator.

Floodwaters had wrestled away the couple’s 4WD packed with all their possessions as they drove between two remote hamlets inland from the Gulf of Carpentaria

The relieved couple told their rescuers that they’d ‘resigned to dying’ after surviving two nights in difficult terrain

Originally from New Zealand, Mr Adair rescued the pair on his first mission in Australia and with LifeFlight.

His co-pilot Mark Overton joked that Mr Adair was used to different environments back home..

‘Mike is used to flying in a completely different environment and we’ve thrown him into the middle of the outback and on his first job he’s been sent to the middle of nowhere,’ he said.

‘The distance we had to travel to get from Mt Isa to north of Normanton up near Kowanyama was very, very vast and just the difference between New Zealand and Australia was huge.

‘He was a bit taken aback by just how big Australia can be.’

‘I was saying ‘choice’ a lot,’ Mr Adair said.

‘I was looking down and seeing all sorts of Australian animals – kangaroos, and cattle and crocs.

‘I have been in the rescue industry for five years back home in New Zealand but it was just wonderful to have that as my first experience of rescue helicopter operations in Australia.

‘Not only a really technically challenging mission, but one with a perfect outcome. It was an amazing start to my Australian rescue career.’