Best friend lifesaver

By Melissa Meehan
YARRA Valley police and SES volunteers have had their resources tested with three searches in the mountains over the past week.
Late on Friday afternoon Dominic Archibald and his eight-year-old kelpie Ruby went for a walk on Mt Toolebewong off Don Road, Healesville.
Early fog set in and the under prepared hiker and his best friend were lost.
“We didn’t intend on going bush to begin with,” Mr Archibald said.
“And that’s why I didn’t have my phone on me, or a lighter.”
Mr Archibald said he first became alarmed when he realised he was lost, and it was getting close to nightfall.
“My mind went to the guy that went missing at Mt Dom Dom earlier this year, and was never found,” Mr Archibald said.
“It made me think it was so easy to die, but I laid down a bed of bracken, enough for both of us, and hugged Ruby tight.”
“Her warmth would have kept me four degrees warmer than I would have been if she wasn’t there – she saved my life.”
The pair huddled together throughout the night, with temperatures falling below zero.
Somehow, Mr Archibald said, the pair survived.
“Without her and the team of police and SES crews looking for me until 2.30am, and providing my family with support, I wouldn’t have survived.”
The driver of a four-wheel drive vehicle which became bogged in the bush near Warburton on Saturday 16 August sparked a search after he became lost while trying to walk out of the area. The search involved police from Yarra Junction, Yarra Glen and Healesville.
Police received a phone call from the man at about 5pm and the man was located at about midnight.
Senior Constable Kevin Bishop of Yarra Junction police said the man had a mobile phone and GPS, which provided the searchers with some indication of the area he was in.
A report of a vehicle snowed in on top of Mount Donna Buang at Warburton on Thursday night sparked another search.
Senior Constable Ben Aulich of Yarra Junction police said the alarm was raised when items of clothing in the car, registered to a Hampton address, indicated the possibility of the owner being lost on the mountain.
“It was snowing on and off and we didn’t have the luxury of waiting until morning if someone was going to be out in the elements,” Sen Const Aulich said.
Six local police and SES volunteers searched which police at Hampton tried to make contact with friends or family of the man to establish his intentions.
The search was called off at around 4.30am when police learned the man was on a planned camping trip.
Sen Const Aulich said people need to have a set route and let people know where they are going, and stick to their plan.
“Phone reception is a luxury in the Yarra Valley,” he said.