By MATT NICHOLLS
TRAGEDY was avoided at Dangars Falls on Saturday when an eight-year-old boy survived a 200-metre fall down a slope.
Emergency services crews said the boy was “incredibly lucky” to leave the Armidale tourist hotspot with just a fractured leg.
NSW Ambulance Inspector Neale Waters said that the boy was camping in the area with his family when he attended the viewing platform about 4.45pm on Saturday.
Inspector Waters, who attended the scene, said it was believed the boy climbed through the cordoned area to retrieve a personal item when he slipped.
“Just below the platform is a walkable area but he’s slipped again somehow,” he said.
“It was a slide and roll affair and the momentum kept him going.
“He came to rest about 200m from the viewing platform. What’s stopped him from falling to the bottom, I don’t know.
“It’s about a 300m drop so there was another 100m to go.”
Paramedic Niall Webb was one of the first rescuers on scene and immediately took to the slope, experiencing a similar, slippery passage to reach the patient.
“It’s not a sheer drop, but you couldn’t walk straight down to where he fell,” he said.
“You had to walk backwards and forwards across the gorge to get to him. “There are walking tracks down there but he wasn’t on a walking track.”
Mr Webb took basic equipment with him, pain relief, a first-aid kit and splint.
“SES volunteers arrived and put ropes down to the patient so that when the time came for people to get out, they had something to hang on to, to guide them,” Inspector Waters said.
“They also put night sticks down along the track to show people the way out.”
A rescue helicopter was called in and the boy was winched out, five hours after the alarm was first raised.
Inspector Waters said the boy was in relatively good spirits, especially as he was able to speak to his parents from the location.
“He had a talk to mum and dad. There were civilians down there who had a CB radio which helped us a lot,” he said.
“We had no communication – no portable radio or mobile phones would work.
“He told his father, ‘Dad, I’m going on a helicopter ride!’ ”
The boy was airlifted to Tamworth Airport before being transported by road ambulance to Tamworth Base Hospital in a stable condition.
