Victoria Police Rescue Melbourne Teenager Stranded Six Days in Remote Bushland on Single Chip Packet

Victoria Police rescue crews winched 17-year-old William from a treacherous bushland ravine on Wednesday, ending a six-day ordeal in the Australian wilderness that the teenager survived on a single packet of potato chips.

Himself sunburned, starved, and clad only in work boots and shorts, the teenager punched the air in jubilation as the search helicopter circled overhead. He had vanished last Friday during a camping expedition with a friend in rugged bushland roughly 180 kilometres east of Melbourne. He carried no mobile phone. A mistimed step sent him tumbling down a sheer cliff edge into an inaccessible gully near Walhalla, roughly 130 kilometres from the state capital, where steep rock faces sealed off any route of escape.

Six Days Trapped in Snake Country

Search and rescue teams unleashed scent-tracking hounds, specialist divers, and thermal imaging helicopters across dense eucalyptus terrain populated by Australia's deadliest venomous snakes. Hope wavered as frosty nights gave way to blistering daylight. Yet ground spotters located the missing youth lying exhausted across the gully floor. Rescuers hoisted him aboard the aircraft and flew him directly into emergency medical care.

Officers who pulled the teenager from the brush struggled to contain their composure.

Family Vigil and Clinical Recovery

Hearing that her son had survived against brutal wilderness odds broke an agonising vigil for his mother, Elizabeth Barkley.

Barkley confirmed that William—who has autism—escaped the harsh terrain with minor abrasions despite enduring six days of exposure with virtually zero food intake. But doctors have strictly restricted his diet during initial refeeding, denying his immediate request for fast food while monitoring potential metabolic complications.

"I just lost it. It's been horrible the past couple of days, my prayers have been answered," Barkley said, quipping through tears that her son was "never leaving the house again."

Ground teams noted that surviving nearly a week in unmapped bush without water infrastructure or cold-weather gear is an extraordinary feat of physical resilience.

Police investigators will formally debrief the teenager once attending physicians clear him from observation at the hospital.