One-armed man with wooden leg survived for four days lost in Australian bush

A remarkable story of survival has emerged in Far North Queensland, Australia. An amputee has been found alive after being lost in bushland near Cairns for four nights. 55-year-old Raymond 'Butch' Beattie said he did thought he would die in the hot, remote, rugged terrain. There were times when the darkest of thoughts crossed his mind.



He embraced his family before being whisked into an ambulance "buggered, but so happy to be alive", he said. "I cried myself last night and cursed the world and got the emotion up. I thought 'I'm not going to get out of bed in the morning, I'm going to die on this rock'."

Butch set off on his quad bike on Saturday afternoon and got into trouble. "It flipped, it bounced on me and then it took off down the hill," he recalled. His family called police and they joined locals in searching. Surviving would be hard for anyone, let alone a man with a wooden leg and one arm.


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When Butch ran out of water he turned to his survival skills, digging for water, finding shade where he could and using his urine to keep a rag damp and his face cool. On Wednesday morning Butch heard the search chopper. "I said, thank you, thank you, thank you!" he said. "I thought I was dead a few times." Paramedics assessed Butch in Irvinebank before he was taken to Atherton Hospital suffering from dehydration and neck pain.