This is horrific

This is so unbeleivable! In this day and age everyone should know of the carrying of extra water out in the bush, whether driving or doing a windmill run, checking bores and tanks or just driving from one place to another. The outback bush of Australia is a hard taskmaster, it pays to learn it well. That this poor young man should dehydrate then die so quickly and its not even summertime yet is heart rending. There were adverse weather conditions though, if the previous blog entry of the weather is checked out, with severe heat expected and high winds, along with thunderstorms in all the central portion of Australia from the top of the Northern Territory down to South Australia and the border country. For poor Mo there was no thunderstorm to alleviate his suffering. I do hope and pray that a lesson will be learned from his untimely death, so that he didn't die in vain, be prepared with penty of water when outback. Len Beadell, Tom Kruse and other such bushman, always travelled with the necessary means to get them out of sand dune bogs and carried plenty of water. Please, please station people, police and others, issue warnings to everyone no matter whether they are travelling in summer or winter to be prepared for adverse weather, bogging and breakdowns, to have what is necessary to help get out of a bog and to carry plenty of water.

Mauritz 'Mo' Pieterse dies of thirst and heat exhaustion on 10km walk after car bogged in extreme temperatures   

Man perishes after desert stranding

Watch

Close

Man perishes after desert stranding

A young man has died in the Simpson desert and another is in hospital after a desperate trek for help.

Sky News7 November 2012

Close

Advertisement

 

Email

Email To:

Your Email:

Message:

URL Link

Embed Code

A COMMUNITY is in shock and a family in grief after a 25-year-old man was found dead from dehydration and exposure north of the Simpson Desert in Queensland.

Mauritz "Mo" Pieterse was on what was supposed to be a morning routine check of a spring near Ethabuka Station with friend and contractor Josh, 30, when their car was bogged in a sand dune.
By late afternoon locals realised the pair had not returned and turned out in force to find them. Around midnight, neighbours found Mo's body.
A woman, who asked not to be named, said Greg Woods from neighbouring Carlo Station made the horrific discovery.

Mauritz "Mo" Pieterse was located in the Simpson Desert in Queensland.

"He (Josh) was quite a mess when they found him," she said.

"They had trouble getting him in the car. He was disorientated.
"He had no saliva, he was crying and he said 'I've got to get back to Mo."'

A Facebook image of Mauritz.

The woman said Mr Woods spent the next few hours with "the man's life in his hands" until he was airlifted to Mount Isa Hospital.

Now the grief-stricken Pieterse family, who live in WA, are getting ready to fly to rural Queensland.
"He was the best son ever," Mo's mother, Geraldine, said through tears this morning.

A file image of Queensland's arid south-west near Birdsville.

"He was a gentle giant... he was the sort of kid helped me even to do the ironing. He would hug you and was never shy to show his affection."

She said Mo loved his conservation work and that she trusted his judgement.
"We don't know exactly what happened yet but we're sure he would have made the right decision and looked after the other person he was with," Ms Pieterse said.

The men got bogged near Ethabuka Station in far western Queensland. One man died as they tried to get back to civilisation. Pic: Google Maps

His younger sister, Jani, and father, Tjokkie, remembered Mo as a passionate and enthusiastic nature-lover.

"He was absolutely dedicated to conservation," 23-year-old Jani said.
Local policeman Tim Farran said the pair were both experienced in their work in the bush.
"It was just a series of small mistakes that led to one big one," he said.
"The desert is a beautiful place, and we do look at it through our windows and it looks really nice, but just because it's the 21st century and we have modern technology, don't think it won't kill."
Mr Farran said the other man, 30-year-old Josh, was in hospital and in a stable condition.
Mo's 4WD has been recovered as investigations continue into the 25-year-old's death.
Workplace Health and Safety are liaising with local Ethabuka Station police to investigate the cause of Mo's death, the young man dying while on a work trip to perform maintenance work on a nearby spring.
Mo Pieterse's employer from Bush Heritage is also being interviewed.
A Workplace Health and Safety spokeswoman said she was unsure if investigators were yet at the rural location but confirmed that investigations are ongoing.