By Tanya Steele
On Friday 19 April, a young man was lucky to escape with minor injuries after falling near the popular Burke’s Lookout on the face of Mount Dandenong.
A multi-service effort from Victoria Ambulance, Victoria Police, SES and multiple CFA units rescued the man from around 10 metres down the steep embankment with a rope pulley system at around 9.30pm.
Lilydale SES attended the scene and unit controller Shaun Caulfield said they were called out to assist with the high angle rescue.
Ambulance services had initially walked down to the patient and as they got more information Mr Caulfield said it became evident that they were going to need some rope access systems.
Multiple CFA units from Montrose, Kalorama, Monbulk and Wandin CFA were also called to assist.
“Monbulk and Wandin are our region’s rope rescue providers and the area that he fell in – the access is difficult,” he said.
The terrain was quite narrow, steep and damp and the rescue efforts involved using a specialised piece of equipment known as a ‘mule’.
“It’s essentially like a buggy wheel, it’s got handles on the front and the back and allows us to wheel the stretcher rather than carry it,” Mr Caulfield said.
“It worked out quite well in this instance because the track at that particular point where he was was quite narrow,” he said.
After assessment and treatment by paramedics, emergency services worked together to form a hauling team to retrieve the man and the people holding the stretcher.
“The system has to be prepared to pull everybody up and many hands make light work as they say,” Mr Caulfield said.
A spokesperson from Ambulance Victoria said paramedics were called to a report of a fall and Advanced Life Support (ALS) and Mobile Intensive Care Ambulance (MICA) paramedics attended the scene and worked alongside CFA and SES to extricate the patient.
“A man in his 20s with upper and lower body injuries was transported by road to The Alfred Hospital in a serious but stable condition,” they said.
Mr Caulfield said it was a well coordinated job with Ambulance, Police, CFA and SES working together on the night.
“The fundamentals of what we do is, is the same so it pays for us to work together and to cross train and then when we come together with events like this, everything goes far more smoothly,” he said.
