Boy Found Alive 6 Days After Vanishing in Australian Bush
A 17-year-old with autism was found alive by a police helicopter crew on Thursday, six days after he disappeared near the former gold-mining town of Walhalla, east of Melbourne. He was sunburned but in good health, and his mother said he is "grounded for life".
A 17-year-old boy with autism was found alive on Thursday, November 12, after six days lost in woodlands in eastern Australia, police said. The boy, identified only as William, was found lying asleep on a flat rock beside a creek.
He disappeared near Walhalla, a former gold-mining town 185 kilometers (115 miles) east of Melbourne. He had been camping with a teenage friend.
A police helicopter crew spotted him, and he was later reunited with his mother. Video from the helicopter showed him shirtless and sunburned, wearing shorts and boots and using towels as blankets.
Police said William was taken to a hospital so doctors could monitor his health. "Amazingly, William is in good spirits and for the most part, in good health," they said in a statement.
How he got lost
William's mother, Elizabeth, had dropped him and his friend off for a weekend of camping. He walked a short distance from the campsite to the drop-off point to collect more equipment, but never went back to his friend, police said.
After becoming lost, he trekked for days up and down "some very steep terrain," Acting Police Inspector Jason Benbow said. He spent his last two days at the creek where he was found, trapped by the steepness of the land about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from his campsite.
"He woke up to the sound of the helicopter, gave them a thumbs up and they winched him to safety," Benbow told reporters.
More than 100 emergency services personnel and volunteers took part in the search. The spring weather in the alpine region had been mild for the past week, with little rain.
Autism and the search
William's family have said he has Level 2 autism. The Australian advocacy group Autism360 says that level requires "substantial support". A person at that level may have marked difficulty with verbal and non-verbal communication and rely heavily on routines.
There have been other dramatic wilderness rescues in Australia in recent years. In 2025, a German tourist was found alive in the Outback 12 days after she went missing. In 2019, a woman missing for three days was rescued after a surveillance camera spotted the SOS message she had scrawled in the sand.
Police video showed Elizabeth embracing her son after the helicopter landed. "I'm just over the moon that he's alive," she told reporters, before joking: "He's never leaving the house again. He's grounded for life. He's not going anywhere ever again."
