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Speaker 1: But we know harrowing new details of a Lucky Daily

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Speaker 1: River Region escape flowed through late yesterday afternoon. Two men

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Speaker 1: were obviously rescued on Saturday after they boat struck an

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Speaker 1: underwater object and sank at Clear Creek on Thursday. Now

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Speaker 1: joining us on the line is the Northern Territory Police

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Speaker 1: Territory Support Division Superintendent Sean Gill. Good morning to you, Sean.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Cody, Sean.

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Speaker 1: This sounds like an absolutely horrific situation that these poor

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Speaker 1: blokes were in. Can you tell us a little bit

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Speaker 1: more about when police became aware.

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Speaker 2: So we actually became aware on Saturday afternoon after these

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Speaker 2: persons have been located. So it's a bit of a

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Speaker 2: long story, but essentially the two people who rescue these

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Speaker 2: people are actually friends of mine, so they contact the

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Speaker 2: mystery social media and I said, well, being the Divisional

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Speaker 2: super of Water Police, I said, this is the police

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Speaker 2: follow up requirement as well, and particularly as as well

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Speaker 2: documented these people were having to drink their own urine,

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Speaker 2: so they need to actually go and get checked out

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Speaker 2: by a medical assessment fairly quick as well, because there's

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Speaker 2: always implications for kidneys when people start doing that. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: so I was told by social media in a nutshell,

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Speaker 2: and then we escalated from there. But did that credit.

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Speaker 2: They did actually ring the police later on as well,

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Speaker 2: because I worried that their repair was still activating so

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Speaker 2: it could have caused another search, so they were still

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Speaker 2: thinking about that as well.

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Speaker 1: Sean, it sounds like a horribly traumatizing situation for these

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Speaker 1: poor blokes as I understand it. They were picked up

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Speaker 1: by another boat, but not before a crocodile had given

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Speaker 1: chase as they swam to an isolated shoreline. Can you

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Speaker 1: tell us where did this all happen exactly?

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Speaker 2: So it's called Clear Creek, which is about ninety minutes

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Speaker 2: downstream from the Daily river boat ramp. So essentially, as

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Speaker 2: you said, they we're traveling along on a boat. We're

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Speaker 2: not exactly sure of the circumstances of how it's sunk.

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Speaker 2: I know that they did hit an object about ten

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Speaker 2: k's earlier, they said, so whether that was taking on

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Speaker 2: water or not, we're not quite sure yet. But they

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Speaker 2: come to a point where the vessel just went under

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Speaker 2: almost straight away, so they did everything they could. They

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Speaker 2: tried to grab what they could, but while I were

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Speaker 2: doing that, they're splashing that aroused the interest of a

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Speaker 2: croc who was having a go at him for one

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Speaker 2: of a better word. So they were throwing things at

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Speaker 2: this crock to keep it away. And then one of

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Speaker 2: the persons I spoke to he said that while I

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Speaker 2: doing swimming along and trying to hang onto an eski,

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Speaker 2: because they got hold of that, the crock was submerging

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Speaker 2: near him. So as one of them said, you know,

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Speaker 2: they didn't know if the croc was going to get

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Speaker 2: him more then he said, the only thing you do

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Speaker 2: is not panic and try and get the shore. So

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Speaker 2: that's what he did, so all credit to him. Horrible situation,

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Speaker 2: and so you know, you've got a boat going down,

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Speaker 2: you've got stuff floating everywhere you're trying to get it,

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Speaker 2: and then there's a crop trying to make a meal

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Speaker 2: of you as well.

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Speaker 1: It is unbelievable. Honestly, It's what horror movies are made of.

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Speaker 1: It's incredible that these two guys have survived such a

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Speaker 1: traumatic ordeal. Sean once they sort of once they they

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Speaker 1: found somewhere or they My understanding is that they found

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Speaker 1: a bit of an island, But like, what kind of

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Speaker 1: of landscape are we talking about there? Is it somewhere

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Speaker 1: that was quite easy to crawl up on, or what

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Speaker 1: was the go.

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Speaker 2: I look, from my knowledge, I've been in a few

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Speaker 2: times my selfishing, and you know, I'd probably best describe

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Speaker 2: it as a mud pit. Like it's they're walking around

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Speaker 2: in deep mud. There's not a lot of shade's there's

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Speaker 2: a few little trees that they could get some a

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Speaker 2: little bit of shade on, but nothing nothing made to

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Speaker 2: not full time shades. So they were essentially just stuck

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Speaker 2: on a mudpit where they were getting monstered by everything

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Speaker 2: that was trying to buy them, including midges and the like.

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Speaker 2: They got one bag. They had their personal clothing, so

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Speaker 2: they had enough to get long sleeve shirts, so probably

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Speaker 2: anything they didn't suffer from was sunburnt. But you know,

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Speaker 2: they're covered in mud to try and keep the midges

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Speaker 2: off them. They actually had matches that they managed to

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Speaker 2: get a camping box and they managed to try and

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Speaker 2: couldn't even like fires because all the areas they couldn't

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Speaker 2: get anything going. So they got a little bit going

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Speaker 2: for a while, but they couldn't do anything to sustain

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Speaker 2: lying a fire. As I say, They tried to write

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Speaker 2: help on the beach, so they were doing everything they

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Speaker 2: could to save themselves. I know that they found plastic

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Speaker 2: bottles and like I think they found an old Bundy

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Speaker 2: run bottle or something like that as well, where they

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Speaker 2: knew that they were in trouble, knew they didn't have

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Speaker 2: any water, so they found them straight away and they

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Speaker 2: started urinating in bottles like that, So they were thinking

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Speaker 2: way ahead. But and I know that they were looking

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Speaker 2: moisture off leaves. So they've done everything they could to

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Speaker 2: save themselves. But it's just a timely reminder and say,

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Speaker 2: you know that when you do these long trips, particularly,

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Speaker 2: and it can come up really quick on you when

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Speaker 2: people need to be prepared.

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Speaker 1: You've been a police officer for a long time, Sean,

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Speaker 1: have you ever heard anything ever you heard a story

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Speaker 1: quite like this in your years of policing.

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Speaker 2: I've heard it similar, but this one's this one is

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Speaker 2: right up there in terms of how horrific it was

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Speaker 2: for them and just things going bad. And you know,

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Speaker 2: from everything that sounds like everything that possibly could go

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Speaker 2: bad did go bad. The important thing to know to

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Speaker 2: here is it it's not through any It's not through

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Speaker 2: any lack of planning. You know, they bought a new eperb.

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Speaker 2: They advised one of the appropriate websites of their trip details,

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Speaker 2: but unfortunately they went down. They went for a four

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Speaker 2: day trip, and they went down on day one. As

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Speaker 2: I said to him, if they would have went down

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Speaker 2: on day three, it been a different story. Yeah, So

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Speaker 2: they're extremely lucky to be found, and I'll can tell

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Speaker 2: you they're extremely grateful to be found.

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Speaker 1: By the time they got them, I bet they were.

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Speaker 1: Now in terms of as you've said, they've obviously done

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Speaker 1: the right thing. They were actually pretty well prepared. But

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Speaker 1: by the sounds of it, the boat went down so

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Speaker 1: fast that they weren't actually able to grab some of

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Speaker 1: those essentials that you might usually grab. I mean, like,

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Speaker 1: are there many lessons for those other fish shows out

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Speaker 1: there listening this morning in terms of I guess, ways

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Speaker 1: that you can make sure that you potentially avoid a

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Speaker 1: situation like this one.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, there's a few things, like as you're saying,

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Speaker 2: and what we're looking at is a small things here,

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Speaker 2: But if you've got an EPERB in a vessel, make

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Speaker 2: sure it's easily accessible. A lot of people stick them

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Speaker 2: under their hats or things like that. If a boat

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Speaker 2: goes down that quick, I can tell you now, you

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Speaker 2: won't have time to do that, so they need to

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Speaker 2: be prepared for that. Other things that like the learning

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Speaker 2: from this particular event. If you're going on a long trip,

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Speaker 2: it's probably worthwhile to reporting more than if you can

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Speaker 2: report in daily. That's probably a good thing just to somebody,

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Speaker 2: because that gives us if we launch to a search

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Speaker 2: or we don't hear from you, at least it gives

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Speaker 2: us a shorter time frame to try and find somebody.

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Speaker 2: And finally, and there's something probably that I'll be doing,

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Speaker 2: even it's just a personal fishow is like some sort

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Speaker 2: of grab bag, so you can grab water, you can

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Speaker 2: grab essential as you can take with you in a hurry.

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Speaker 2: That they're very very accessible. If you did have to go,

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Speaker 2: then you can grab it and just go. But you know,

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Speaker 2: an inhospitable part of the world. And I spoke to

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Speaker 2: these two by one of them in particular, and they

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Speaker 2: both still traumatize by this, and you know, they both

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Speaker 2: have kids. They both thought about their kids, they both

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Speaker 2: thought about the worst case, and they are able it

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Speaker 2: can possibly happen. So it's quite horrific and it's good

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Speaker 2: to sobering reminder. You know that this is an inhospitable

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Speaker 2: part of the world, and people need to be aware

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Speaker 2: that things can happen, and they need to be prepared

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Speaker 2: as much as they can and be able to make

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Speaker 2: sure does activate. Then it's an easy place to.

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Speaker 1: Activate these poor buggers. It sounds like an absolutely terrible situation. Sean,

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Speaker 1: Before I let you go, I know you said, obviously

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Speaker 1: they are both traumatized health wise, how are they tracking.

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Speaker 2: Look mentally? I think they've still got scars. But that's

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Speaker 2: why I can't portray how horrific this really was for

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Speaker 2: these poor, poor people, you know. But they they're not

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Speaker 2: in a position to talk about it on media unfortunately,

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Speaker 2: because it'd be great if they could, because they'll just

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Speaker 2: portray how bad it really was. In terms of physical

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Speaker 2: I know that they've they've had medical assessments, They've they've

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Speaker 2: got some follow up because there's always some kidney function stuff.

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Speaker 2: I'm not I don't think there's anything significant out of it. Again,

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Speaker 2: I'm not a doctor, but I think they've just got

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Speaker 2: some follow up through the through the doctors in the life.

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Speaker 2: But you know, they did everything they possibly could to

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Speaker 2: save themselves. They did all this all the right preparation,

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Speaker 2: but it's just the time of reminder that things can

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Speaker 2: go bad, and they can go bad really quick. So

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Speaker 2: we just asked people to consider that and don't learn

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Speaker 2: everything you've got into your hats or something when you're

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Speaker 2: on a long trip, particularly and it's not something you

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Speaker 2: can easily access. You know, it's They're lucky and unlucky

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Speaker 2: at the same time. Yeah, and you.

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Speaker 1: Know, well done as well. Hats off to those people

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Speaker 1: who obviously picked them up as well that other boat

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Speaker 1: that came along and noticed that they were there.

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Speaker 2: Oh. Look, and this is probably the hardest bit for me.

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Speaker 2: They're actually friends of mine when I have to pay

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Speaker 2: them a compliment, which actually kills me to do this,

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Speaker 2: but they they did notice something was wrong. They noticed

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Speaker 2: that when they were down there, they found a swag

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Speaker 2: up on the birch and they started to see some

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Speaker 2: stuff floating around. So they started looking around and they

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Speaker 2: thought something was wrong somewhere. So, as much as it

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Speaker 2: pains me, I have to pay them a compliment. And

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Speaker 2: they did the right thing. And they actually did search

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Speaker 2: around and found these two blocks waving frantically at them,

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Speaker 2: so they kind of learned pretty quick that something was wrong.

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Speaker 1: Well, Sean, do people know who they are, do you

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Speaker 1: want to embarrass them on the radio as well to

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Speaker 1: pay them that compliment.

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Speaker 2: They're not they're not that keen on being named, unfortunately,

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Speaker 2: but they know who they are. I'm pretty sure they'll

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Speaker 2: figure them out fairly quick. But well, you know, like

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Speaker 2: all credit, you know, all credit to them. They did

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Speaker 2: find them, and they weren't due to come back till Sunday,

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Speaker 2: you know, and we probably would have been notified Sunday

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Speaker 2: and the search may have started Monday. So by then,

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Speaker 2: if you play it out, there's there's quite a while

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Speaker 2: and they could have been in some serious trouble by then. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: but you know, it's not through lack of planning, I

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Speaker 2: have to say that. And I'm certainly not criticizing they

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Speaker 2: tried everything, but let's just it just goes to show

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Speaker 2: how in hospital it can be, particularly when you do

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Speaker 2: you're off the beaten track a little bit.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely well, Sean Gil, the Territory Support Division Superintendent, I

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Speaker 1: really appreciate you having a chat with us this morning.

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Speaker 1: This sounds like such an unbelievably horrific situation for these

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Speaker 1: two blokes. I'm sure I speak for the whole community

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Speaker 1: when I say, I'm so glad that they are okay

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Speaker 1: after what's been a really traumatizing situation for them