Students Built a Stretcher From Tarp Poles and a Hammock and Carried an Injured Hiker Two Miles to Safety

It was the third day of a four-day hiking expedition through Warrumbungle National Park in New South Wales, Australia, when students from Presbyterian Ladies’ College in Armidale came upon a hiker in trouble. Thomas Wendland had broken his leg on the trail, far from any road, and was unable to walk out on his own. For the teenagers, it was the moment a skill they had once practiced as a drill suddenly became real.

Earlier in their program—a Duke of Edinburgh Award expedition emphasizing outdoor competence—the students had been trained by leaders Amanda and Marty Burney to build a makeshift gurney. Now they put that training to use, fashioning a stretcher from tarp poles and a hammock. Then came the hard part: carrying a grown man roughly 2.1 miles over rough ground until medical teams could reach him.

They did it in relays, taking turns in roughly 60-second intervals over about two hours. “The path just seemed to keep getting longer and longer,” said 11th-grader Stephanie Blake. “You don’t realize how far [2.1 miles] is until you’re shuffling along carrying someone.” Step by step, the group inched Wendland toward help, refusing to put him down for good until the job was done.

Wendland, who could do little but wait as the students worked, was deeply moved by their effort. “I felt quite useless while they got it all set up,” he admitted, before adding, “It absolutely means the world that they were able to offer the assistance they did.” What began as a training exercise on a school trip became a genuine rescue—proof that preparation, teamwork and sheer persistence can turn a group of young hikers into the difference between a stranded stranger and a man carried safely home.