Children drive 35km to find help for injured parents in remote NSW after dad dies in well

By Gavin Coote

Posted 26 minutes ago




Map:  Weilmoringle 2839

Two children have driven 35 kilometres for help after their father inhaled gas while working in a well and their mother fell trying to help him, in north-western New South Wales.

Police said the 29-year-old man was installing a water pump at the bottom of a well near Weilmoringle — about 225 kilometres north west of Lightning Ridge — when he was overwhelmed by fumes, about 5:30pm on Saturday.

He died at the scene.

The man's 28-year-old partner started climbing down the well to help, but fell about 30 metres after the rope ladder broke.

Police said the couple's two children, aged 12 and 13, drove 35 kilometres to a nearby road, where they flagged down a passing driver, who phoned emergency services.

NSW State Emergency Service, Fire and Rescue NSW, police and paramedics arrived and started a rescue operation.

The woman was rescued from the well about 1:00am on Sunday, eight hours after the ordeal began.

She was suffering shock and suspected carbon monoxide poisoning.

The mother was flown to Orange Base Hospital in a serious condition.

Police said they were not treating the incident as suspicious.

A report will be prepared for the coroner.



If it happen in the city the kids would be stuck on facebook >:( >:( >:( >:( >:(

aussie100percent wrote on Dec 6^th, 2015 at 2:18pm:

If it happen in the city the kids would be stuck on facebook

if it had happened in the city the wife could have run next door for help and the father might still be alive  .... the kids would have had no need to get off facebook

Confined spaces are like electricity. Never go in alone to rescue someone.

Very remote and hostile country up there. Not much help around.

Seems like an annual event - someone gets down a well and starts up a petrol pump and falls over... rescuer often also dies.

You'd think people would know by now that wells and petrol pumps don't mix.

freediver wrote on Dec 6^th, 2015 at 2:24pm:

Confined spaces are like electricity. Never go in alone to rescue someone.

All electricity repair units have a winch at the back for recovering someone overcome in a man hole. They also have air breathing gear and told to NEVER go down to rescue someone without it.

Why would there be a petrol motor down the well?

The pump he was installing should have been electric ....

if he needed light you use an extension lead light & a generator that is above ground at the well head.

Sounds like a recipient for the Darwin Awards.... ::)

feel sorry for the children.

Oh & why fly her to Orange? There are closer larger regional towns. Dubbo for example.

And Brisbane is only an hour & 16 mins flying time.

Gnads wrote on Dec 6^th, 2015 at 6:11pm:

Why would there be a petrol motor down the well? The pump he was installing should have been electric .... if he needed light you use an extension lead light & a generator that is above ground at the well head. Sounds like a recipient for the Darwin Awards.... ::) feel sorry for the children.

Pump with a good head of lift would do it.... got one down the back that lifts down to about 7 metres (from memory) and pushes uphill to about thirty.... you can get dedicated well pumps that sit above ground......

If you must get down a well with a petrol pump etc - quick start and get the hell out of Dodge..... make like a jackrabbit up that ladder.... and don't go back down..... CO sits down low....

Yes but I still don't understand the necessity of a combustion engine pump being down a well Grappler.

Excuse my ignorance but I've never heard of it.

Barring windmills/mechanical pump & electric pumps I've haven't heard of putting a petrol powered pump down a well.

Seems the height of stupidity.

Gnads wrote on Dec 6^th, 2015 at 6:11pm:

Oh & why fly her to Orange? There are closer larger regional towns.

That's because of Jullian Skinner's homicidal policy of "Dispersing Patients Around", not necessarily to the nearest hospital and it can be the worst one. Orange is rated in the top three as the worst in NSW. Orange is staffed by bogan housewives with jobs and reject doctors. Pray for the lady who fell down the well, because Jullian Skinner won't give a toss

Grappler Deep State Feller wrote on Dec 6^th, 2015 at 4:58pm:

Seems like an annual event - someone gets down a well and starts up a petrol pump and falls over... rescuer often also dies. You'd think people would know by now that wells and petrol pumps don't mix.

What petrol pump? >:( >:( >:(

There are plenty of 'natural' sources of fumes and oxygen displacing gasses in a well.

'installing a pump' - picky, picky - the odds are he decided to give it a test run.... don't be naive.  A well full of gas would not be likely to give you usable water.... it would likely be tainted and good only fore camels and goats.

Most underground water in sandstone sub-strata is well filtered and lovely.  Had me a bore like that - bewdiful!