Tony and Lisa Fogg spoke to The Project in Australia about what happened in the three days between losing their 4WD in a flooded creek and their eventual rescue by Kiwi pilot Michael Adair on his first assignment for LifeFlight.
The couple in their 50s were travelling with their two dogs in a 4WD when it was overcome by floodwaters as they travelled between Normanton and Kowanmaya, leaving them stranded miles from civilisation.
Impassable roads meant police could not search for the pair, who had no food and were forced to drink muddy river water to survive.
“It was at less than a foot of water - for us a very normal, innocuous crossing across a creek on the main road,” Tony Fogg told The Project, before detailing how rapidly rising waters quickly trapped them and their two dogs inside the vehicle.
A window popped open and allowed the couple to escape, with Tony Fogg diving down into the vehicle to retrieve their blue and red heelers.
They swam to the bank and Tony Fogg sent his wife and dogs away to a shaded area while he sought out some water.
“We’re used to having crocs everywhere up here but when I went back down to grab some drinking water for us, I saw a crocodile looking straight at me,” he told The Project.
“From then on, I think he was keen on taking the dogs as a meal and we had to keep him from coming out of the water towards us for the entire night and most of the next day.”
The couple's makeshift shelter. Photo / The Project
Asked if they feared for their life over the course of their three-day ordeal, Lisa Fogg said: “Pretty much the whole time.”
The couple had been moving house when they ran into trouble and they ended up losing all of their possessions when they lost their car.
‘We just basically had to keep our spirits up by making sure we had what we needed, which was water and shelter," Tony Fogg told The Project.
“We had nothing else.”
Flying Kiwi to the rescue
On his first job in Australia, Kiwi rescue pilot Michael Adair was sent to the “middle of nowhere” to save the couple in searing 40C heat.
Adair and Aussie co-pilot Mark Overton were flying for LifeFlight and Overton was taking Adair through his final assessments in Queensland’s Mt Isa when the urgent call came through.
The pair were dispatched over 500km north to Clarke Creek near Dorunda Station, after the couple failed to arrive in their new home of Kowanyama.
Tony and Lisa Fogg had the presence of mind to scrawl large SOS messages in the dirt but were losing hope when Adair and Overton finally spotted them.
The flooded creek. Photo / LifeFlight
Adair said they saw the couple frantically waving as they flew overhead and emotions were high during the “pretty intense” rescue.
“These people had resigned themselves to dying and seeing the look on their faces when they saw us and realised they weren’t going to die – that’s the reason we do this.
“They said: ‘thank God you’re here, we didn’t think anyone was coming’," Adair said in a statement.
“The wife told us she had been hearing voices in the bush from exposure and had convinced herself that nobody was coming to help them, so she was very emotional when we hugged her.”
The couple thought their time was up. Photo / LifeFlight
With their vehicle still under “8 feet of crocodile-infested water”, the Foggs have launched an online appeal to help them get back on their feet.
“We desperately need help to get home to family, rebuild our shattered lives and return to our work,” they wrote.
“We only have the clothes we were wearing and our loyal red and blue heelers left. Asking for help is very difficult for us as we are used to trying to help others. Any help would be greatly appreciated.”
