Shannon Leah Fraser – 16 days in a Queensland Jungle

Shannon Fraser was on a trip with her fiance at the Golden Hole swimming spot about an hour south of Cairns in Queensland. Everything was going well but at some point during a walk around the rainforest, she became separated from her partner and managed to wander off into the jungle.

At this time she had nothing with her but the clothes she was wearing, which consisted of a t-shirt and leggings. After searching for 3 hours for his fiance, Heath Cassidy called the police who immediately sent out a search party. Several rescue teams looked for hours through the trees but saw no sign of her, and after the first night, hope began to fade.

The problem with Australian jungles compared to most others in the world is not only are they normally hotter, but there’s a higher concentration of things that can kill you. Australia has the most poisonous snakes in the world, along with many spiders and other nasty critters that can kill you. It’s also home to a large population of crocodiles, which are well known for taking a shot at a tasty-looking human who wandered into their territory.

After 15 days had passed without any sign of her, the police feared she was dead. If someone hadn’t kidnapped or killed her, then the Crocs or some other creature would have gotten to her by now.

On October 7th, 16 nights after she first went missing a banana farmer named Brad Finch was sitting eating his lunch at Golden Hole, when a very rough-looking Shannon Fraser emerged from the trees at a point only 30 meters from where she was last seen.

She was rushed to Innisfail Hospital where she was treated for dehydration and extreme sunburn, though she recovered quite quickly.

As for how she survived it seemed to be mostly luck, and a few more days would certainly have seen her dead. At first, the authorities thought it may have been an elaborate prank as their experienced search and rescue team didn’t find any sign of her, not even as much as a pathway she had made, but after they got to the hospital and saw the condition she was in, they believed her story.

Brad Finch, the guy who first saw her made the following statement:

“Even now it’s pretty unbelievable, I had to really think about it when I was telling the detectives but if you’d seen her you wouldn’t doubt her story. It was the worst sunburn I’ve ever seen … everywhere, almost bleeding. She had quite a big gash on one of her legs which looked like it might have been done when she first got lost, that was healing up but looked like it was pretty bad.”

As for food and water, she was lucky enough to be near the river that flows out of Mount Bartle Frere, which she used for drinking water, though at points had to move away from it to navigate the terrain. Food consisted of insects and sometimes small fish she caught with her hands, but even still the 16 days she spent in the jungle saw her lose 37.5 pounds / 17 kilograms.

She also had to spend the majority of her ordeal naked, as apparently leggings and a thin t-shirt aren’t the best clothes to wear while trying to navigate a rainforest. Everything she was wearing was torn off by the thick vegetation as she tried to move through the trees, which also caused her to receive cuts more easily.

The level of sunburn she had when she was found was so severe that the skin had started to crack and bleed, and she had numerous deep splinters in her feet. At one point she had to sleep on a rock in the middle of the river after going to get water and seeing a crocodile. Too scared to get back in the water she stayed there for 3 days, catching the occasional tiny fish and burning up in the sun.

Apart from being a bit banged up and very sunburned she was otherwise OK. There were a few smaller cuts that had become infected but nothing broken and surprisingly, no attacks from a crocodile or anything poisonous. She said she cried herself to sleep every night and wanted to give up many times, but the thought of her Young children kept her going. After fully recovering she gave various interviews about her ordeal, one of which included the following statement:

“I feel like I’ve grown a bit wiser. I think I’ve aged a bit too. I won’t take life for granted again. Life’s too short.”