Incident on Windang Island

Warning: Contains Graphic Content

So after work on a Friday afternoon, I called my Dad and asked him if we wanted to go for a swim at the beach. So we headed over to our usual spot in the waters right by Windang Island at Warilla Beach. As I had recently being getting really into rock climbing when we were done I told him I wanted to head to the side of the island to see if I could climb up the cliff. I was sure I would be able to, having climbed up the rock wall at Bombo Beach in High School, which was twice the height and at the time I was way less experienced (though I've always been climbing things my whole life).

As we walked around I looked at a few different points to climb. I soon realised the rock was really awful for climbing as it literally just broke apart in your hands. It was also awkward because as your progressed up the rock face began to poke out further, which required and awkward strategy on how to climb it without using arm strength to simply pull and climb up, but involved more leaning in close to the wall and using your ability to balance while choosing particular footing spots and simply softly using your hands as mere stability to relocate or twist your footing. I eventually chose my location and climbed. It took a while and was very slow paced as I knew any wrong steps could be disastrous. I eventually made it to a flat and safe location where I could progress the rest of the way up with ease. I called down to Dad to meet me around the front of the Island where you walk up.
As I proceeded to the top I walked face first through a spider web, making me very keen to get back down so I could jump back in the water to wash off. As I got across the spiky plants barefoot and made it to the path I jogged down to the front of the Island to beat Dad there.

When I arrived Dad wasn't there so I began walking around to the side. As I looked around he was no where in sight. I was wondering where the hell he was. As I progressed further around I could see his stuff still laying on a rock where I had climbed up, I thought he might have went around to the other side to maybe come up as you can come up the back way. As I came around further, I saw him up on the cliff wall, about 5 metres up. I barely had time to think 'what the hell is he doing', and then so fast, in a blurry haze I saw him fall sideways off the edge of the cliff and smash into the rocks below. The shock hit me like a crazy electrical impact and I screamed "Dad!"
I began running over to him in a crazed panic feeling extreme terror and shock. At a fall like that into rocks below I believed I had just watched him fall to his death.

As I arrived at him there was blood everywhere and he wasn't conscious. I knew absolutely no medically helpful skills and quickly turned and raced toward the beach as fast as I could screaming help, over and over again as loud as I could in an extreme state of panic. There was a man walking right by the island and I ran towards him screaming help again and again as loud as I could.
He stopped and was looking at me very confused.
"Do you have a phone?" I asked, barely breathing in my panic. "My Dad fell off the cliff and I need to call an ambulance."
The man unlocked his phone and headed it to me looking stunned while I called triple 0. I tried to remain calm as I explained what had happened and where I was but I felt like I had taken the fall myself, life I'd taken a very big hit to my brain I felt sick and kept thinking I had seen my Dad die.
I stayed on the phone with the lady who told me to keep on the line until the ambulance arrived. It felt like it was taking a lifetime as she kept asking questions. Eventually I saw an arm go up, over where my Dad was laying.
'He's fucking alive!" I thought and a bit of hope and joy sparked in me. I told the woman on the phone and the man and I went over. By the time we reached my Dad he was standing up.
The lady on the phone told me to keep him seated and apply pressure to a massive cut on the side of his head. My Dad seemed very dazed and kept asking what had happened. I told him I had no idea what he was doing and that he must have tried to climb and fell. He asked me why he was trying to climb it. I told him I had no idea. He kept asking me the same questions over and over and I began to think to myself that he had damaged his brain and I felt sick in my stomach. Eventually the ambulance and police arrived and began asking me questions while the ambulance assessed my Dad.

Photo from Illawarra Mercury

The man who's phone I used decided to leave and I kept thanking him profusely for letting me use his phone. I answered about what had happened to the police and asked if they could contact my Dads wife (my step mum)  because it had been hours and she would have no idea what had happened. The police went to the house but unfortunately she was not home. It began getting dark and they said they didn't want to move my Dad in case and he would be getting airlifted in to hospital in Sydney. A man came from the surf-life-saving club with a beach buggy and was going to take one of the ambulance drivers back for supplies, as the ambulance was in the car park a fair way from the island. The man from the surf living club eventually recognised my Dad from his voice, saying that they knew each other as my Dad used to be part of the surf-life-saving club and was the mans Plumber.
I asked if I could go on the buggy with them, as I just lived nearby, and my own wife would be worrying about me. He agreed and I got to the car park and the ambulance driver told me he would drive to mine and wait and told me to also get changed into dry clothes as I must be freezing, although in the fear of it all I hadn't noticed.
As I got in I told my wife, quickly got changed and took my phone (as neither Dad or myself had taken them to the beach).
I called my Step mum and she instantly went into panic mode, crying and being hysterical. She said she was going to drive over right away. The ambulance driver told me to tell her not to come in a panic as he could hear her over the phone, and said my Dad would likely be gone by the time she arrived. I called her back and tried to explain, eventually the ambulance driver got on the phone with her and calmly explained. By the time we got back the buggy had already taken supplies back and was at the island to I had to run along the sand to get to the island while people on the beach looked on. As I arrived I was stopped by one of the police officers. I tried to explain that I was the mans son and he told me he was told to keep everyone back as the helicopter was going to take off soon and he didn't want to violate any order. He also gave me a heads up, nodding to his left and saying that the man to his left who was taking photos was from the Illawarra Mercury. He said that he wasn't legally allowed to talk to him so it was up to me if I did or what I told him. I joked that because I now had to pay to read Illawarra Mercury articles I wouldn't tell him anything because I wouldn't be able to read it anyway.

Eventually the helicopter took off and I began walking back knowing I was going to drive up to St George Hospital in Sydney. As I arrived near the buggy my step mum arrived in a panic driven by her next door neighbour. They began talking and my step mum was in a panic, one of the police officers quipped that my Dad had been watching too much Spiderman, my step mum replied "Oh no he doesn't even really watch sports" We continued walking back to the car park, with my step mum calling her daughter (my step sister) who was out in a party in Sydney drinking. My step mum's neighbour told me not to let her drive to Sydney as she was in a panic and I told him that I would drive her. My step mum insisted she was fine, eventually handing the phone with my step sister on it, her again asking me to make sure her mother didn't drive.
I told her I would drive her up in her car and that my wife would follow behind in mine so that she could stay up in Sydney with her daughter (with a car after she had calmed down) and we would have a way back home.

So she went home with the neighbours and I stopped home for a shower and dinner while I waited for my step mum to be ready. I, stupidly decided to check facebook while I waited to read people posting about it in community pages and that the Illawarra Mercury had already posted about it, albeit with incorrect details. Such as my Dads age, and saying I came around and saw him on the ground. While some people on facebook where caring and just hoped whoever it was (my Dad) was ok, others made jokes with contempt about climbing the island and his age. Someone else posted a fishing photo with everything happening on the island in the distance behind it with uncaring comments simply asking if any fish where biting. It just reminded me of the uncaring asshole nature of some people.

Eventually my step mum rang and we headed to Sydney.

As we arrived the Doctor told us that it was like my Dad had won the lottery and had he fallen any other way he would be dead. They had done brain scans and there had been no brain injuries and at the time the doctors believed he hadn't broken a bone (this turned out to be false as he had broke a bones in his hand and wrist). My Dad was in pretty good spirits (probably the drugs) and made a lot of jokes about the whole thing. With his memory back he told me he had watched me climb, and thought I had done it the hard way and he thought there was an easier way....
Because that worked out well for him. My step mum told him he was banned from adventures with me and that there was "no more going down to Gerringong Falls or anything like that".
I told my Dad he was an idiot and that I was traumatized, he joked that it was character building experience for me (gee thanks Dad).
Because he was joking so much I decided to take photos of his head to show for later.

Later when the Doctor was stitching this up my Dad asked him what  he could see. The Doctor replied "Your skull".

He also required stitches in his arm and leg and had a heap of skin torn from all over his body.

My step mum stayed up there, and kept me updated on how my Dad was going sending a photo a few days later showing he was feeling a bit better.

I took one day off from work to get my brain around what had happened, my head still sore from the events that transpired. I continued to have visions of watching my Dad fall from the cliff face for weeks after the event, but I knew I just had to reconcile the image of it with the fact that my Dad was alive and well.

A bit over a week later when he was released from hospital he showed me all the bruising all down and over his body and it was pretty bad. It had now been a month since it occurred, my Dad is still moving slowly and very sore. I ended up getting full time in the position I was working in and am waiting to try to get back into my adventures again. I have struggled thinking about going with Dad, as doing something like 'the Castle' was dodgy even when we did it, but now with something like this I question whether I would feel safe letting Dad do such adventures again or whether I should just go with my friends. I do like spending quality time with my Dad but only time will tell if we can do those sorts of adventures together again.

Yesterday on the 6th of April I did try to do the Mt Kembla walk with my wife. But once she started getting leeches crawling up her legs she got in a complete panic and we came home. But hopefully soon I can get back into what I love most.

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Thanks for reading! - Steven

Bong Bong Pass

So I had a day off from work, and first thing in the morning my Dad called me up saying "Are we going to go on a hike today seeing as you're off, or not?"
So agreeing to go we started discussing where we would go, throwing out suggestions of ones we had done before such as Macquarie Pass or Brokers Nose. I told Dad to leave it with me, feeling like I'd like to do something I had never done before. So I sat eating my leftover jalapeño stuffed-crust pizza for breakfast and a hike I had been wanting to do for ages came to me.

Previous night's dinner

I told him that I had heard of a hike out the back of Dapto in which a World War 2 fighter plane had crashed and that you could walk to it, however I could find no articles or directions to this hike, or to the plane, but looking on Google Maps I managed to find the start of the walk and so I drove to pick Dad up. As soon as he hopped in the car I said "Jesus, what the hell happened to your eye!?"

He told me that he had just woken up last night and it had been bleeding. I told him that he shouldn't be hiking with me but should be going to the Doctors. He waved it off as not being a big deal and I said "Well, you're 65 and your 26 year old son is telling you what you should do, but you're old enough to make your own decisions" and so I left it at that and we headed along the highway, out through Dapto, and to the end of Bong Bong Road where we saw the hikes starting path to our left.

We parked up and began our hike straight uphill.

It is a steep rocky walk through through cleared lantana, and in the hot sun I instantly regretted having worn pants instead of shorts.

We noticed tracks in and our of the path wondering if this is where people had walked through trying to find the Lockheed Hudson. However we also noticed tracks that looked like the paths were probably made by deer in the area.

So the path began to bend around and we noticed a fence to a left leading up to a big gate in front of us.

We continued to our right, following the path noticing some old crumbled steel I assume was an old water tower, but seeing it at a distance, I got my hopes up that it would be the plane.

Pushing further on up hill, already soaking with sweet and continually having Dad tell me I should have worn shorts we passed a turn off to our left.

Shortly past here we reached a fork in the path. One continuing the steep incline, the other, off to the right, blocked by a fallen down tree.

We decided to continue upwards, saying that if we had time we would explore down the blocked path on our way back.

After a very steep slope the path began to even out for the first time during the walk.

You could feel the climate change walking through, as the bush slowly became rainforest.

Continuing along there was a small break in the trees to our left letting me lookout over the Illawara facing towards Albion Park.

The path continued on with a steep rocky cliff on our right and a sharp fall into a gully on our left.

Shortly after this around a bend the path opened up, and Dad noticed paths going up to our right we he wanted to quickly explore before continuing up the path. Dad placed his backpack down, assuming it'd be a quick look, and we climbed up.

Upon reaching the top there was a little enclosed grassland with a banksia tree, so we headed to our right, (facing back down the trail) and headed to the edge of the cliff face.

Many bees were flying around the ledge drinking from little puddles of water in the rocks. We continued climbing upwards around the ledge, wondering if up here was he site of the plane crash.

Just as we reached the top we had to walk through a thicket of grass trees, before finding a very small track leading us to a beautiful view overlooking the Illawarra.

Xanthorrhoea

Overlooking Lake Illawarra

We continued around the edge, having to walk in a bit to a clearing where we discovered someone had enjoyed a camp fire.

We followed the cliff edge all the way until we were looking towards Northern Illawarra, leaving Dad I walked into the bush hoping I might stumble upon the remains of the plane, keeping an eye open in case of snakes.

I continued walking though random scrub for about 10 minutes before deciding I'd just be wasting my time wandering aimlessly through the bush, and began heading back when I heard Dad calling out saying he'd found a path. I cut through the bush heading away from the cliff face when I came onto the track Dad was on.

We continued walking on this wondering out loud how long this path would go on for as Dad's backpack was still down the bottom. Dad said he believed it'd be a loop trail and probably link back down to where his bag was. Soon we opened up onto a big fire trail, we decided to head left on it to see if it did link back saying we could always run up the other way after we grabbed his pack.

Is it even a bushwalk without a termite mound?

Up ahead we saw signposts facing away from us. I got excited believing that they might be saying something about the plane crash or the walk. However as we reached them and turned around to look we felt our burst of excitement immediately deflate.

Feeling a bit awkward and uncomfortable we noticed a path to our left heading down with a big sign in front of it which was at the top of the walk had we taken the other path.

We were heading down this path for less than a minute before I spotted Dad's backpack. We quickly stopped for a drink and I ate my trail mix (goji berries, almonds, peanuts and cacao nibs) for a pick me up and we headed back down to explore the other path blocked by the tree lest we accidentally got ourselves a whopping fine.

Jumping over the tree, I turned on my phone for a quick google search of a location for this plane, really wishing to find one, for my sense of adventure and two as a lover of history. I soon found a video of people walking to it, a clear segment showing them walking down this path, however as the video was cut and from years ago I only new I was heading the right direction, the rest would really be up to luck. Heading down here there was an abundance of dendrocnide, the giant stinging tree that I reminded Dad about (as I have on other occasions).

To my right it looked like the land had slipped away or been cleared, whether this naturally occurred or was cleared by man I don't know. Soon we came upon again what looked like a path to our right heading down through some trees were you could follow the slope down to your left or right however while I was sussing it out Dad continued on forward and to the left which led into a little grassy area with a path leading around some trees to the right and heading forward in the direction of the original path, so I quickly followed him.

This path began heading downhill and for the first time I was glad I was wearing long pants as we walked through thick native raspberry bushes, orange thorn (Pittosporum multiflorum) and lantana.

Rubus rosifolius

Continuing down through the scrub we saw an abandoned Satin Bowerbird nest underneath all the Lantana.

We continued on searching the bush for over an our to no avail.

We followed a few different paths believing they might lead us there, however they were sprinkled with poo. Including some square poos that I can assumed were left from Wombats. Our thoughts were given further evidence when one track led us to a cabbage palm that looked like it had been an animals lunch.

We decided we needed a change of tactics and so we separated. Dad heading up the hill and myself down, figuring we would cover more ground.

So instead of heading further in I began heading downward, wandering around searching for any sight of this wreckage. After about half an hour I stumbled upon a bunch of wires wrapping around an area. My heart began to race as I got excited believing that it had been placed around it to stop it being damaged or stolen by people.

However I noticed there was nothing inside, then I saw something sitting in the base of the tree trunk, a tub of something.. An uncomfortable feeling hit me as I looked around I saw another tub sitting at my feet.

I looked around, uncomfortably aware that my Dad was lost somewhere else in the bush, I decided to hurriedly move along back towards the road.

Hot and thirsty I came to a my a dense part of the bush, and rather than return to the wires I tried my luck at walking up a very soft dirt hill with incredibly loose topsoil. For every two steps I slid down a step, exhausting myself as I also tried to keep from sliding all the way back down.

At one point the soil gave way I went fell belly first into a bunch on native raspberry, thorns digging into my skin. I pushed myself back up and started using my hands, digging them into the soil to help pull myself up. I finally made it to the top, exhausted with my legs cramping. Looking up I realised there was more slope with this loose soil. It wasn't as steep up it continued along an edge, almost losing balance I at one point had to grab a hold of some orange thorn, ripping up my skin. Finally I made it to the top, coming up the left side of that slope I had looked down before falling Dad through to the grassy area earlier. I called out to Dad and luckily he wasn't too far away. He made his way down through the lantana, covered in scratches and blood himself. I told him about what I found and we decided to have a quick look down the right side after noticing one of the trees on top of the slope I had climbed has a small pink ribbon around it.

We didn't search long after doing a time check we realised that we had spent almost 3 hours just wandering through the bush (not including our initial hike up Bong Bong Pass). Tired and exhausted and feeling a bit defeated that we had not found the ruins of the crashed World War 2 fighter plane we headed back to the car, vowing one day we'd find out where exactly it was so we could see it.


EDIT/ 31/10/2021
After our walk to Madden's Falls and Kelly's Falls, my friend Tristan informed me that a guy from his work named Scott had permission to enter the property where the Lockheed Hudson crash site was (turns out it's on private property). He asked if I wanted to come with as him and his brother were going on Halloween. It was the day after my Wedding Anniversary, and I was a bit worried about the Covid risk due to being immunocompromised from my cancer treatment, but seeing as I was going to a restaurant in Sydney to to see Hamilton at Lyric Theatre I decided that those were more of a risk and so told him I would go.

Tristan picked me up early in the morning and we met at Reed Park car park. A surprising amount of people actually showed up to go (we were expecting much less). We soon began the walk up with the big group and I was instantly out of breath having lost so much fitness during my treatment. I was adamant to continue and we soon turned off the path that Dad and I had gone off trail hunting for it in.

During the walk the leader, Scott, said when people shared about it on Facebook and such (or on a blog), to let people know it was private property and that if people wanted to go see it, to either get in touch with the owner of the property or wait for an organised thing with permission with someone like him. 

The track was no different than what Dad and I had travelled through, random bush, much of it with no clear path leading the way (if you didn't know what you were looking for, you would be very lucky to actually find it). While we walked Tristan asked if I would write a blog about it, with me saying I would just add an edit or amendment at the end of my previous Bong Bong Pass blog. "But you need to write more about me." He jested.

After navigating randomly through the bush, some of which I recalled from scrambling through randomly with Dad, we reached our first section of the remains of the plane.

As we continued down through the scrub we continued to see bits of the rubble.

Continuing down further we came to a section where two gunners and a navigator had died, and there they had a cross marking their names and positions. 

The leader Scott told the stories about them and we continued a further short way down to the final spot through a section of heavily fallen palm fronds.

Scott told a story about the night of the crash back on November 4, 1942. He mentioned a place in Dapto where one of the men's watch was available to view and that it had stopped at the exact time of the crash, however I was up the back (trying my best to avoid exposure and couldn't make out all of that was said). We then took off our hats and had a moment of silence for those who lost their lives.

As the group made their way back up the mountain, Tristan, myself and his brother made our way down to see the site, noticing the plaques put there on a tree and that the tree had fallen over.

We made our way back up, following the lead of the people in front, contend I had the privilege to go and see a part of history.

Arriving back at the car park Scott said he would send anyone more information who wanted it. Tristan asked him to send it to him, receiving a video about the history that you can view HERE and a document about the history that you can read HERE.

If you have enjoyed this post, or my blog in general, please follow it, or like my page on facebook or follow me on Instagram.

Thanks for reading! - Steven








Extra tidbits! - The next day I decided to drive up to Camden with my Wife as I have wanted to visit for a few years now because my 4th Great Grandfather, James Sheather, moved there from England in 1839 to work on Camden Park Estate. And Sheathers Lane there had been named after him and his children.

We visited the lane before having a picnic at Macarthur Park, exploring the graveyard at St. John Church for his grave, and going to Camden Museum. We then drove out to Burragorang Lookout which was a beautiful sight.