Updated
A Korean tourist who has been rescued after a week missing in far north Queensland says she fell during a mountain walk and was knocked out for hours before she became stuck without any food at a waterfall in a ravine.
Joohee Han, 25, was found by soldiers and police officers at Mount Tyson in Tully, south of Cairns, just after midday on Thursday on a rocky waterfall in a narrow ravine.
Queensland Ambulance flight paramedic Hannah Gaulke said the tourist managed to find running water, which was flowing from the rockface.
"In the entire time she was missing she'd had no food with her at all," Ms Gaulke said.
"She had hiked up to the summit and had taken a few photos and she said that she had fallen from one of the main outlook areas known as Scout Rock, and from there she knocked herself out and believed she'd been unconscious for five or more hours.
"When she came to, she was quite disoriented and unable to get her bearings and from then she managed to crawl and scrape her way through the bushland which was really tough terrain and eventually ended up on this slippery, rocky waterfall.
"She got to a point where she couldn't actually proceed any further and she had no way to get back out and that's where she stayed for days.
"Her chances of survival were near zero."
Ms Gaulke said emergency crews were not able to reach her from the ground due to the difficult terrain, and passed food down to her before she was winched to safety.
"From the helicopter, our rescue crew officers performed a winch down to her to secure her — it was about a 60-foot winch and they've brought her up to the helicopter where I've taken over care of her and done an assessment," she said.
Ms Han has been taken to the Tully hospital with severe dehydration.
"Despite that, she was actually in really good condition, so she had no significant injuries — a number of abrasions and a few minor injuries — but otherwise she was in good spirits," Ms Gaulke said.
Scottish tourist Craig Strathie had been staying at the same hostel as the Korean backpacker and said it was a miracle she was found safe.
"I mean, seven days up there — I've climbed that thing three times, two in a group and one myself and after I did it myself I said I would never be going up again," he said.
"I mean heck, I'm Scottish — we've got mountains all the time, but that thing can be pretty dangerous.
"And she's built like a garden gnome. Honestly, she's about this high … and for that wee lassie … she actually waved them down apparently.
"She's very fortunate and very lucky as to how she's actually managed to get back in one piece."
Earlier, Inspector Steve Kersley said the woman was found after reports that screams for help were heard on Saturday.
"She's walking. She had a raincoat with her, so that obviously assisted her greatly in keeping her warm," Inspector Kersley said.
"Surviving is a miracle, I can tell you."
Police said friends had raised the alarm on Wednesday, almost a week after she failed to return to her backpackers' accommodation.
SES area coordinator Eleanor Rosam said 20 volunteers had helped comb through bushland, behind the township of Tully.
"The terrain is very difficult, it is a track that is not used very frequently so it is not in the best condition," she said.
Topics: emergency-incidents, disasters-and-accidents, missing-person, community-and-society, tully-4854, qld, australia, cairns-4870, brisbane-4000
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