A 17-year-old boy was located alive on a Thursday after being lost for six days in the woodlands of eastern Australia. Police identified the teenager, who has Level 2 autism, as William and confirmed he was found by a police helicopter crew approximately 115 miles east of Melbourne.
The incident began the previous Friday near Walhalla, a former gold-mining town. William’s mother, Elizabeth, had dropped off her son and a teenage friend for a weekend camping trip. According to police, William disappeared after walking a short distance from their campsite to the drop-off point to retrieve additional equipment.
Search crews located William lying on a flat rock beside a creek. Video footage from the rescue helicopter showed him shirtless, sunburned, and wearing shorts and boots while using towels for blankets. Acting Police Inspector Jason Benbow stated that William had trekked across steep terrain for several days before becoming trapped by the landscape about 1.2 miles from his original campsite.
The scale of the survival effort was underscored by the environmental conditions. While the Southern Hemisphere spring weather remained mild with little rain, William spent nearly a week exposed to the elements without a shirt or standard shelter. His rescue follows other documented wilderness survival cases in Australia, such as a German tourist found after 12 days in the Outback in 2025 and a woman located in 2019 after writing an SOS message in the sand.
Following his extraction by helicopter winch, William was reunited with his mother and transported to a hospital for observation. Police reported that he was in good spirits and largely in good health despite the six-day ordeal. No further legal or administrative actions were reported by officials following his recovery and hospitalization.