Missing Australian man survives for three weeks on wild mushrooms and dam water

Paramedics give medical treatment to Robert Weber who went missing for more than two weeks in Australian bushland of Kilkivan

Credit: -/AFP

A missing Australian man has been found alive after surviving on wild mushrooms and dam water for three weeks.

Robert Weber, 58, was last seen on January 6, leaving the Kilkivan Hotel Motel in Queensland in his car with his dog.

Search efforts were called off earlier this week, but he was discovered by a local politician and his wife on Sunday morning.

Police reported that Mr Weber was safe and well, despite “suffering exposure to the elements”. He had become disorientated in the heat, but managed to stay close to a dam.

“He left on foot and became lost and remained at a dam where he survived by sleeping on the ground, drinking dam water and eating mushrooms,” Queensland police said in a statement.

Mr Weber ran into trouble when his white Ford Falcon became bogged down on an unfamiliar road. Mr Weber waited in his car for three days, but was forced to abandon the vehicle when water ran out.

The car was found by search and rescue teams on January 17, but Mr Weber and his dog had long since moved on.  

Mr Weber was discovered 3km away from his vehicle by the local MP for Gympie Tony Perrett and his wife, who told the Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC): “We’d been past this dam on numerous occasions over the last week and when we saw him there it was just quite extraordinary.”

Mr Perrett had decided to continue searching for Mr Weber, despite police calling off the extensive ground and air hunt a few days prior.

“He said he was trying to get to Caboolture and he got disorientated … he became lost and didn’t know where he was,” Mr Perrett added.

Mr Weber became separated from his dog at an unknown point and the canine has yet to be found.