A storm trapped their car for 12 hours in the outback — then a billionaire’s helicopter appeared

Halligan Bay Road is already a difficult route in dry conditions. When a sudden storm hit South Australia’s far north, it turned the unsealed track into deep mud and clay, trapping a Melbourne father and son for 12 hours in one of the country’s most remote corners.

Bill Kosky and his son had driven their Toyota along the road hoping to see Lake Eyre fill with water, a rare sight that draws visitors each time the inland lake floods. Instead, the heavy rain left their four-wheel-drive stuck fast, with almost no mobile phone coverage to call for help.

They sent brief emergency messages before losing signal entirely, then spent the night stranded alone in the dark, flooded desert, uncertain when rescue would come.

It arrived through a chance meeting at William Creek Hotel on the Oodnadatta Track, where Perth billionaire and experienced pilot Tim Roberts had landed his private helicopter to stay the night. Hearing that emergency services were searching for two travellers who had not returned, Roberts set his own plans aside.

He teamed up with local resident Trevor Wright, and the pair flew Roberts’ helicopter over the flooded landscape, eventually spotting the mud-bound Toyota and landing nearby to end the father and son’s wait. “I thought you were in the army or something,” Kosky told Roberts.

Wright said the unusually wet period has already forced the rescue of 28 people from the region over six weeks, underlining the growing risk to tourists drawn to Lake Eyre’s flooding without being prepared for the outback’s difficult roads and patchy communications.

[Image credit: Wikimedia Commons]