A woman who was trapped between rocks for seven hours after trying to retrieve her phone has been rescued.
Emergency services were called to bushland in the Hunter Valley wine region earlier this month after reports of a woman trapped between two boulders.
The NSW woman had tried to retrieve her phone from between the rocks but had slipped, fallen into a three-metre deep crevice and ended up hanging upside down.
Friends tried to save her for about an hour, but eventually called for help.
NSW Ambulance Specialist Rescue Paramedic Peter Watts led a team that started construction a hardwood frame around the area before beginning the arduous task of removing the stones.
Photos from the rescue mission showed the soles of the woman’s feet as she hung upside down in the dark hole.
The woman was stuck in a tight ‘S’ bend, meaning she couldn’t simply be lifted out, and rescuers spent more than an hour trying to navigate the tight space.
The woman became stuck upside down after slipping into a three-metre crevasse between two boulders
Emergency services tried for seven hours to free the woman
The woman was safely freed after rescuers moved a 500kg boulder
Before they could get her out, they used a special winch to move a huge 500 kg boulder.
‘In my ten years as a rescue paramedic, I had never come across a job like this. It was challenging but incredibly rewarding,” said Peter Watts.
‘Every agency had a role and we all worked incredibly well together to achieve a good patient outcome.’
NSW Ambulance said the woman was safely released after seven hours with only minor scrapes and bruises, but without her phone.