LANDSAR CELEBRATES 90 YEARS OF CALLOUTS
LandSAR has rescued lost, missing and injured trampers in more than 30,000 operations over nine decades.
“Across the board, it’s always very busy for us, and 90 years later, it doesn’t look like it’s slowing down,” says LandSAR fundraising manager Jon McQueen.
It started with the ‘Sutch Search’ in April 1933, when four trampers went missing for two weeks in the Tararua Range. Up to 200 volunteers, supported by radio communication and aircraft, searched the Waiohine Valley.
The search and subsequent rescue ignited a public debate over responsibility for those lost in the outdoors, as there was no overriding organisation to take control. It led, a year later, to the establishment of LandSAR, a group of unpaid professionals who volunteer their search and rescue…
