Praise for young hero

by Bonnie Collings
The calm and courageous actions of a nine-year-old Trafalgar boy saved him and his step-father from what could have been a catastrophic four-wheel driving accident in Toombon last Tuesday.

At about 2:20pm on Tuesday, Ashton Woolford and his step-dad Callam Earle attempted a steep climb up a hill in their Nissan Patrol, near the intersection of Deep Creek No 2 Track and Deep Creek No 4 Track in Toombon, near Aberfeldy, when the car became stuck.

Local police described the road as steep and rough. The car was unable to move forward and any attempt to reverse would have likely caused the car to roll and potentially cause fatal injury.

The only thing keeping the car from moving was Callam's foot on the brake.
Under instruction from Callam, nine-year-old Ashton took a winch cable and hooked it around a nearby tree to help keep the car in place.

In an area without any phone reception, Callam attempted to raise the alarm by using satellite text messaging on his phone to contact family members. He eventually got a hold of his mother who called triple zero.

However, without any phone reception, emergency services couldn't pinpoint Callam and Ashton's exact location.
Taking a handheld radio from the car and keeping in contact with Callam, Ashton left the car and walked about three kilometres to an open area. After waiting between half and hour and 40 minutes, he was eventually seen by police airwing.

Search and rescue officers were winched down to Ashton before he calmly directed police to the trapped vehicle, where Callam was still sitting with his foot on the brake.
After the vehicle was secured and Callam could safely exit, the pair was taken to Walhalla where Ashton called his mum Megan Vandenburg.

Megan said despite being scared at the beginning, the action of the incident had left Ashton feeling "so excited".
"He said, 'mum I wish I wasn't so scared and I could've got a video on my phone, there were four people who jumped out of a helicopter and came down to me'," she said.
"Because he got out of the car so fast, he didn't take a jumper with him so he was a bit cold. When the ambos turned up, they gave him one of their jackets, which he just thought was the best thing."

Given his experience in the outdoors and going four-wheel driving, Megan said she wasn't surprised by Ashton's ability to handle the situation.
"We talk to him a lot when we go out four-wheel driving, he helps set up a lot of stuff so he knew what to do," she said.

Everyone is now home safe in one piece - even the car, which was successfully winched up the hill by another vehicle.
"It's got a broken clutch but it's at home in one piece," Megan said.
Local police praised Ashton's actions, saying the outcome could have been "catastrophic" if he hadn't been so calm.