A meaningful way to remember Ted Egan

By ERWIN CHLANDA

In August this year, just three months before his death this week aged 93, Ted Egan was still supporting a life-saving initiative that is blithely ignored by the police: The creation of a panel of trackers who can be deployed at moment's notice.

Mr Egan was commenting to the Alice Springs News about an expensive but unsuccessful week-long search for a man lost west of Alice Springs. He miraculously survived when he happened to be found by two members of the public.

Mr Egan said Aboriginal trackers, known the world over for their amazing skills, would have succeeded in a matter of hours. And they are likely to have saved the lives of four other people who perished in recent years.

Earlier he recalled the tragic failed search back in October 1993 for a little boy lost in the bush near the Dunmarra roadhouse, which his parents ran. He had gone out riding on a child’s motorbike and wasn’t missed until evening.

When the word went out, 1200 people went to Dunmarra, on motorbikes, in utes, in aeroplanes. They conducted a grid search, walking through the bush: For all their good will, it was the “worst possible eventuality,” said Mr Egan. The searchers would have covered up all the signs on the ground.

He says similarly the area near Barrow Creek where Peter Falconio disappeared was trampled by dozens of police before they called in Tracker Ted Egan, who had taken Mr Egan’s name, 10 days later.

The state funeral for Mr Egan is a nice thought, but to make reality of his proposal, at long last, would be more meaningful.

Click the links to the stories.

PHOTOS at top: Ted Egan and tracker Ted Egan