I was fine, till I collided with a planet

Hightrax

G'day. Im new to this forum, but might be able to swap some thoughts about treefall injuries. Ive been involved with forestry for about 10 years now, and have a timber and native bush reserve holding in the southern alps of New South Wales, Australia. I have become very interested in all aspects of forestry and trees, but my experience has been marred by a very bad accident. I am about 60, but quite strong and half fit, and was doing some earthmoving work at a house I have. I had moved about 3 tons of earth alone and decided while dog tired to clear a branch out of powerlines at this house, before turning in. I went up in bare feet and didnt secure the ladder. I was about 20 feet up in this big Maple tree and began to descend when I lost my footing on the top rung of the ladder. It all happened so fast it was incredible. I have always had lightning reflexes and grabbed the ladder as I fell. That lasted a split second. Could not believe my eyes but my wrist wrapped itself around the side of the ladder while holding the rung. It just let go. No grip. It wasnt too bad till I collided with a planet that got in the way. Amazingly a theatre nurse just parked at the bottom of the driveway and she saw me on the ground. Quick rescue ensued. Im told I raved for two days, nonstop-in Royal North Shore trauma where I was taken as I had a suspected broken back. That happens with head injuries. I can recall nothing much. Blurted out my wifes phone no. before blacking out.
Had "massive head injuries" and right arm was rebuilt by two teams of surgeons including a surgery professor, who specialised in the type of injury I had. I now have a right hand which contains about half a kilo of titanium, but still have a hand that works pretty well. Amazing, as they said it was the second worst break the surgical team had ever seen. My whole arm was shattered.
What can I relate that would help others? You all know about boots, tiredness, footings etc., but the first thing was make sure you have good insurance ,before you try it. If I had gone into that hospital without it I would have got the Registrar, who though very capable, was less skilled than the Professor and very busy as well managing the unit. I would now have a tin arm, or no arm, as the whole thing was rebuilt up to the elbow. No insurace . No arm.
As for the brain damage the rehab. specialist said I should be a vegetable after the impact, the ground was rock hard, but I am pretty good. I think three years of breakfalling doing Judo at university gave my brain very strong anchors to my skull, and I may have done it out of instinct as I hit the ground. What is a breakfall? You hit the ground backwards with both hands as you arrive and try to roll into a sort of somersault. This helps protect your spine and your head. If you are a tree person, try Judo classes? They will show you what to practice in case of this happens to you.

jmcg.insight.gardens

Hi Hightrax,

boy thats some story, I hope your OK now.

So I suppose the lesson is not to work at height when your tired, or in bare feet, or on a dodgy ladder.

Not that I'm an Arborist, mind, but I agree Judo rolls can be good to learn, my brother taught me a bit of martial arts, and I mean just a little bit, when we were teenagers, it sure came in handy when hitting the ground when being thrown from horses.

I hope your getting better.

Regards

Julie

stirmantrees

if i wasnt for that planet

Thank you for sharing and I am glad your coherent and not a vegetable.

I did almost fall off a small ladder once when I did not have a long enough lanyard to go around a Palm tree. i was like 5 foot up and the ladder spun. Problem was I was cutting with a 20T and it ripped my hand in half in between the pointer and middle finger. ya, i have quick reactions too . well, if i was tied in or lanyarded atleast the ladder probably would not have spun like it did.

As tree climber, tying in was one of the first thing I was taught to do whenever I was to be aloft. All it takes for me is to forget this one time. A simple belt, climbing rope and taughtline hitch would have done the trick, for both of us.

In Florida as a tree business owner I am mandated to carry Workmans Comp which will cover the cost of getting me or my employees back to 100 percent if at all possible.
I hope you will recover to 100 percent.

Eric Frei

Yikes, what a shocker.

I avoid ladders like the plague. That usually means us tree guys generally have a harness on and a high line .... eliminates 99% of falls.

Working off ladders is an OHS no no unless there's 3 attachment points, ie, only one hand doing something (two feet and one hand to be hanging on). Ladder has to be secured top and bottom. It's getting to be a real hard are for the likes of guttering guys and electricians to work.

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dov

My workers wonder why I shout at them if they aren't footing a ladder and concentrating while I'm on the bloody thing. I also hate ladders and maintain that climbing ladders is at least 10 times more dangerous than climbing trees. I've never fallen from a tree, but I've fallen from ladders 3 times, once while climbing up to secure the top of it. Dropped me 3 and a half metres onto my backside. Another time was with my old boss, I just stepped off the ladder as it started to fall towards the street and grabbed hold of the tree. Finished the job and climbed down. The other time I fell only two metres, but enough to give me a sore behind.

Since the 3 and a half metre fall, climbing tall ladders really puts me on edge, so I avoid them like anything.

Hightrax, welcome to the forum and have a great time here. Thank you for sharing your story as it's a very, very important warning for all of us who work 'upstairs' so to speak.

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sueann

Omg HT! That is some story! Very scary, but I'm glad you're ok.

Garry Brockley

Wow hightrax thank you for sharing your story, its a good reminder of how quickly things happen, I hope your getting back to normal, i like most climber seriously hate ladders and avoid them as much as i can, i climb most days of the week but only used a ladder three times last year just to get past the bouganvillia that was growing over the lower parts of the trees.

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Hightrax

Thank you for your kind thoughts folks, it is touching.

I have a forest that needs about 10,000 trees pruned soon and 20,000 thinned out. . A lot of them are about forty to sixty feet high....am I the man for the job? The flip side is the ground is about a foot deep in pine needles. Cherrypiker the way ?
It is risky in more ways than one. It is high country in the 1000m big timber belt on the windward side of the range. Good rainfall, volcanic soil. White water all along one boundary.
But how about this. on the ground there are three more hazards, potentially.
1. Feral wolves.
No wolves in Australia? Think again. Pig hunters who have used and lost dogs chasing wild pigs have had often to abandon the dogs who disappeared off after pigs in the bush. The dogs survive and have gone feral and interbred with the wild dingos. We now have alsatian cross dingos, about twice the size of the average dog, as savage as any wolf, (remember, an Alsatian is genetically only a step or two away from a timber wolf) with incisor teeth that have to be seen to be believed. They hunt in packs now. We have 50 trapped wild dogs strung up in trees in my area alone. They will kill humans like any other meat, given the chance.
2. Feral cougar/panthers
Yep. The first time I went to look at my block we drove up a little hill and as we got to the top, one which was sleeping in grass at the side of the track lept up and shot off into the trees. It was a full grown male and had rippling muscles. short hair, a long white tipped tail a couple of inches thick almost, probably about 90-100 kilos. A fiction? No, they are now sudenly and quietly officially listed as feral animals in Australia. Circuses for 100 years and then the US forces in WW2 is how they came here. I never want to come across one of these in the bush. They are there. Night hunters. From what I can see we have both and they are interbreeding. When I was getting my .308 license.,the desk police officer told me he had trod on one in burnt grass while rounding up sheep on a bike, near where I saw mine. It reared up and knocked him clean off his bike and ran off, then stopped to have a look at him. His was jet black. Mine was greyish/brown..
Dont let anyone tell you black panthers are endangered. We have them running feral here. Multiplying lately too.
3. Yes, there is more. An old fellow got the worlds first full photo of one while on a shooting outing at night near a little hamlet up here. He is about 80, fit for his age. He was out with one of his sons, shooting deer at night-we have a lot of those here, too, Sambar in this area. He saw a good stag with the infrared scope and head shot it. When his son got to it, he called out to his father "Where did you hit it dad?" Replied "Head shot!"
"'Jeez" , he replied, 'You should see this!" There is a huge hole in its back, with claw marks or something all round it! The hole was about a foot square or so. The meat was torn out with the spine visible.
Well, they decided to take off the antlers after a photo and go The son pulled out a flash camera, and took a photo of dad beside his stag, which they strung up in a tree.
The photo they took got in the major city newspaper in Melbourne a few days later, after the picture was developed.
What was in it? Standing behind the stag and the old man about eight to ten feet back or so ,at the edge of the treeline, in what it thought was the shadows was this: Nine to ten feet tall. Massive shoulders. Almost no neck. Huge barrel chest and shoulders. Covered in hair, huge eyes, cat like. Blue. Huge four toed feet. massive arms and huge claw like hands with long sharp nails. Waiting for them to leave to so it could have its dinner, so kindly provided.
The flash took it by surprise. Quinkan/Yowie/Bigfoot. On film. Other witnesses in the area, completely independent. The aboriginal people think we are wierd, pretending they are not there.
Needless to say, I dont sleep in the open or in a tent up there. Not alone.
I have a small collection of guns and always carry one there. I dont think 3. will bother me, but they are out there. Funny thing is, they can come to gunshots, rather than the other way around. Those people who have come across them by accident were terrified. These things make your hair stand on end. They usually want you to clear out-NOW. Everyone does. Rarely talk about it because they think no one will believe them.

You probably think I hit my head a bit hard, maybe?Had one too many? This is wild country, on the boundary of two state forests and the biggest national park in SE Australia.
Wildlife everywhere. No shooting unless in emergency. Bullets in trees can kill sawmillers. The animals know its a safe zone.
But its colliding with the planet again that I want to avoid the most. A long way from help out there. Might put a helipad in.

Eric Frei

These days there's saws on excavator booms etc. so you can have an all terrain crawler cutting off branches to say 40' high.

Thinning = felling some yeah? Aim straight.

Regarding the animals up there, dont go alone., take camera, high frequency animal repellent type devices might help. Regarding the Yowie, well, be polite.

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dov

I'd certainly go with the wild cat idea as well. Around Belgrave in Victoria there have been quite a lot of sightings of big black cats - like Panthers. Way too big to be domestic cats gone feral.

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sueann

Lots of feral dogs have been shot around here. I came across a pack of 3 when riding on Mt Sugarloaf 2 years ago, they were wolfing down a dead roo, they way they were eating was freaky! Like starving wolves and not even chewing, just gulping it down. Grosse! They were skinny as, and looked starved. I watched them through binoculars for a bit, made my dogs lie quietly, then rode the other way.

I saw a programme on the telly about the big black cats, but they were inclined to think the video clips and pics were fake?


Not too sure about the yowie thing, kind of like vampires and werewolves type thing.

The only thing that does bother me sometimes, is the feral pigs. I've never bumped into them when out bush but have seen their scratchings, the blokes go pig hunting now and then and shoot them.

jmcg.insight.gardens

dat,s funny............

Seen feral cat's and dogs out bush, but a Yowie.?

Julie

Hightrax

I am going to try to post a picture of a big cat that was shot recently in Victoria, strung up. Saw it on the web a few months ago. As for the big humanoid- if youre interested get Tim the Yowie mans books. Thousands of people communicate with his group, literally. Most have one thing in common, they have met them, and lived to tell the tale. There is a steet in the Blue Mountains NSW where they turn up almost nightly. They are not dopey, but as in many ways as smart as us. They have infrared visual senses like many species. Too glary for comfort in daytime. The best story I saw lately was from Bourgainville, PNG. The large islands of Bourgainville and Mailita have heaps of them, reportedly. If you use Google Earth, it shows villages all over PNG inland, but not in B'ville. All the settlement is along the coast. Why? The "moo-moos" they call them. They used to dine on the local Melanesians till the turn of the century. The locals are wholly terrified of them.
The islands are limestone with many caves. A garrison of 20,000 Japanese disappeared there without trace after building big tunnels in WW2. The biggest landing of the Pacific War. Carriers, the lot. No japs. Gone. Not a shit fired. Coastwatchers saw no ships.....all the equipment. No japanese.

Well, just recently an Australian Army maintenace patrol (a force there for peacekeeping) was going up to service an army microwave communication tower in the hills. A rough dirt road led up. It had been raining heavily and they became bogged to the axles 20ks from base, and slid into the water filled gutter. They walked back. Next day they came with a tractor and driver to pull the Hilux out. When they arrived it was no longer sunk down in the boggy gutter. It was standing in the middle of the road! When the got close they found huge footprints in the mud. At each end. Four toed. They had picked it up and moved it as a favour!

It is believed from the locals that they now can communicate in Motu(Fijian) which is the local language. They captured a woman many decades ago and she taught them. Looks like they didnt like the japanese. Australians are approved, it seems, but but they stay away. Wherever they are, they avoid humans, religiously.
But, like humans some are hostile and otheres are'nt. it just depends where. Google the 'Headless Valley' in Canada's frozen north, where no one has ever come out alive.

These things all sound very different, but Im interested in things like that. Its probably too much though. Ill concentrate on stuff to do with trees and wood here, but will try to post that photo of the big cat.

sueann

HT! you have got to stop colliding with the planet!!

Eric Frei

Here's a picture of the groups leader.

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Done it

Well I don't know how. yowieman.com doesn't seem to work anymore, and this forum is dead. CFZ Forums - discussing cryptozoology and the work of the CFZ - Index

Here's the cat picture.

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jmcg.insight.gardens

I thought that story was proved false.

If you stood close to a dead feral cat, which are pretty big and put that guy in the distance it would look the same.............

I'm still open minded about Panthers escaped in the bush tho.

Hightrax

Theres another one with it strung up on the verandah. They couldnt keep it long When dead cats go off, the smell is awful. Its easier to get size comparison there. I think this one is a female. Ive seen a larger male. Much. But there is something peculiar goes on with the tests. It works something like this in Australia, Im told. Every time a big cat story gets published the publishers get hit with a D Notice. Thats a "Do not publish" notice from the state security apparatus. If you say anything more they can put you in prison. Sending anything to the government labs is futile. They ALWAYS say it is feral cat or dog. A panther or three have been causing a lot of anxiety in an area on the western fringe of Sydney. The l.g.a. is Wilberforce.
400 reports, plus. I kept the cutting of the dramas the Mayor and locals have had with the dishonest government laboratory from a major newspaper, the SMH I recall. Anyway, they set traps and one got a very large claw in it, covered in jet black fur. The cat tore its own toe off to get away. It is the retracting type. There was a picture of it in the paper. It was sent off to the usual lot and they came back that it was a dog's. Hey, have you ever seen a dog with a retracting claw?
That was unbelievably idiotic of them, but you get the message, between the lines. No one is that stupid, but we are under orders to deny everything.
Why? Easy. Whenever an article appears the Intelligence operatives at the US Embassy get worked up and call the Australians and say shut this up, the commies will use it for propaganda against us. Well in one way its true. There are a heap of them in the closet in Australia. Especially in feather bedded public jobs.
Why? Because quite afew were brought over here in WW2 as mascots by US military units and let go because they couldnt take them back to the US, due to quarantine rules. What the Americans dont seem to recognise is that panthers at least were feral here already. I know of one lot that escaped a train derailment in the New England area, NSW, between the wars.
The same council decided to show up the govt labs. They went to the Taronga Zoo and asked for some hair from the big cats, panthers and cougars. They sent one lot to the govt labs and the other to a forensic lab in the USA. Guess what. The Australian govt lab said feral cat. They US lab said cougar and panther. This was all in the paper.
So who do you believe? Would the government lie to you? Oh yes.
This makes me very angry, because kids go hiking with the scouts and guides and so on where these things hang out. With no protection.
There are plenty of cases where people who have gone off by themselves jogging or hiking in the bush, some of them very expert, have disappeared without a trace. These things are killing machines. Very fast, very stong and attack usually from behind. Main times for hunting are night, dawn and dusk.
Very hard to trap because they like live food, like all cats. Very elusive.
To top it off, I had a discussion with a Canberra gun shop owner. Ex military. Bombastic sort of fellow. Said he was on the government panel (!)dealing with these reports and it was all a lot of hooey. He would pay me $5000 if I could provide any evidence-because he said I couldnt. So I told him they were feeding one three or four times a week at night at the Tooma Dam control room, in the Snowy Mountains. It came in under the lights to eat the food they left out for it. They watch out the window.
I told him there were strong reports as far west as Ashford and Mudgee. He reeled back, and said "Jeez, they have'nt got that far West have they!?' before he realised what he had blurted and shut up again. Then he asked "Well, are they hurting anybody?" I replied that maybe he better ask the people who have disappeared.
From people i know: Schoolteacher has seen not one but two on the Clyde mountain road to the coast at night. Camp shop assistant: One chased a fat totally terrified feral cat through their campsite near the coast. Army reg Sergeant Major-followed by one for 2 or 3 kms while riding a motorcycle near Yass. Another did a panther scream at night shooters near Nerriga NSW . Eyes 6 inches apart. Cat eyes. Said it sounded like a baby being murdered. Thats about right. Gunshop reports of whole billy goats being dragged up to 8 kms from where they were shot. Area between Nerriga and Braidwood. Now thats not what dogs do. It is what big cats do. They have the strength and size.
So there you go. Im on my soapbox, but its about protecting people. Not playing silly politics. We are talking kids here. Innocent, adventurous kids.
There isnt just one or two of these things. Im a professional statistician, and from the sample i've heard myself, not read about, there would have to be, by statistical inference, thousands of these cats around the eastern ranges, not one or two here and there. Id guess about one per 30km2. Thats the territorial area of these animals in their native habitat.
Isnt our society crazy? We tell our kids to believe in Santa Claus, and not to believe in something in their country that is the most efficient killing machine on four legs, slyly feral in their own country. Oh well. Im going bush tomorrow, you wont need to worry, but I go armed. Only on my own land. Alone. But then I might be a killing machine, too, not too bad a shot.

sueann

HT, why would the government want to keep black panthers a secret? and wouldn't farmers be going crazy with them eating cattle? they would need to eat decent sized roos to sustain them but cattle would be easier I think. A panther would have to eat an awful lot of bush rats to stop them from being hungry I think, there's not much else big enough, dingo's are too smart and can run just as fast I should imagine, and are usually in packs.

Also, panthers are on the endangered list, if we had them here, running around the bush, the wildlife people would be on to it --surely?

The only place around here I've seen dingo's running wild is out bush up Stroud way, but no panthers up there that I've ever heard of.

The tail on that dead thing in the pic doesn't sort of look like a cat's tail. More like a dogs?

Done it

That's not a tail, it's where it's head was supposed to be.

Really.

sueann

Oh right DI. I thought that was it's tail to the right up top but I think it's a leg on 2nd look.

Eric Frei

You know I am a cynic.

Just because 2000 people gather around some tree and say Virgin Mary is in there it doesn't make it true.

Here's the deal, in this day and age, with night vision, infrared cameras etc there's nothing solid. A bunch of blokes watching out of windows and no evidence.

In this day and age emails, social sites etc would spread those pictures fast as lightning.

This sounds like a story for Myth Busters or something. Seriously you could gear up and sell tickets for this adventure, forget tornado spotting we have panthers and yowies.

And what genius hands all evidence over to the govt anyway, there's private labs. Seems to me like a load of BS frankly and without solid evidence all we have is rumours.

with the guided tours you could also maybe throw in a surprise bunyip sighting.

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Drouin Tree Service

There out there the big cats and dogs,Lots of deer as well the whole survival of the fittest is changing in the depths of the harsh australian bush.



Giant pig killed by small boy | News.com.au

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Drouin Tree Services | Excavator Hire - Drouin and SE Gippsland | Landclearing Melbourne

jmcg.insight.gardens

that is a big pig, I'd be more worried about bumping into that in the bush than a yowie, I'm a skeptic when it comes to them.

The only thing I've seen is feral dogs, cross dingos, feral deer and cats, I lived fairly isolated once, always felt safe.

I'm pretty skeptical on that panther photo, it looks like the shot took it's head off, like a shot to the head would on a cat with a high powered rifle. It doesn't cut with me.

Done it

The pig was another hoax. HOG WASHED bigger than hogzilla Alabama boy bags 1051 pound wild hog monsterpig hog photo pigs monsterpig Stinky Journalism monster pig investigation debunks debunk AP and FOX News Giant Hog with Small Boy Photo foto photos photograph monster pig pho

Here's a better pic of the big cat, [for sueann] I have the other pic Hightrax was talking about, but it's his thread.

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jmcg.insight.gardens

A hoax huh, well I was fooled, monster hog.....but I know little about pigs,

except in a farm rental in New Zealand, I was landed with the pet pig as well, it had been allowed to come inside by the owners, I had to threaten it with the straw broom to keep it out, it was certainly no little Kune Kune pig but one of those big ones, it was funny though, a battle of wits for a while, she was very determined, she'd get stuck in the doorway when she tried to turn around, with lots of squealing. I never hurt animals but it was war, I was going to win, no way it was coming in.

stinky journalism huh............that's funny

today there is so much you can do with a computer and photoshop

photos prove nothing anymore.

Julie