LOST AND FOUND: British backpacker Sam Woodhead talk to the media following his ordeal in the Queensland outback. Pic Tim Marsden Source: The Courier-Mail
EXPERTS have called for increased awareness about the dangers of the Outback as rescuers question the motives of a British tourist who sparked a three-day search.
Backpacker Sam Woodhead, 18, spent three nights living off his own urine and contact lens fluid, when he became lost on a jog from Upshot Station, 130km south of Longreach.
More than 50 people searched a 450,000sq km zone for the British teen.
Survival expert Bob Cooper said visitors must be told the Outback is life-threatening.
"We need ourselves to be more responsible in our attitude to visitors, and visitors to the Outback, whether they're from the city or overseas," Mr Cooper said.
"They make it into a challenge and it's more than that. It's not challenging, it's life-threatening."
The concerns come as locals who searched for the teen - who dreams of joining the army - raised questions about his motives when he set off on the afternoon jog armed with a bag of clothes.
Bear Grylls. Photo: Discovery Channel, Luis Enrique Ascui.
Mr Woodhead told The Courier-Mail he was using the bag as a weight for the run.
He said it was "just a run that went wrong".
"It seemed more of an interesting run than around the airfield that I had been going around," he said.
Mr Woodhead will donate money received from a UK media deal to tell his story back to his rescuers.
While happy with the search's successful result, locals voiced their concerns that the 18-year-old was deliberately testing his survival skills in a Bear Grylls-style adventure.
"Just a few things don't add up . . . it's a funny feeling," local Norman Philp said.
SEARCH crews look for Sam Woodhead last week.
"You get a feeling he wanted to go bush."
Many other locals have spoken out, including Adrian Roots, who has been involved in several other searches for people lost in the Outback.
"From what his mum told us about him wanting to be in the Royal Marines and being big fan of Bear Grylls, that's probably why people are angry, thinking that's what he was doing.
"There's just the unanswered questions."
Outback Queensland Tourism general manager Lloyd Mills, based in Longreach, said it was the responsibility of tourists to research the dangers of the Outback.
"At the end of the day, (if) you're making a trip to a place in outback Queensland you need to do your research," he said.
"The information is available, you just have to look for it."
Tourism Research Australia data shows about 25 per cent of international tourists to Queensland travel outside the state's major cities.
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