This Woman Was Lost In Australia For 17 Days (Without Food Or Clothes)
by Pauli Poisuo
Imagine you have a fight with your significant other during a visit to a natural reserve. You storm off in a huff, and when you eventually cool down and start making your way back to the car, you realize that you have no idea where anyone is — including yourself. As you start to feel out your surroundings, the ever-thickening foliage begins to quite literally tear the clothes off your back, and you understand two things: One, you’re probably not going to make it back before dark. And two, you’re stuck without supplies or shelter in a corner of Australia that’s particularly full of deadly creatures and oh my god what’s that rustling in the bushes?
Now, imagine you have to survive like that for 17 days.
In 2014, this exact scenario reached its dramatic conclusion in Queensland, Australia, when a man drove to the parking lot of a nearby nature reserve to get reception for his phone. As he was minding his own business, his browsing session was interrupted by a horrific screech. Fortunately for the man, the source of the noise wasn't a drop bear or man-eating kangaroo (this time). The scream came from Shannon Fraser, a 30-year-old woman who not only had spent the last 17 days practically naked in the Australian wilderness, but had done it without so much as a bag of trail mix. She was understandably eager to catch the attention of the first human being she’d encountered since the beginning of her ordeal.
When Fraser had been visiting the cozy Golden Hole Reserve with her fiancé and a friend, she’d gotten lost after wandering away following an argument. Her search for a better vantage point led her so far into the wilderness that a massive search operation couldn’t locate her. Despite the dangers of the area’s flora and fauna – not to mention her total lack of food and drink – she managed to live off the land for two and a half weeks in an area that was full of harsh terrain, pitch-black nights, and the kind of constant abject horror only Australia can provide. When she finally managed to find her way out of the metaphorical and literal woods, she reemerged near the same spot where she was last seen 17 days prior — like she’d just popped away for a while to indulge in the world’s most terrifying camping trip.
Now, there is one thing we should note: The media doesn’t seem to be entirely clear on what, exactly, happened during her time in the bush — only that it was impressively awful. Like any story that features juicy details and a solitary protagonist who spent much of the timeline in hazy survival mode, parts of the story differ from source to source. For instance, everyone can draw their own conclusions as to whether she survived without food for 17 whole days — as she claimed upon being found and like some outlets indicate — or if she merely meant that her sustenance during that time consisted of munching on fish and insects. Good luck deciding which version is more impressive, by the way – that she survived over two weeks without a morsel of food, or that she spent that time catching and stuffing her face with Australian wildlife.
Details aside, even if one decides to cynically assume that Fraser or someone else orchestrated her disappearance for ... reasons, it’s clear that the woman went full method. By the time she found her way back to civilization, she’d lost a massive amount of weight — over 35 pounds (17 kilograms). She was covered in insect bites, wounds and scratches, and her skin was sunburnt almost to the point of bleeding. Oh, and the local foliage had quite literally shredded the clothes off her back. Don’t worry, though, she didn’t spend her entire ordeal in the nude. At some point, she managed to find a discarded fertilizer bag, which on one hand protected her, but on the other meant that she now got to enjoy her experience in a plastic sack that gave the already crappy adventure a fitting olfactory finish.
Unbelievable as this all may seem, the people who saw Fraser in the aftermath of her discovery have been adamant that they fully believe Fraser’s version of events, from the guy who found her to the authorities. “If I was a religious man, I’d say it were a miracle,” the inspector who interviewed Fraser said. And who are we to contradict a police statement like that?
