By HARRY CLARKE
A WEEK-LONG search for a missing fisherman in Cape York crocodile country has been called off without success, but experts do not believe a croc attack has been involved in his disappearance.
Roman “Butch” Butchaski, a former host of popular Sydney radio program The Fishing Show, has not been seen since he left a Far North Queensland cattle station last Sunday on a solo fishing trip to the remote Olive River.
A buggy Butchaski borrowed for the trip from the well-known Bramwell Station was found the following day near the river banks about an hour-and-a-half’s drive away, but an extensive land and air search has otherwise found no sign of the veteran angler.
“That search was very comprehensive around the Olive River and surrounding bushland and we have found no sign of the missing person,” Queensland Police senior sergeant Edward Lukin told a Cairns press conference Wednesday.
“In the absence of any other information in relation to where that person may be, we stand ground assets down.
“Certainly in the background we have other enquires being conducted. We do intend to go back and visit the site at some stage next week, just to see if anything further has come to light.”
Up to eight wildlife experts from the Department of Environment and Science joined the search amid fears Butchaski had been taken by a crocodile, which are well known to inhabit the area.
Although a large reptile was spotted in the search zone last week, Snr Sgt Lukin said there’d been no evidence of an attack.
“The DES – I’ve worked with them on a number of croc attacks – are extremely good at what they do,” he said.
“They are confident that a croc is not involved and I am happy with that assumption made by them.
“There was a 3-metre crocodile seen close to the ATV however there’s no indication that that animal was involved in an attack on the missing person.”
Butchaski, aged in his 70s, has been described as a croc-wise, passionate fisherman who’d been fishing throughout Cape York’s vast river systems for a large part of his life.
This was Butchaski’s first expedition to the Olive River but he’d travelled on fishing trips after visiting Bramwell Station numerous times in the past.
He was known to often take two fishing rods on similar trips, and had told friends last Sunday that he’d intended to walk the banks of the Olive River, casting lures for Barramundi.
Friends and former colleagues at Sydney’s 2GB radio station expressed deep concerns for Butchaski’s welfare after the Caller last week revealed he’d disappeared.
Longtime family friend Dan Buhmann, who is based at Bramwell Station and was heavily involved in the search, last week told the Caller the search party was at that point hopeful Butchaski could still be found alive.
“The police and SES have done a fantastic job. It was a little bit frustrating at the start trying to get things set up when we were very conscious that time is everything,” Buhmann said on Friday.
“But having the amount of technology that everybody’s got has been fantastic. Every phone has turned into a tracking GPS, and every inch that we’ve covered has gone back to a central base.
“So there’s a massive amount of tracked area, which is really good. We’ve trudged a lot of miles. There’s only actually currently a 2km radius but, in saying that, a lot of the creek is in a zigzag so it’s not just 2kms of walking – it’s quite a substantial lot more.”
Snr Sgt Lukin thanked staff and residents at Bramwell Station for their assistance with the search.
“We’ve been a big impost upon them, feeding and housing all of our volunteers,” he said.
“We have had a significant number of SES and we had to fly extra crew in on Thursday and had to fly some crews out for fatigue issues.
“We have had a number of Department of Environment and Heritage officers come from Townsville and Cairns. They spent a significant amount of time at night along the river banks, doing a lot of work for us.
“We also had a lot of locals turn up on the last weekend of the search and their assistance was invaluable. Their local knowledge was fantastic.
“We keep track of all of those tracks in those search areas and I can see there’s been a significant amount of searching by the locals as well.”
