Forestry worker survives 30m fall

A paramedic had to be winched into the gully where the injured man was being aided by colleagues. Photo / Westpac rescue helicopter

A forestry worker who fell 30m down a gully escaped with only a broken leg and a few cuts and bruises.

The 27-year-old man and three other workers for Masterton company GT Silviculture were spraying vegetation for the Greater Wellington Regional Council on farmland 2km east of White Rock Rd in the Wairarapa settlement of Tuturumuri.

The man was walking along a sheep track at about 10am to reach the other side of the gully when a branch he grabbed broke, causing him to slip down the ravine into a creek.

The remote area had no cellphone reception, so the man's boss, Geoffrey Lewis, went to the house on the farm, about 1km away, to raise the alarm while the other workers climbed down to administer first aid.

The man was wrapped in a blanket and the bleeding from his cuts was stopped.

Mr Lewis, who was wearing a bright orange jacket, stood on the ridgeline to wave down the Westpac Rescue Helicopter from Wellington.

A Wellington Free Ambulance paramedic was winched into the gully.

"The tight gully made the winching a bit tricky," pilot Mike Hall said.

"We are always on the lookout for wires and other obstacles running across these types of areas but in the end the area was clear."

The helicopter landed in a clearing nearby until the paramedic stabilised the man and put him on a stretcher.

The pair were then both winched out of the gully.

Crewman Dave Greenberg said the man cheated death.

"It is quite amazing that he survived a fall of that distance.

"He was a bit confused as to exactly what happened but he said the fall was over 100 feet and he didn't remember hitting much on the way down."

The man was taken to Wellington Hospital where he had surgery last night on his broken femur.

Mr Greenberg said doctors were also testing to see if he had any brain injury, but it appeared he had only cuts and bruising to his head.

Mr Lewis said the group was in its second day of spraying the area and had only about four hours of work left to do but the workers were too shaken to continue yesterday.

"No one could work after that."

Regional council spokesman Brett Sangster said council would speak to Mr Lewis about the incident.

"They were just out doing what contractors do until one of them had an unfortunate accident.

"We'll be talking with the contracting firm in question just to find out exactly what happened and see what measures we can help put in place to ensure that accidents like this don't happen again."