When truck driver Michael Thompson made a decision to reverse the way he drove into a Simpson Desert property to deliver fuel, little did he realise it would be the difference between life or death for Sydney grandfather Terry Stewart.
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A driver for Lowes Petroleum, Thompson was delivering diesel to Cordillo Downs Station south east of Birdsville, near the South Australia-Queensland border, in December when rain in the east made him switch his route to the west and in doing so, found Mr Stewart near death and barely breathing.
The 75-year-old Sydney man had broken down in one of the harshest regions of Queensland: after spending the night in the truck, he left a note saying he intended to walk the 30kms to Cordillo.
"I followed his tracks for 13kms or so," Mr Thompson said.
"I knew he was in a bad way because the last 200 to 300 metres his tracks started going backward and forward, so he was clearly disorientated. There were probably four to five sets of tracks. I kept doubling back and found him unconscious in a dry gully."
"The temperature that day was 47, 48 degrees Celsius: it was so hot I couldn't touch the door handles to the truck. The stones on the ground were so hot they would burn your hand if you picked them up.
"To be honest I thought he was dead when I found him, he was red raw. It looked like he wasn't breathing it was so shallow. I ran to the truck and got some cold water and poured it on his clothes and he groaned - so I knew he was alive.
"Lucky my satellite phone was working so I rang my wife who rang the station and they contacted the Flying Doctors. He'd been walking around since 10 or 11am and I found him around 6pm."
Janet Brook from the station came quickly with help: it took three of them to carefully lift the 75-year-old into their four-wheel drive. By 7pm they were treating Mr Stewart in an air-conditioned room with Janet covering him with wet towels, following instructions from the RFDS.
"It was pretty close - another hour out there and it could have gone either way," Mr Thompson said.
"For two hours he was unresponsive and then around 9pm he started to wake a bit but couldn't move his arms or legs or speak properly.
"If I hadn't gone in that way instead of out, he would never have been found; there was no-one else on the road that day. He would have been dead alright."
Mr Stewart, who is the track boss for the Great Escape Oz, a charity car rally for Cure 4 Cystic Fibrosis, was mapping out a route for a charity rally when his car broke down.
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Mrs Brook said the Sydney grandfather did nothing wrong.
"His four-wheel-drive was in reasonable condition and he had some food and water and both his wife in Sydney and staff at the Birdsville Caravan Park knew of his travel plans," she said.
"The remarkable thing about this is that Thompson was not due to bring the diesel out for another day but decided he would come early."
The seasoned driver, based in Quilpie has worked for Lowes Petroleum for over 13 years driving a triple road train and covering over 100,000 kms a year.
He has kept in communication with Mr Stewart whose legs are still in bandages and is undergoing twice weekly treatment at the burns unit at Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital.
Mr Stewart is planning only one trip in the future: a catch-up with his rescuer when he is fit for travel.
"I don't want people to call me a hero," Mr Thompson said.
"It's what you do when you are out in the bush. His wife and family rang me and couldn't thank me enough - that's all you need."
