A 26-year-old man who had been missing on the Tasman Peninsula since Sunday has been found dehydrated but alive.
Police had launched an air and ground search for Jack Lockley at Fortescue Bay — a popular fishing, camping and hiking spot in Tasmania's south-east.
Mr Lockley was last seen at 5am on Sunday, with a relative reporting him missing on Monday morning.
His vehicle was later found in the area but there was no sign of Mr Lockley.
On Tuesday, Inspector Jon Cooper said after being alerted to Mr Lockley's disappearance, a search and rescue operation was launched involving 62 police and State Emergency Service (SES) personnel.
"On Saturday, he and his partner drove to the area, his partner drove in one car and he drove in another. It appears he got lost and as a consequence of being lost, he tried to manoeuvre his car and got bogged, and whilst being bogged his phone ran flat and all the circumstances led to him leaving his car and being lost in the bush for a couple of days."
"Sometimes people think they can walk out in the dark, and find their way to another location. There are formed tracks in the area but it is a forestry area and those tracks can lead to nothing, hence why we conducted the search today.
Inspector Cooper said Mr Lockley was eventually located 400-500 metres away from where his car was last left.
"All reports, he is absolutely fine apart from being a bit dehydrated and a few cuts and bruises around his feet and lower limbs. Having said that he is very, very lucky, we have had good weather in the area which has helped and really good search teams out there looking for him which proved to be the difference in finding him."
"Teams are walking him out because the tree canopy is such that we can't winch him out but he said he is quite capable walking out. We have taken a fresh pair of shoes to him so he can put those on and walk to a police vehicle and he will be brought back here and assessed by paramedics."
On Tuesday afternoon, police announced they had "safely extracted" Mr Lockley, who was being taken for assessment at Royal Hobart Hospital.
Inspector Cooper advised anyone who goes into the Tasmanian bush to remain with their vehicle if they become lost.
"It's quite easy to find vehicles, which we did, but it's quite hard to find people under tree canopies and the like."
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