What started as a routine trip to the bathroom ended in horror after a long-drop toilet collapsed in the Northern Territory, stranding a tourist waist-deep in excrement for several hours before she was ferried to safety by a tradesman.
The woman, who was visiting the Henbury meteorite crater about 120km south of Alice Springs with her partner and two children from Canberra, entered the long-drop toilet on Sunday afternoon and didn’t emerge until three hours later.
Long-drop toilets, also known as “outhouses” or “dunnies”, are unlike traditional modern latrines: they use a deep, dug out pit to collect waste, typically connected to a squatting pan or toilet seat. They are common in remote areas.
According to NT WorkSafe, which is investigating the accident, initial inquiries indicated the toilet fell into the sewage pit, taking the tourist with it.
“NT WorkSafe has been notified of an incident where a tourist fell into a sewage pit at the Henbury Meteorites Conservation Zone,” the agency said in a statement.
“The notification was made by the agency with management of the conservation zone, as a collapse or partial collapse of a structure, which is a dangerous incident under the work health and safety laws.”
A witness who spoke to NT News on the condition of anonymity said the visitor was in “deep shit”, standing up to her waist in waste.
“There’s shit, literal nappies, piss, all in that hole,” they told the outlet.
The witness said the woman’s partner had driven up the highway in a bid to find phone reception and get help when the tradie happened by.
He was able to lower a tow rope into the hole far enough for the woman to stand on it, the witness said, and used his car to lift her out. They said the whole process took an agonising 45 minutes.
The woman was unhurt except for “a few cuts” and feeling understandably shaken, the witness said. According to NT News, she was taken to Alice Springs hospital.
Images of the outhouse, provided to Guardian Australia by local blogging site Action for Alice, show the site now cordoned off with “caution” tape.
“This won’t feature in tourism brochures,” the blogging site wrote. “Somebody’s in a lot of shit for this one, pardon the pun.”
It isn’t the first time a long-drop toilet has caused problems. In 2024, Country Fire Authority crews were called to a property near Wodonga in Victoria after a man became stuck in one in the dead of night. It took about an hour to get him out.