Australian Story heads deep into Tasmania’s wilderness for its latest episode, Franklin River Rescue, airing Monday, June 30, 2025, at 8:00 PM AEST on ABC and ABC iview.
The story follows a 24-hour mission to save a Lithuanian tourist trapped under brutal river conditions. The rescue unfolded across jagged terrain, freezing water, and vanishing daylight. It pushed every responder to their limit.
The episode captures the raw footage from helmets, handhelds, and rescue teams as they fought to keep the rafter alive. The physical toll is immediate. The medical risk escalates fast. At one point, paramedics considered a bushland amputation. The only doctor on-site then slipped and fractured his wrist, throwing the operation into chaos.
What unfolds isn’t a miracle. It’s coordination, pressure, and survival instinct. Every decision had weight. Every delay brought new threats. Hypothermia, crush injury, terrain. The list of risks kept growing.
Produced by Robyn Powell, the episode lays out the stakes without dramatics. Interviews with rescuers, rafters, and medical crew frame the intensity of the effort. It also shows the line that separates training from instinct in a moment where both are needed.
The Franklin River is notorious. Beautiful, dangerous, remote. And this rescue is now part of its history.
Australian Story airs Monday at 8:00 PM AEST on ABC and streams on ABC iview.
