The Lost Boy: A search for life, a triumph of outback spirit

In 1993 8-year-old Clinton Liebelt went missing from a roadhouse between Darwin and Alice Springs - one of the most desolate places in the world. Australian journalist Robert Wainwright's uplifting and triumphant tribute tells the story of how one child's disappearance united an entire community and the wider Northern Territory of Australia.

In the stifling Australian heat of October 1993, a campsite the size of a small town was spontaneously created at a lonely desert roadhouse by the side of the Stuart Highway, which links Darwin with Alice Springs. The 1200 men and women who swagged on the unforgiving ground beside their horses, cars, trucks and even helicopters had come to this isolated place Dunmarra to help solve a mystery and save a life.

A local son had disappeared without a trace. No-one was certain if he had been abducted or lost in the hostile bush around the roadhouse, but all knew it was a search where hours could mean the difference between life and...