Emergency services rescued a 49-year-old mountain bike rider from bushland near Deep Creek off Wakehurst Parkway, after the man came off his bike at around 25km/h and was thrown into a tree, landing five metres off the trail in steep bush.
The incident happened shortly after 10.30am on Sunday 7 June on a trail at Mt Narra near the Wakehurst Parkway at Ingleside. The man had failed to negotiate a turn near the bottom of a trail known as Happy Endings and was thrown from his bike into a tree, coming to rest around five metres off the trail in bush.
He had been wearing full protective gear including a helmet, and was conscious. He told paramedics he had significant pain in his back.
A multi-agency response involving a rescue helicopter
NSW Police, Fire and Rescue NSW crews from Narrabeen and Forestville stations, three NSW Ambulance crews including NSW Ambulance Inspector Carolyn Parish, and the Toll NSW Ambulance Rescue Helicopter were all tasked to the scene.
The rescue helicopter landed on a football field at the Sydney Academy of Sport and Recreation just after 11am, and officers from Northern Beaches Police Area Command brought the aeromedical team the short distance to the compound.
Despite the remote feel of the location, the site was relatively accessible. The man had come off his bike only metres from the end of the trail, close to an area known as the compound around 100 metres along the Caleyi Trail off the Wakehurst Parkway, which was accessible by ambulance vehicles.
Friends of the man guided ambulances into the compound, and although the rider was within line of sight, paramedics assessed that he would need to be carried out.
Careful extraction from a steep slope
The medical team assessed the man for a potential spinal injury and took precautions to keep him immobilised during extraction. Specialist rescue firefighters from Narrabeen Station used an all-terrain wheeled stretcher known as a mule to carefully navigate the steep trail down to the compound, where he was placed onto an ambulance stretcher for further assessment.
Satisfied the man was in a stable condition, the medical team determined they did not need to accompany him to Royal North Shore Hospital. He was loaded into an intensive care ambulance, which departed shortly after 11.30am.
How his friends made the rescue faster
Fellow mountain bike riders were thanked by rescuers for their assistance and, critically, for being able to rapidly identify their exact location using the Emergency Plus app on their mobile phones.
This detail matters in a bushland setting where there are no street addresses and GPS coordinates are the only reliable way to direct emergency services. The Mt Narra trail network near Wakehurst Parkway sits in dense bush where even a short distance off a track can make a person difficult to locate without precise coordinates.
The Northern Beaches has seen multiple rescues from trails in this same corridor over the past year, reflecting how consistently busy the network is and how remote its terrain feels despite its proximity to suburbs.
The Emergency Plus app is free to download for iOS and Android. It provides emergency services with your GPS coordinates, street address or nearest intersection when you call triple zero, and works in areas without a defined address.
Published 10-June-2026
