Queensland's beautiful Booloumba Creek and murdered British birder-backpacker Celina Bridge

 

Celena Bridge

More than 27 years ago, on July 15, 1998, British tourist Celina Bridge was seen hiking along Booloumba Creek Road in the Sunshine Coast hinterland. She was on her way to join a Queensland Ornithological Society campout at Booloumba Creek in the Conondale Range, a well-known birding hotspot of exceptional beauty. Police say Celina has not been since, or was she?

The weekend campout was due to kick off on the evening of Friday July 16 at Campground 4, just before the access road deteriorates to a rough 4WD track rising steeply from the heavily forested valley to the mountains above. In the afternoon of that day, I set up camp in a large tent with my partner and a friend in Campground 3, a short distance across the road from Campground 4. Campout participants would be mostly setting up in the more open Campground 4 but some would opt to be surrounded by dense rainforest with beautiful creekside camping spots in Campground 3, as we did.

Only a couple of other campers were at Campground 3 when we arrived. One was a young woman by herself in a small domed tent with a large backpack inside. The three of us passed close by her as she squatted outside the tent, tinkering with utensils and a small stone. Weeks later, when news surfaced publicly that Celina Bridge was missing with foul play suspected, it occurred to us that the woman we encountered very much resembled her. She was about the same age and build, with shoulder length brown hair, high cheek bones and green eyes.

The outlook from the tent where I saw a woman believed to be Celena Bridgee 

Later in the evening that we saw the woman outside her tent, it rained heavily and we were in bed when we heard a heavy vehicle drive past. We assumed it was a camper turning up late. About 20 minutes later, we heard the same vehicle drive past again. The road is a circuit so the driver was negotiating it for the second time. There was nobody else camped there the next morning.

However, the tent where we saw the woman was missing. We found it relocated about 200 metres away in dense rainforest on a side track near the toilet amenities. By then it was about 8am; the tent was closed up and there was no sign of the woman - then or for the rest of the weekend. The owner had moved it during the night. Why would she move her tent in the night in the rain from where she had a perfect position overlooking Booloumba Creek? Her tent had been in full view of the road but the site it was moved to was hidden. Is it possible she moved because she had reason to fear for her safety?

The site to where tent was moved during the night

Police maintain she was last seen the day before, on July 15, as Celina hiked towards the camping ground. She was seen by workers at the Piabun indigenous youth rehabilitation centre who spoke briefly to her. They told her the camping ground was 1.5 kilometres further on. Police believe she was picked up somewhere between Piabun and the campground and murdered. Despite intensive searches, her remains and possessions have never been located.

At the start of Booloumba Creek Road at that time lived popular local teacher Sabrina Glassop. She disappeared 10 months later – in May 1999 - after leaving her home in the early morning with her dog. Her vehicle was found nearby at the Little Yabba Creek picnic ground. Similarly, no trace of her has been found.

Sabrina Glassop

Three months later, Jessica Gaudie, 16, was babysitting the children of Sam Woods, a worker at the Piabun centre, in Nambour, a half-hour drive from Boolouba Creek across the Blackall Range, when she disappeared. Jessica's remains also have not been located, but Woods was sentenced to 16 years jail for her murder. Woods was known to be friendly with Sabrina Glassop and police are certain he saw Celina on Booloumba Creek Road on her way to the birding campout. They believe he was responsible for all three murders but the families of the victims to this day struggle with their inability to gain closure for the tragedies they have endured.

When I and my fellow campers reported our encounter to police, they were sceptical. Indeed, my partner and I were clearly regarded as suspects. Police have refused to indicate whether they regard our reported sighting – we always indicated we could not be 100 per cent certain of the identity of the person we saw but we considered it highly likely to to have been Celina - as being of substance. I subsequently reported the encounter in an article in The Sydney Morning Herald. As a result, Celina's mother contacted me from London. She said it was very important for the family to know the site of her last confirmed sighting, and police had told her nothing of my reported sighting.

Ryan Wolf

Now these cases have been taken up by renowned New Zealand crime blogger Ryan Wolf. Ryan and I drove to Booloumba Creek to recount and retrace what I and the others saw back in July 1998. A couple of the more special avian inhabitants, like a brightly plumed Paradise Riflebird and an equally impressive Regent Bowerbird, showed nicely. Birds that the British visitor would doubtlessly have been impressed by. 

Paradise Riflebird

The podcast episode of that endeavour – Episode 12: The Last Sighting of Celena Bridge, can be found at this link, from which other episodes exploring this enduring mystery from Ryan's acclaimed podcast, Guilt, can be easily accessed.