Police horses, the dog unit, trail bikes, four-wheel drives and locals also mobilised to help scour the treacherous alpine terrain. A Surf Life Saving helicopter joined the effort and a dedicated Facebook page for Sjoberg’s search sprung up and garnered almost 1000 contributors.
But still, for almost a full week, she couldn’t be found.
Then, at 4.50pm on Sunday evening – 12 days since her last sighting – a Parks and Wildlife service officer spotted something on the Nungar Creek Trail at Kiandra.
It was Sjoberg, dehydrated and injured. Paramedics treated Sjoberg at the scene for exposure and a suspected snakebite before taking her to Cooma District Hospital in a stable condition, police announced Sunday.
Local Mal Bruce, who set up the Facebook page, said it was the “best Sunday ever” after Sjoberg was found. “Lots of the Jindabyne community know her and I hope the creation of the group contributed to her being found,” he said.
Brumy tracks captured in Kosciuszko National Park last year.Credit: James Brickwood
Community members posting on the Facebook group said she was a gifted photographer known among the region’s pro-brumby advocacy groups.
Inspector Woods told local news outlet About Regional on Saturday that search teams were focused on the plains where brumbies congregate as “we believe Lovisa may have been tracking them”.
Photos taken by Sjoberg when she was living in Crackenback, near Jindabyne, were featured in the 2020 Walkley Foundation’s digital photojournalism exhibition on Black Summer and she was a semi-finalist in the 2021 Head On Landscape Award.
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