On 5th February 1960 whilst out in the backblocks of his home farm
in the rugged New England ranges, four year old Stephen Walls wandered off and disappeared. One of the largest land and air searches ever mounted in Australia found the boy three and a half days later.

Incredibiy, in such hostile terrain, Stephen was still alive.

Johnny Ashcroft adds a personal note on the song.
"It so happened that in my wild and wicked youth, I was a professional trapper working out of Kangaroo Camp, near Guyra, so I understood the type of country in which the search took place. Also at the time that Stephen was lost, I had a boy who was almost the same age so the feelings of the parents were that much easier to understand. The song is written as a tribute to the 5000 people who cared anough about the welfare of one small boy to mount such a massive search."

A nice picture "Lost" (1907) © Frederick McCubbin (1855-1917) appears with the words on http://groups.msn.com/Tapestries/lost.msnw

Robin (with help from JennyO)