Backpacker throws a party to thank his Australian rescuers

Katoomba: Jamie Neale, the British backpacker lost for 12 days in the Australian bush, held a party on Friday night to thank those involved in his rescue.

Neale, 19, said he wanted to thank everyone as he left the Blue Mountains Hospital with his father and an agent, Sean Anderson.

He was believed to have paid for the party at Katoomba's Gearin Hotel using money from a deal brokered with Channel Nine, the Australian television network.

About 50 members of the New South Wales state emergency services, the national parks and wildlife service and the fire brigade joined the celebrations. Neale is believed to have agreed to appear on the Channel Nine current affairs programme 60 Minutes today for £50,000 (Dh300,00) to £100,000. He has also accepted a contract with an Australian magazine.

The teenager had two days of tests at the hospital, where a source said "bubbles" were found on his lungs, which could suggest the early stages of pneumonia.

He was advised against air travel for six to eight weeks so he was not expected to leave Australia immediately.

While Neale has refused to speak to the media, he has given information about his ordeal to the police. He told Tony McWhirter, the local area commander, that he lost his way when he followed a small bush trail and had only a rudimentary map.

"Once he was off the track he tried to backtrack and found a cliff face," McWhirter said. "He tried to walk around it to a point where he could climb back up, but he couldn't locate that so he went down."

At night he survived the freezing temperatures by wrapping himself in sheets of bark ripped from trees.

Neale, from Muswell Hill, north London, said he used the bark, probably from the native paperbark trees, like a blanket.