💔 “I FEEL BLESSED WE HAD HER…” Lily Hooper’s grieving father has spoken through heartbreak after his 18-year-old daughter was lost in the Nattai National Park hiking tragedy.
💔 “I FEEL BLESSED WE HAD HER…”
Lily Hooper’s grieving father has spoken through heartbreak after his 18-year-old daughter was lost in the Nattai National Park hiking tragedy. For days, the family held onto hope that Lily would somehow come home. Now they are left with memories of the girl they loved and a silence that can never be filled.
Her father says, “It’s just so sad that she’s gone. I feel blessed we had her in our lives for a time.”
But behind those heartbreaking words is a father’s desperate plea to the NSW Premier — one he hopes could make sure another family never has to endure the same pain 👇
In the quiet hills of Oakdale in Sydney’s south-west, a family is learning to live with a silence that can never be filled. For eight agonising days in August 2026, Jim and Kirrily Hooper clung to hope that their 18-year-old daughter Lily would walk out of the rugged bushland of Nattai National Park. When searchers finally located her, the news first arrived as a miracle — then, within minutes, as the most devastating confirmation imaginable.
Now, through profound grief, Jim Hooper has spoken with remarkable grace. “It’s just so sad that she’s gone,” he said. “I feel blessed we had her in our lives for a time.”
Behind those words lies a father’s love, a community’s sorrow, and a simple plea to New South Wales Premier Chris Minns: fly the flag at half-mast as a lasting tribute to a young woman who embodied fearlessness and the free spirit of the outdoors.
### A Life of Adventure and Spirit
Lily Hooper was, by every account, unstoppable. The third of four children, she grew up in Oakdale immersed in the bush that surrounds the Southern Highlands. She trained for years in Muay Thai and Brazilian jiu-jitsu at Bujutsu Martial Arts and Fitness Centre, where instructors remembered a talented, tough martial artist who was months from her blue belt — and, more importantly, a lovely person everyone simply liked. She worked as a guide for Sydney Harbour BridgeClimb, lighting up every space with her smile and enthusiasm. Colleagues described her as compassionate, motivated and a friend to all.
She loved the outdoors with a passion that bordered on fearless. At Easter she had completed a three-day hike of Mount Kosciuszko. On the morning of Wednesday, 12 August 2026, she left the family home on Burragorang Road around 8am, telling her parents she was heading for the Bonnum Pic trail in Nattai National Park, roughly 90–120 kilometres south-west of Sydney. The trail is no easy stroll. Described as a challenging 16–17 kilometre route through dense scrub, rock scrambling, steep drops and limited phone signal, it is recommended for experienced bushwalkers. Lily was one of them.
Her father later recalled: “She just loved the outdoors. She just had so many skills that, you know, we tried to install in her. Yeah, she was just a clever kid who wasn’t afraid to take anything on. That was her free spirit.”
Throughout the morning she stayed in contact with family. By nightfall there was silence. When she had not returned by 10pm, the family raised the alarm. Police found her Hyundai parked on Wanganderry Road near the trailhead at High Range. A multi-agency search began almost immediately.
### Eight Days of Hope and Exhaustion
What followed was one of the largest recent search operations in the Southern Highlands. Nearly 1,000 people took part: NSW Police (including mounted units, PolAir and rescue specialists), State Emergency Service remote-area teams, Rural Fire Service, National Parks rangers, paramedics and, in the final stages, almost 100 Australian Defence Force personnel. Searchers worked day and night through thick, dense terrain, navigating steep drops, complex cliff lines and black spots where radio and mobile signals failed.
Jim Hooper refused to stay away. On the fourth day he called a radio station, voice breaking, urging listeners to “throw love and energy” because “we’ve got to go and find her… she’s got to be in there somewhere.” The family issued public statements of gratitude to the professional teams while politely asking well-meaning members of the public to stay clear of the dangerous terrain.
On the morning of Thursday, 20 August — day eight — an SES volunteer located a body in dense scrub a significant distance off the trail. The recovery would later require airlifting because the ground was so difficult. A post-mortem examination was ordered to confirm identity and determine the cause of death. No foul play was initially suspected; the coroner will examine the circumstances in full.
### The Cruel Minutes of False Hope
What should have been the end of uncertainty became, for a short and heartbreaking window, a cruel twist. Around 11.30am the discovery was radioed to the command post. In the dense terrain, handheld radio communications were imperfect. Accounts differ slightly on the precise mechanism — some point to a code-word system involving references to water bottles that emergency services sometimes use to protect families monitoring open channels — but the initial report that reached police, the family and, ultimately, Premier Chris Minns indicated that Lily had been found alive.
At the search base, relief exploded. Jim Hooper punched the air. He told cameras they were going to get her, that she might be going straight to hospital. He had brought her guitar and a packet of Tim Tams “because it might lure her out of the bush.” Kirrily had washed her hair and put on her good sneakers. Friends embraced. There was a toast. “I was never going to give up,” Jim said. “She’s a beautiful girl and she’s coming home.”
In Sydney, Premier Minns interrupted a parliamentary budget estimates hearing to share what he believed was wonderful news: “Lily Hooper has been found alive. Found in the bush with half a bottle of water with her.” Media outlets raced to report the miracle.
Within eight to twenty minutes — sources vary — a more accurate account came through. Lily was deceased. Minns returned to the committee: “I’ve got some terrible news… Lily’s body has been found. She’s been found deceased.” The family, still celebrating at the command post, were pulled aside and told the truth. Joy turned to devastation in real time, under the eyes of cameras and gathered supporters.
NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon apologised “unreservedly,” describing the error as born of elation that quickly became deflation and additional trauma for the family. Premier Minns issued a profound personal apology, saying he was devastated that anything he said might have added to their heartbreak after they had already “gone through hell.” An investigation into the inter-agency miscommunication was launched.
Jim Hooper’s response was striking for its absence of bitterness. Asked if he was angry at police, the commissioner or the premier, he answered: “No, not at all. I’m not in any way angry at the police or the police commissioner or the premier.” He and the family have publicly expressed gratitude that searchers never gave up.
### A Father’s Plea and a Legacy for Young Women
In the days since the recovery of Lily’s body, the family has begun the painful work of planning a farewell. They speak of a “rock star send-off” for a girl who threw everything at life and who once dreamed of being famous like a movie star. “She became famous, not for the right reason, but yeah, so she got that wish,” Jim said with quiet humour through the pain.
He hopes Lily’s story will encourage other young women to get outside, to embrace adventure and nature the way she did. “She will leave a legacy, I hope, for girls, young girls, you know, to get out and about and enjoy, you know, life like she did.”
And he has one specific request of Premier Minns. “If Chris Minns could organise probably to get the flag put at half-mast for her… just as a tribute to Lily. You know, like I say, she’s an advocate for young women.”
Local authorities have already begun their own tributes. Wollondilly Shire buildings were lit purple. Flags at council chambers and the Oakdale Rural Fire Service flew at half-mast. A candlelight vigil brought the community together. Martial arts instructors, school friends, BridgeClimb colleagues and neighbours have shared memories of a “shining light,” a “beautiful spirit,” a tough yet lovely young woman.
### The Wider Questions
Nattai National Park’s rugged beauty is also its danger. Experienced hikers still face risks from weather, terrain, isolation and the limits of technology. The scale of the search demonstrated the commitment of emergency services, yet the communication breakdown has prompted legitimate questions about protocols in multi-agency operations, especially when families are waiting nearby and the public and political figures are following developments in real time.
A report will go to the coroner covering not only the time, place and manner of Lily’s death but also the search and the communications issues. Those answers will come in due course. They will not bring Lily home.
### Holding On to Blessing Amid Silence
In the space of a week the Hooper family moved from everyday parental concern, through days of public hope and private terror, through a brief, radiant false dawn, into a grief that will mark them forever. Jim Hooper’s words capture both the depth of the loss and a refusal to let bitterness define it: the sadness that she is gone, and the blessing that she was here at all.
Lily Hooper was 18. She trained hard, climbed bridges, scrambled over rocks, dreamed big and lived with a free spirit that inspired those around her. Her father asks only that the state she loved recognise her briefly with a flag at half-mast — a small, visible sign that a young woman’s life mattered, that her example of courage and joy in the outdoors is worth remembering, and that no other family should have to endure quite the same sequence of hope and heartbreak.
For now, in Oakdale and across New South Wales, people are lighting purple lights, flying flags low, and holding a family in their thoughts. The silence left by Lily’s absence is absolute. The memory of the girl who filled it remains, for those who loved her, a blessing they will carry for the rest of their lives.
