Kind Aussie finds travelling Collingwood grad’s GoPro on beach and sends it back to London

A camera lost six months ago is on the way back to its British owner after it was washed out to sea – in Australia.

Collingwood graduate Chris Hesford was gutted when a rogue wave swept away his GoPro as kayaked with pals off the New South Wales coast.

It contained a precious two months of travel photos taken by Chris who was half way through a round-world trip.

But last week Australian Steve Carmody contacted Chris out of the blue via Facebook to say he had found his camera – in a riverbed 60 miles away from where it was lost.

And to his delight stranger Steve told him the whopping 32gb of film and pictures on the device were still intact.

Law grad Chris, 22, who lives in London, said: “I got a message out of the blue from an Australian man, who said he’d found my camera.

“I was astonished – I thought it was lost for good.

“Steve found the camera, and uploaded a couple of pictures to Facebook and started a campaign to try and find its owner.

“I think it took about two weeks, but it went viral and somebody recognised me.

“I couldn’t believe it – I thought at first he was pulling my leg, but he wasn’t, and now the camera is in the post on its way to me. What a nice guy.”

The camera dropped into the sea off Byron Bay in September last year, but it was found by Aussie Steve 60 miles away in silt at the mouth of a river earlier this year.

Steve posted on Facebook an appeal to try to track down the owner, but never really suspected it would work.

He wrote: “OK Facebook do your thing. If we can track down this bloke I have 32 GB of precious memories to be returned.

“If you lost a GoPro in the surf at Fingal Rovers SLSC in NSW Australia, the camera has been found on Fingal Beach at the Tweed River mouth.

“Bad news is the GoPro is dead, but your memory stick survives. Inbox me if you know this bloke.”

Chris is now anxiously waiting for the GoPro and memory card to land in the post within the next couple of days.

The images record his travels across America and Fiji before he arrived in Australia and he had only been Down Under for a week before he lost the camera.

Chris added: “I was just in shock, really – I thought they were gone for good.

“The pictures were of my trip of a lifetime, so I was really upset by losing them.

“It’s amazing that Steve made such an incredible effort to find me.

“I will be eternally grateful to Steve – and if he’s ever in London I’m definitely buying the first pint.

“He’s asked for nothing in return – he’s just a good guy Aussie bloke who has really shown the good in humanity.”

Steve’s Facebook post was shared by more than 8000 web users, and it is thought an acquaintance of Chris spotted him in the picture and pointed Steve in the right direction.

Steve said: “It’s very cool, it just goes to show the power of social media.”