A SEARCH for a Glen Innes grazier is expected to be scaled back today, five days and four nights after the 89 year old man left a bogged farm truck and his stranded wife to retrieve another vehicle from his home on Sunday afternoon.

Police hold grave fears for George Ross, of ‘Lynden’ Pinkett Road, who has not been seen since the gold-coloured vehicle he was driving was spotted heading in a south-easterly direction along Pinkett Road about 20km from his home, mid-Monday morning.

Mr Ross and his 84-year-old wife Irene left their home to inspect cattle on another property about 2km away when their vehicle became bogged. Police state the couple began walking home to their property, but after about 500m Mrs Ross, who has recently had hip surgery, was unable to go any further and her husband continued the 1.5km walk home to get their gold-coloured 1999 Toyota Camry sedan, but did not return.

The alarm was raised at 11:00 on Saturday morning, about an hour after cattle breeder Ernie Maskey saw Mrs Ross sitting on a log just inside the gate to their property from a travelling stock route between Pinkett and Glen Legh roads, where he was holding cattle.

“She was sitting with a little dog and waving to attract attention, and had spent the night there. She was very very calm. I wanted to take her straight home but she wanted me to drive around the property first to see if we could see George,” he said.

“I then took her home. She was weak but in good spirits. She told me George had gone to get the car and told me which garage it was in, but it was gone.”

Mr Maskey said he returned to the stock route to have another look and then used a nearby farmer’s phone to ring police around 11:00am, before he and the farmer returned to the property and rang for an ambulance. Mrs Ross, who had spent the night in the elements dressed in a dress and a cardigan, was taken to Glen Innes Hospital and treated for cuts and abrasions to the legs, and exposure. She remains in hospital in a stable condition.

At first light on Tuesday, police in a Tamworth-based Westpac rescue helicopter conducted an aerial search which was extended to the Kingsgate area after a landholder who heard a radio report contacted police to say he had spoken with the missing man near Kingsgate mine, around 9am the previous morning. Later that morning police received a call from a person to say they had unknowingly followed Mr Ross’s car along Lawler’s Road and overtook it after it turned left into Pinkett Road.

“The descriptions were pretty spot on. By the first account Mr Ross was very disorientated,” Sgt Laurie Cattell told the Examiner.

Four crews from the Glen Innes VRA and one from the SES spent Tuesday conducting roadside searches in the Red Range-Pinkett-Mt Mitchell area, while a Guyra SES vehicle combed the road between Guyra and Wards Mistake. Yesterday 12 VRA, SES and police expanded to Oakwood State Forest towards London Bridge.

“A plane has been doing localised sweeps of the area from Pinkett Road south to Glencoe-Ben Lomond and between Oakwood west to the New England Highway,” Sgt Cattell told the Examiner yesterday afternoon.

He said unless the vehicle was spotted later in the day, the search would be scaled back today.

“Its thickly timbered country, and we’ve tried to cover it as much as we can. “We have grave fears for his well being. Apart from his age and the climatic conditions, he probably hasn’t had anything to eat or drink for days,” he said.

Described as 5’9”, 80kg, and clean shaven, Mr Ross was last seen wearing a grey akubra hat, a dark green shirt, black nylon jacket with navy coloured work pants and work boots. His 1999 Toyota Camry bears a NSW number plate WST726.

The 1999 gold Toyota Camry sedan that 89 year old grazier George Ross was driving when he disappeared on Sunday afternoon was seen this morning (Thursday).

The vehicle was last spotted heading in a south-easterly direction along Pinkett Road about 20km from his home, mid-Monday morning.

At approximately 9.30am this morning Glen Innes Police received a reoprt of a believed sighting south west of Glen Innes on the Maybole Road.

"A property owner spotted what was believed to be the vehicle travelling west and driving extremely slowly," Inspector George McGilvray said.

"Having no other leads we are now focusing the search on this area with both ground and air searches."

The vehicle that 89 year old grazier George Ross was driving when he disappeared on Sunday afternoon has been found but the location of the driver is still a mystery.

Glen Innes Sergeant Laurie Cattell confirmed that the car had been found in the Wards Mistake area north east of Guyra by a member of the public and Glen Innes police were alerted at about 9am on Friday morning.

Land based searches are now being conducted by the police, Volunteer Rescue Association (VRA) and State Emergency Service with air searches by the Westpac rescue helicopter also expected to take place.

The previous day police received a report that the car was seen south west of Glen Innes on the Maybole Road.

The witness stated that the car was travelling extremely slowly.

NEIGHBOURS concerned for the welfare of Mr Ross said they first heard about his disappearance from radio reports early on Tuesday morning - more than 18 hours after his absence was reported to police and almost 38 hours after he was last seen by his wife.

Residents living within 2km of the couple’s home have told the Examiner they were surprised they were not advised by police late Monday afternoon - but police said there was little benefit, given Mr Ross was in a car.

“It seems a bit crazy - when you’re a neighbour you’d think you’d be among the first they’d ask,” one woman said.

“We could have begun a search straight away and got a bit of a head start on Monday afternoon.”

Another resident said she was told about it after being rung by a friend who had heard it on the news on Tuesday morning, “not long after the helicopter had gone low overhead.”

“We rang the police and offered to help but were told it wasn’t needed,” she said.

But Sergeant Laurie Cattell said it wasn’t until late on Monday that police started to hold fears for Mr Ross’s safety.

“Those who notified us had conducted a thorough search of the property, and we looked where we thought he might have taken the car. If he’d got in a vehicle and become disoriented he could have driven anywhere,” he said.

“If the vehicle hadn’t gone and he was on foot, we would have notified everyone - but because he was in a car and it was getting later in the day, it would have been relatively pointless.”

A third neighbour summed up the concerns of others who know the couple: “They very rarely go anywhere without each other, and if so, only for a short time. It’s very worrying he is still missing.”

WITH no new clues as to his whereabouts, the search for Glen Innes district grazier George Ross in rugged country east of Guyra will be officially wound up today, just over a week since he went missing.

Thirty four SES, police, VRA and local landholders yesterday continued their search in the Ward’s Mistake area for Mr Ross, who has been missing since he left a bogged farm truck and his wife to get another vehicle from his home ‘Lynden’, Pinkett Road, on April 26.

Over the weekend, around 70 searchers, on foot, motorbike, horseback and in the air, spent the weekend combing heavily timbered country within a 3km radius of where Mr Ross’ gold-coloured 1999 Toyota Camry was found early on Friday morning, exactly 100km south-east of his home, ‘Lynden’ Pinkett Road.

The car, found by a Queensland man, was parked just inside ‘Paddy’s Land’, about 12km east of Ward’s Mistake, just on the leasehold property’s northern boundary with land now part of Guy Fawkes River National Park that used to be a leasehold block known as ‘Wongas’.

Locked, with his black coat and walking stick inside, Mr Ross’ car was taken to Guyra police station on Friday as a precautionary measure in case foul play became an issue in the investigation although there was no evidence to suggest this, a police spokesperson said.

In the air, search efforts were conducted by the Westpac Rescue Helicopter on Saturday, and the Bankstown-based police rescue PolAir chopper on Sunday.

Yesterday, search headquarters were moved about 6km west to the property ‘Mornington’, nearer an old set of stockyards on another property, where a near-empty bottle of ginger beer was found on Friday. A lid from the same brand of drink was found at the site of Mr Ross’s car.

Police have not ruled out that Mr Ross may have been in the area for at least a day longer than previously thought, and therefore been able to walk a greater distance than that covered during search efforts. By 5:00pm yesterday, around 35 square kilometres had been covered on foot, horse or bike alone.

“The first sighting of his car near Kingsgate last Tuesday was positive, as was the second on Pinkett Road - so if he’d kept heading in that direction it is quite possible he would have ended up in the (Wards Mistake) area. It now seems highly unlikely that a reported sighting at Ben Lomond (on Thursday morning) was actually him,” Inspector George McGilvray said before leaving for the site yesterday.

Massive search effort -

In the ground, on horseback, and in the air, the search for grazier George Ross has brought together emergency service crews from across the northern part of the state.

SES crews from Deepwater, Ashford, Garah, Inverell, Warialda, Moree, Yetman, Armidale, Walcha, Guyra, Bingara and Glen Innes deployed crews and made up most of those searching on foot, which peaked on Sunday at 47. The crews were fed and watered by representatives from Guyra Rural Fire Service; Glen Innes VRA were on the ground undertaking work, while the search was co-ordinated, variably, by police from Armidale, Glen Innes, and a Lismore-based missings persons officer from Police Rescue. An ambulance rescue team were also on standby. In the air, search efforts were conducted by the Westpac Rescue Helicopter on Saturday, and the Bankstown-based police rescue PolAir chopper on Sunday.

But of crucial importance was the local knowledge of the 27 horsemen and women, called together by a few of their own.

The first horses were organised on Friday morning, not long after a Queensland man told John Williamson of Pinkett, who was in the area looking for Mr Ross’ car, he had seen it further along Paddys Land Road.

“The bloke had spoken to a woman first and she had to go up the hill to get (mobile) reception and rang Glen Innes police. I had reception by the road, and rang them but the call was diverted to Armidale. Within an hour, (Glen Innes Sergeant) Adam Ralph was down here in a four wheel drive, it was really quick,” Mr Williamson said.

Sergeant Ralph called on experienced bush cattleman Ernie Maskey who used to own the Wongas block, to bring down horses, which arrived around midday.

“I rang (brother) Leon to get horses out here - by that time it was around 3:30pm and we rode until about seven.”

That night, via the bush telegraph, those with knowledge about the eastern fall country organised a search party, which involved 19 riders on Saturday, 29 on Sunday and half a dozen yesterday.

Police coordinators have been full of praise for riders.

“They obviously know this country very well. Their efforts have been really marvellous,” Police missing persons specialist Senior Constable David Connolly of Lismore said at the site on Sunday.

“The first sighting of his car near Kingsgate last Tuesday was positive, as was the second on Pinkett Road - so if he’d kept heading in that direction it is quite possible he would have ended up in the (Wards Mistake) area,” Inspector George McGilvray said before leaving for the site early yesterday morning.

“It now seems highly unlikely that a reported sighting at Ben Lomond (on Thursday morning) was actually him.”

However with nothing since Friday’s discovery of the soft drink bottle to go on, police late yesterday decided to abandon the official search.

“Despite the continuing effort of police, SES, VRA and local landholders, there have been no signs today as to which way he may have headed,” Sergeant Laurie Cattell told the Examiner late yesterday afternoon.

“With no further information from the public, we have made the decision to call off the search.

“Local landowners have said they will continue to search in areas that haven’t been looked at. If anything is found, we will certainly consider starting it up again,” he said.

Said one rider who had participated in the search at the weekend: “we’ll certainly be out again, and do our best to find him so he can be brought home.”