Hi, new user here.
I'm a Leura local, hence interest in this case.
The discussion on mobiles is interesting. The map up thread doesn't have the latest info, which is a tower on top of the Spires development next to Leura train station. That tower serves Optus and Vodafone. Across the road is a Telstra tower on top of the Hillcrest Coachman. Both locations would have close to line of site to where Gary was found less than 1km as the crow flies.
Coverage for all carriers would be very good in that area.
I also believe Oracle staff phones are on Vodafone as part of a global deal, but there was no mention of whether his phone was work supplied or personal.
Since iphones will track the users location while they are active unless you turn the feature off, I am very interested to find out what it says happened.
Also, the phone networks are able to triangulate individual phone subscribers to give their locations as long as the phone is powered, regardless of the device settings, so the phone company involved should be able to also supply some info.
Whether this will have the granularity to show Gary's movements I don't know. It may be the case that his signal was only coming from one tower, and it requires more than one to accurately locate the handset position.
And a final comment on the idea that there are bodies out in the bush.
I am sure there are, it is a really, really huge expanse, with very, very few pathways.
Imagine standing on a headland looking out to sea with nothing in view as far as the eye can see. That is what it is like looking out over the bush here, at an area of wilderness almost as big as Sydney. There is no way a search could ever hope to cover even a tiny fraction of this landscape.
I think the local setup is hard for some non-locals to understand. The town is really set up like a suburb in the city. Houses are on generous blocks, but very few get bigger than half an acre. The built up area is surrounded by dense bush, often with a cliff edge.
It isn't the case that the houses peter out as you get further away from town, with a very few exceptions it is normal suburbia until you hit bush.
The lookout where Gary was found is a 5min drive from Woolworths, very much not some remote place.
The road to the lookout does have some vacant lots that are still bushland, and a stretch near the end of bush, but I find it hard to credit anybody walking it would feel they were not very near a built up area.
It seems to me the inquest (do we know when it is scheduled?) must attempt to address why Gary left the hotel, his movements afterward, and a plausible explanation for why he left the road to enter bushland before his fall.