A few feats short of a hero: doubt over deeds

By the time Peter Treseder, hero to the Prime Minister, got to his home in Sydney on April 5, 1997, he had experienced more adventure in a week than most people do in a lifetime.

By his own account in his biography, he had run 500 kilometres across the Gibson Desert in a record four days and 11 hours. Without rest, he had then driven for two days from Central Australia before succumbing to exhaustion in a car park above the Claustral Canyon in the Blue Mountains.

There was a massive storm and half an hour after he fell asleep someone was at the car window screaming for help. He raced kilometres to the lip of the canyon, plunged 10 metres into the black chasm, gashed his arm, saved the unconscious woman - who had been hanging on her abseiling ropes for 10 hours underneath a torrent of freezing water - and brought her back to civilisation.

Now, an Inside Sport investigation has cast doubt on this tale and all of Treseder's solo achievements. The article claims the woman could not possibly have hung on her harness for so long in such freezing conditions, and lived. The piece also claims it is unlikely Treseder could have executed such a rescue after his own ordeal in the desert. In the foreword to Treseder: Man of Adventure, the Prime Minister wrote: "Peter's unyielding spirit is in the tradition of great Australians who strive to reach seemingly impossible goals."

Treseder's supporters, including the publisher of the Australian Geographic magazine, Mr Howard Whelan, say he does have great abilities. "We know Peter is capable of extraordinary things because he's done it in the company of other great adventurers," Mr Whelan said.