The strange mystery of the Australian Button Man and the Victorian Alpine Park disappearances

Revised June 2024

It’s not unusual for people to get lost in Victoria’s remote and rugged High Country in Australia, but it is strange for them to remain missing after weeks of fruitless searching. Between early 2019 and 2020, four people vanished within a 37-mile (60 km) radius, leaving police and locals baffled.

Some suspected dark forces at play, including a mysterious bushman known as "The Button Man." Whether he is a serial killer, a sinister presence, or simply a reclusive figure toying with trespassers remains unclear. Is he the Australian boogeyman or a loner fiercely protecting his territory?

The mystery of the disappearances took a grim turn in 2021 with the discovery of the remains of campers Russell Hill and Carol Clay. This led to the arrest of a man, who is currently awaiting trial for their alleged murders. The High Country's secrets, it seems, are slowly being unearthed, yet many questions linger.

Wonnangatta Valley in Victoria

Whatever the cause of the mystery, Wonnangatta Valley in Victoria has become a dark tourism attraction. On this spot, campers can sit around a fire in the dead of night and scare each other with stories of ghosts, murder, and unexplained disappearances. The Wonnangatta Valley lies in the dense bushland between the popular ski resorts of Mount Buller and Mount Hotham. You can only access the valley with a 4WD, and the roads are completely closed in winter.

Wonnangatta Valley, Victoria

Victoria is a state in southeast Australia, with Melbourne being the state capital. It is the second most populated state in Australia, and the Bass Strait and Tasmania border it to the south, New South Wales to the north, the Tasman Sea (a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean) to the east, and South Australia to the west. With an area of 91,761 square miles (237,659 square kilometers), Victoria encompasses a range of climates and geographical features from its temperate coastal and central regions to the Victorian Alps in the northeast and the semi-arid northwest. It is a region much loved by hunters, skiers, anglers, campers and bushwalkers.

It is easy to forget this Australian terrain can swallow up the unprepared or the unfortunate. In recent years, there have been experienced hunters, well-equipped bushwalkers, campers and day-trippers who have disappeared without a trace, often in completely unexplained and mysterious circumstances.

It is entirely possible people who become lost, disoriented, or unwell can die in the Victoria High Country, and their bodies can be lost forever. But when the number of cases grows without apparent reason in such a small geographical area, there will be the talk of ominous factors, even if it is not based on hard evidence.

The Button Man

Locals speculate about a regular visitor who disappears into the mountains for months, known as “Buttons” or “The Button-Man”. He is a rugged, expert bushman who earned his nickname from his habit of using deer antlers to make buttons and create large plugs for his ear piercings.

He is reported to camp on the side of a remote mountain that lets him see anyone approaching. He uses snares to catch deer and hunts with expertly crafted Indigenous-style spears, which the Aborigines have used for generations.

Many campers and hunters have stories of the Button-Man approaching them at campsites once it gets dark, creeping up on them like a ghost. He is around 70 years of age, with short grey hair, wearing dark jackets, and those he encounters call him "bloody scary". Others say he is “spooky”. But only a few report any threats or actual violence. He questions visitors about why they are in his vicinity but rarely responds to questions about himself. They say he moves through the most challenging terrain with the competence and stamina of someone half his age.

At least eight experienced bushmen have had encounters, with one saying he had a “thousand-meter stare that made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up”. They say no one knows he is near until he decides to make himself known.

Disturbingly, a wildlife photographer spent days taking shots near the Button-Man’s camp. When he returned home and downloaded his photos to his computer, there was one unexplained shot of the photographer asleep inside his tent. No one knows who took the shot.

For reasons known only to himself, the Button-Man builds rock pyramids in random spots and places piles of pebbles on roads to tell if a car has passed.

Those spending time in the Australian bush, called “Bushies”, have hidden firewood supplies in crevices but returned and found their stash gone. They say someone must have been observing them to know the location. An experienced hunter woke around 11 pm for a night hunt to find Button-Man camped next to him.

Some think he sees it as a harmless sport to “hunt the hunters”, proving he can approach the best without them knowing.

Police from the Missing Persons Squad have heard these stories, too. Search and Rescue Police hiked into a remote area near King Billy Track to locate the mysterious character at his base, perched on a high point in the Alpine National Park. Eventually, the man who prefers his own company decided he would talk.

Police went there not to accuse him of anything (other than camping illegally) but to seek his help because he knows the area as well as anyone and sometimes observes hikers, silently watching them pass.

Meanwhile, there are sporadic sightings of the Button-Man wandering in the nearby town of Mansfield to buy supplies or in the bush. He is a unique character who is highly resourceful, slightly possessive of the area he sees as his patch and usually only seen when he wants to be seen. But that will not stop others from wondering whether the Button-Man has more severe intentions and may have been involved with some of the weird disappearances in the Victorian High Country. Although no evidence exists that suggests this speculation is true.

Herald Sun crime writer Andrew Rule, on the Hot Breakfast Show in May 2020, when asked about the four people that have gone missing in the Victoria high country in the preceding ten months - “When deer hunters go up into the mountains, sometimes this man approaches their campfires silently, and he turns up and he sits down uninvited and he makes awkward conversation, and the deer hunters find this, um, a bit strange and off-putting.”

“So when you add it up, so one person goes missing, you go well they got lost, they perished, and the dogs eat them. Two people go missing, you go, well, that could have happened again. Four’s starting to get a bit interesting.”

Rule stressed that the police haven’t charged the Button Man with anything, “I can say that police have been up to have a long chat to this fellow… it was a very intriguing chat. They came away knowing that he had no criminal record, they came away knowing various things about him, but they didn’t come away knowing any more about the disappearances, to be fair.”

The Strange Victoria Alps disappearances

Russell Hill and Carol Clay

Russell Hill, 74, and Carol Clay, 73, disappeared on March 20, 2020, from their campsite on Dry River Track, Wonnangatta.

In November 2021, remains were found in bushland in Grant's historic area, about 9 miles (15km) northwest of Dargo.

The dense bushland is about 31 miles (50km) from the campsite in the Wonnangatta Valley, where Russell Hill and Carol Clay were last seen in 2020.

In February 2022, Forensic testing confirmed that the remains found were Russell Hill and Carol Clay.

Although the authorities questioned the Button Man, he was dismissed as a suspect.

Then, 56-year-old Greg Lynn, a former airline pilot, was arrested and charged with murdering Russell and Carol in November 2021. He is awaiting trial in 2024.

To read the full story of the Russell Hill and Carol Clay murders click the link here The Wonnangatta campsite murders in Victoria’s Alpine National Park.

Niels Becker

On October 24, 2019, Niels Becker, 39, an experienced bushwalker, went missing on a solo five-day hike in Victoria’s Alpine National Park, which he had prepared for months. Police said Mr Becker was well equipped for the hike and familiar with the area.

He left the Upper Jamieson Hut on October 24. He sent a message to his family from Vallejo Gantner Hut two days later that he was heading to his car at Mount Stirling, roughly six or seven hours away, depending on the route.

The last confirmed sighting was by the Button-Man, who told police he saw him in his area. The track took him past the Button-Man’s camp. This is not surprising as his camp is at a spot known as the Cross-Roads, where bushwalkers in the know head because it is one of the few places with good radio reception.

Police used over 70 people to search for Niels but with no luck. Senior Sergeant Keegan said police had a few theories about what had happened to Becker, "There were some very cold nights ... hypothermia may have kicked in. But he may very well have walked out of that search area or perhaps foul-play or something more mysterious was involved..

Conrad Whitlock

No one knows why Conrad Whitlock, 72, drove into the High Country in July 2019, nor why he left his white BMW in darkness on the side of Mount Buller Road along with his jacket, mobile phone and keys.

Conrad, from Sandhurst, south of Melbourne, was last seen by his wife as they climbed into bed at about 11.30 pm before she awoke at 5.30 am to find him gone. He failed to arrive for work the next day, raising concerns about his whereabouts.

Victorian Police Inspector David Brown said officers found the car in working condition and with Whitlock's jacket, mobile phone and car keys inside. “At the moment there is nothing to indicate a reason for the vehicle to have stopped, the vehicle had the keys with it, it started, it had fuel, so as to why Mr Whitlock has gone away from the vehicle at this stage we simply don’t know,' Inspector Brown said.

If he had a medical episode (he had been suffering from unexplained headaches) surely he would have finished only metres from the road, or if it was a bizarre suicide then a note for his family would seem likely. One theory is he left his warm car for a toilet stop and decided he didn’t need a jacket for such a quick break.

David Prideaux

David Prideaux, 50, former Barwon Prison governor, was a passionate bush hunter, and on June 5, 2011, he went deer hunting with his brother-in-law in Victoria's Alpine National Park. He has not been seen since.

Despite several searches of the area months after his disappearance, there was no trace of Prideaux or any of his belongings.

There were many theories, including that he was killed over the murder of drug dealer Carl Williams, who had been ambushed and murdered inside Barwon more than a year before David disappeared. Still, a hitman was unlikely to creep up on an experienced hunter.

Media reports also raised the possibility Prideaux had sensitive police files, including allegations of police corruption when he went missing.

The coroner also ruled out suggestions David faked his death after several reported sightings over the years, including in the Western Australian town of Broome. The inquest into his death heard investigators had meticulously combed over Prideaux's bank accounts, but they had not been touched since he vanished. Similar searches of his mobile phone records and Centrelink, Medicare, Australia Post and betting agencies had also failed to trace a link.

The coroner found it likely that Prideaux died from a serious accident in the national park or a medical cause, and there was nothing to suggest he met with foul play. The coroner was satisfied he is dead, but the cause is unknown.

Warren Meyer

Warren Meyer, 57, disappeared from Dom Dom Saddle, Fernshaw, on March 23, 2008.

For Meyer, an experienced bushwalker, the four-hour Easter Sunday hike was easy. The weather was fine, and he was equipped with a phone, GPS, and food and water - yet he was never heard from again.

Warren had set off at 7.45 am and arranged to meet his wife and some friends for lunch. He failed to show, and his car was found parked and locked in the Dom Dom Saddle car park later that afternoon.

Meyer ran a successful civil engineering consultancy business in Elwood and had been planning for retirement.

There were reports of semi-automatic gunfire heard in the area on the morning Warren went missing and that a large marijuana crop was found during the search for him. An escaped involuntary psychiatric patient with homicidal thoughts was found roaming near the track where Meyer had been walking.

Despite being investigated by local police, the Missing Persons Unit and the Homicide Squad, no trace of him has ever been found.

Despite the attention the disappearance garnered, the case went cold. In December 2017, Coroner John Olle concluded that Mr Meyer had died of “unknown causes” and that “no further investigation” was required.

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Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_(Australia)

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/the-button-man-could-be-key-to-mounting-mountain-mystery-20200521-p54v4p.html

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-12/search-for-missing-hiker-scaled-back/11695548

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8207101/Dark-past-alpine-bushland-married-man-went-missing-mystery-woman.html

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-19/how-four-people-disappeared-without-trace-in-victorian-mountains/12455124?nw=0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hpfzMHawuE

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/the-mysterious-case-of-warren-meyer-and-the-failure-to-learn-from-it-20180112-h0hn6j.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6246263/Case-bushwalker-bizarrely-disappeared-reopened-new-compelling-evidence.html

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/gangland-info-with-vanished-jail-chief-david-prideaux/news-story/636835b16255962a505417678126dc8c

https://www.triplem.com.au/story/crime-writer-andrew-rule-gives-some-details-on-the-mystery-button-man-in-the-victorian-high-country-161688

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jan/18/russell-hill-and-carol-clay-court-documents-reveal-why-police-allege-gary-lynn-killed-missing-campers