A body has been found during a search for a 60-year-old man who went missing in a north Queensland national park more than two weeks ago.

December 18, 2018

A man’s body has been found during a search for a 60-year-old man missing in a north Queensland national park for more than two weeks.

The body was found on Tuesday at Jourama Falls in the Paluma Range National Park, north of Townsville, by searchers who had temporarily been halted by Tropical Cyclone Owen.

Inspector Damien Irvine said State Emergency Service searchers found the man’s body trapped in a tree beside a creek about 500 metres from a campsite where some of the missing man’s equipment and car was found.

“We’re pretty confident it’s the gentleman [Shane Holian] we’ve been looking for, some of this property was found in the creek line and it had obviously been washed further down from where he was located,” Insp Irvine told reporters.

Insp Irvine said it was likely the man returned to the campsite within the two-week window searchers believed he’d been missing for before walking from the site again.

“It would appear he’s actually come back then gone again, and he’s gone across from the campsite and gone up a little tributary where something has happened, he’s either fallen over or been bitten by a snake, we may never know,” he said.

“I believe it’s just a tragic accident, the gentleman was a very accomplished bushwalker, he was very fit.”

Cyclone Owen dumped significant rain in the area on Saturday flooding creeks and waterways.

Insp Irvine said it was likely the man got into trouble upstream of where his body was discovered and he has washed down the creek to the location where the body was found.

Police have not formally identified the man.

It follows the discovery of Shane Holian’s car at the same location on December 9, a week after he told friends he would stay there for a night and travel to Cairns the next day.

Mr Holian’s camping gear was found with his vehicle when police arrived, prompting speculation he had been out hiking when he disappeared.