The mother of a five-year-old girl who went missing in bushland at Mount Kembla at the weekend has praised emergency services for their rapid response.
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Kari Hill said if it were not for the massive search and rescue effort, her daughter Ruby Hill-Nguyen may have had to spend the night in the bush with only the two family dogs for company.
Ms Hill said more than 100 people were involved in the search on Saturday, which ended around 8pm when Ruby was discovered in dense bushland around two kilometres from her home.
"The response was brilliant, I am so grateful to everyone who was involved - especially the police officer who found her and who I believe piggybacked her out of the bush and brought her back," she said.
Ms Hill said she and her brother had been at their mother's Araluen Avenue home when Ruby went missing from the backyard around 5pm.
"She was playing in the backyard with her nana's labrador Remy and her dad's staffie Sapphire," she said.
"My brother and I were having a cup of tea inside while watching her out of the window, and when I looked away for a second and then looked back, she had disappeared."
Ms Hill raced out to the backyard and found a hole in the back fence, which Ruby and the dogs had obviously crawled through.
Family and friends frantically searched surrounding streets and bushland for around 40 minutes before Ms Hill alerted police.
A massive search effort was initiated, involving police rescue and dog units, the NSW Ambulance helicopter plus Rural Fire Service, State Emergency Service and National Parks and Wildlife Service crews.
Lake Illawarra Police Inspector Brian Pedersen said emergency services quickly sprung into action.
"It was a good co-ordinated effort from all the agencies involved and as a result she was located fairly quickly considering how far she was from the home," he said.
"As soon as a little child is lost every man and his dog wants to help and there was also a good community response with family, friends and neighbours pitching in."
Inspector Pedersen also praised the two four-legged friends who had stayed by Ruby's side throughout the ordeal.
"It's good the two family dogs stayed with her, it showed they were on the lookout for the child," he said.
Meanwhile, Ms Hill said, for Ruby it was all a bit of an adventure.
"She's got such a remarkable spirit, she's so composed, confident and resilient," she said.
"She came back with a totem - she got out of the police car and said 'Look what I found' and held out a deer skull complete with antlers in her hands.
"She thought she'd had a great adventure."
