EXCLUSIVE
The grieving granddaughter of screen legend Bill Hunter fears her father has been murdered in the Australian outback and his body dumped in the desert.
Now, more than four years after James Hunter was last seen alive, his daughter is calling on armchair detectives across the country to help her comb through thousands of aerial images of the arid central north-west of New South Wales in the search for his remains.
“Personally, I don’t believe he’s alive anymore,” Chloe Maree told Daily Mail Australia.
‘Because I know that if he were alive, there’s no way he would have gone so long without contacting me.
“I know there’s something wrong (with her disappearance), something wrong somewhere, but I’m not sure where. And I need help finding it.
“It’s really frustrating. My dad lives in my mind all the time and I just want answers so this can be over and then I can grieve properly.”
James Hunter, a tireless adventurer, left his home in the coastal suburb of Tighes Hill in Newcastle about five years ago.
He headed west to try his luck at opal prospecting in the historic mining town of Lightning Ridge, about an eight-hour drive northwest of Sydney.
James Hunter told family and friends he was heading west to try his luck at opal prospecting in Lightning Ridge about five years ago before suddenly disappearing without a trace.
James is the son of Australian film legend Bill Hunter, best known for his roles in Gallipoli, Strictly Ballroom, Muriel’s Wedding and The Advertures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
His daughter, Chloe Maree, fears James may have been murdered and his body dumped in the countryside.
James was always there for his daughter, Chloe (age four and up), throughout her childhood.
But within months, Hunter – the only son of the late Australian film icon Bill Hunter and his first wife, Robbie Anderson – vanished without a trace.
His daughter said the last time his family and friends heard from him was in January 2020.
At the time, he was travelling regularly between Lighting Ridge and a property about four hours’ drive south in Mendooran, outside Dubbo, he said.
‘I was doing farm work on a property north of Dubbo…Then every two months I would return to Lightning Ridge to do some work in the opal mines,’ he said.
Hunter, affectionately known as ‘Crackers’ to his friends, was last seen during a trip to a pharmacy in Dubbo on Friday, February 28, 2020, the same day he last accessed his bank accounts.
His daughter said there was a family fight at that time and his relatives only reported him missing to the police in July 2021, when they realized he was missing a year later.
“We weren’t talking at the time, he and I; we’d had a little fight, so we hadn’t heard from him and we didn’t think it was unusual given the circumstances,” she said.
Although the memory of their final argument weighs heavily on him, he finds some comfort in knowing that his father knew how much he truly loved him.
“I remember the last thing I said to him was, ‘I love you and I’ll see you next time.’ There was nothing to suggest there wasn’t a next time around the corner,” she said.
‘I know he knew how I felt about him. And if I needed him, he would always be there for me within a couple of hours, no matter what happened, no matter where I was, even if we had had an argument and hadn’t spoken in a while.
‘Even if I had been away for six months or a year, I could still get in touch with him pretty easily, even if I didn’t have a phone or wasn’t online, there would always be a way to contact him through one of his friends.
“For us it was something normal. We miss him every day.”
Detectives discovered James Hunter’s blue Hilux pickup truck (above) on a property north of Dubbo
Known as ‘Crackers’ to his friends, James has been remembered as a ‘kind and loving’ father.
As concerns grew for Hunter’s well-being, detectives from the Orana Midwest Police District created the Yurinigh Strike Force in March 2022 to investigate her disappearance.
His blue 2005 Toyota Hilux pickup truck was discovered on the Mendooran property where he had been working and seized for forensic examination.
But by then Hunter – now 55 – had been missing for more than two years and the trail soon went cold.
“I spoke to someone who knew him and they had seen him, but they weren’t quite sure if it was the same day or not,” Chloe said.
“It’s been really difficult trying to pinpoint his movements.”
The disappearance has had a devastating impact on the entire Hunter family, who lost famed patriarch Bill (famous for his starring roles in Gallipoli, Strictly Ballroom, Muriel’s Wedding and The Advertures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert) to liver cancer in 2011.
Desperate for answers, Hunter’s family and detectives took to the skies to conduct an elaborate and exhaustive aerial search for his remains.
In March this year, they spent two days investigating a remote 1,700-hectare stretch of New South Wales, northwest of Mendooran, using high-tech drones.
Hunter’s daughter is now asking the public for help in reviewing the 33,000 high-resolution images captured on the 52 drone flights.
“It’s really important because the drone images covered a very wide area,” he said.
‘There is so much land there that we need everyone’s help to take a look in case something has been missed.
‘The images were taken by Working Drones Australia, who volunteered their time and equipment to help us.
“But we don’t have the resources to review all those images alone.
‘It’s also very emotional, because if you think you see a bone, you’re not sure if it’s a human bone or an animal bone.
“It’s really important that other people take a look too, just to see if we missed anything.”
New South Wales Police used drones to search for James across a 1,700-hectare stretch of rural New South Wales
James Hunter’s daughter vows to keep searching for her father no matter what
He said amateur sleuths around the world could help by accessing the footage at airs.workingdrones.com.au or joining a Facebook group dedicated to the search for his father: HelpFindJamesHunter.
“I hope everyone can see the pictures and share them and know that we appreciate their help,” she said.
While she accepts that the search may ultimately end in a grim discovery, Chloe said she owed it to her father to uncover the truth about her fate, no matter what.
“Dad was always there for me when I was a little girl. He was kind and caring and always there when I needed him most,” she said.
“So I’m going to be there for him now…when he needs me the most.”
