German backpacker found alive in Western Australia after two weeks

A 26-year-old German backpacker who went missing in Australia almost two weeks ago has been found alive in a remote area in the west of the country, Australian police said on Friday.

Carolina Wilga was spotted by a passer-by by chance on a bush path on Friday afternoon, police spokesman Martin Glynn said.

He said while Wilga had clearly suffered from her ordeal, she did not sustain any serious injuries, but has since been flown to hospital in Perth for medical treatment.

Wilga, who spent the last two years travelling Australia, was last in touch with friends on June 28, Western Australia (WA) Police's Katharine Venn said at a news conference on Thursday.

CCTV footage then showed her a day later in Beacon, a town in the sparsely populated Wheatbelt region. Her Mitsubishi van was found some 100 kilometres north of where she was last seen, near Karroun Hill, some 300 kilometres north-east of Perth, and appeared to have suffered mechanical issues.

"Our information to date is she's likely to become lost in that area, and has potentially walked away from her vehicle," WA Police Acting Inspector Jessica Securo had told ABC Radio Perth.

"The terrain - it's outback country and there's large rocky outcrops, so although there's a number of tracks, you can see how it would be easy to become lost or disorientated in that area if you didn't know it well."

Securo said that the van was "self-sufficient," was fitted with solar panels and had water in it. "It's just the vehicle itself is mechanically unable to be used."

The outback in Western Australia is considered to be particularly wild and dangerous due to its immense size, low population density and harsh conditions.

According to investigators, Wilga has been travelling around Australia for two years, often staying in hostels and working on mining sites to fund her trip.