A coroner has found that a New Zealand bushwalker who went missing 45 years ago probably died near Mt Ossa, Tasmania's highest peak.
Dan Kokholm, who was 24, was due to leave for military service in Vietnam, and was holidaying in Tasmania, when he disappeared in April 1970.
Coroner Simon Cooper found he made entries in the log books of huts in the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park, with a final notation from him in the Kia Ora hut log on April 29, 1970.
But Mr Cooper said the lack of a full search at the time was influenced by the wholly baseless police view that Mr Kokholm was avoiding going to Vietnam.
He said no searches of the national park were made until months after Mr Kokholm's disappearance.
