Two cans of Sprite sit on a tyre: This is what we know about Tom Phillips’ camp

Tuesday, 9 September 2025

Two cans of Sprite sit on a tyre, and what appears to be a bottle of beer lies on the bush floor alongside two wheels and a large jerry can for water.

This is the first image released by the police of the location where Tom Phillips and his three children had been hiding out.

There’s a red quad bike at the scene. And there’s another quad bike at the side of the road where Phillips was shot dead by police on Monday.

The pictures show an incredibly rugged and remote camp, if you could call it that. If anything, it looks more like a makeshift garage of sorts, where the vehicles were stored, according to experienced bushman Ngahiraka Te Riini.

Te Riini, who took Stuff journalist Tony Wall for a night out in the bush earlier this year near Marokopa where Philips was hiding, offered his take based on the pictures police provided on Tuesday.

While he said the pictures don’t give much in terms of how they were living, there were a few things he noticed.

“[The camp] doesn’t look very well established…if anything, that looks more like a garage than the house, if you know what I mean,” he said.

“It doesn’t look like where they’d actually be living, it’s maybe the area where they store their vehicles. The area where they live might be out of the picture.”

Te Riini said the pictures showed Phillips had cleared a path in order to drive the four-wheelers in and out of the site. Te Riini said as there was still vegetation on the ground, he estimated the site was only two-and-a-half months to three months old.

“In the photo where it shows nothing but forest, you can see where they cleared a path to move their vehicles across the bush.”

Police Commissioner Richard Chambers told reporters on Tuesday that officers were able to locate the camp site, but were prewarned about firearms on the scene when they were getting the two remaining children out safely.

Before going to the campsite Chambers said police teams were told they would find at least one firearm and ammunition at the campsite.

This has since been recovered.

“Scene examination [of the campsite] continues now, but we were advised that we were likely to find at least one firearm there.”

'At this stage, I am aware of the one firearm, but there may be more as we continue with that examination.'

In the first of two photos presented to the public, two vehicles have been draped by blankets and parked among the trees.

Two cans of Sprite sit on a tyre, and what appears to be a bottle of beer lies on the bush floor alongside two tires and a large jerry can for water.

The second picture shows dense forest brush.

Chambers told reporters the campsite was a “moving one”. The family may have had several sites throughout the four years on the run.