Looking angelic as he stood barefoot in the bush, teenager William Callaghan smiled when he was found after two freezing nights lost in the Victorian wilderness.
Experienced local bushman Ben Gibbs gave the non-verbal autistic 14-year-old a pair of socks, chocolate and a jacket after spotting the boy who survived almost 48 hours in dense bushland around Mt Disappointment, north of Melbourne.
Mr Gibbs was one of hundreds of people who had searched for William after he became separated from his family when he raced ahead to the Mt Disappointment summit on Monday afternoon.
"I am really overwhelmed here. He is well as could be under the circumstances, he is quite calm considering," William's mother Penny Callaghan told reporters.
"I can't imagine what he's been feeling and going through. I am just so relieved."
William's first request was for McDonald's, so it's on the menu.
She thanked all the searchers for their efforts.
"More than anything, thank you everyone. I'm so grateful, you're all amazing. What an amazing community," she said.
Mr Gibbs, who grew up in the area and considers Mt Disappointment his "family mountain", found William off the main track just before midday on Wednesday, a little deeper in the bush than previous searches had covered.
"He was just about 15 metres from me, just standing there, he was really angelic just standing," Mr Gibbs said.
"He looked in reasonable health, he wasn't shivering too bad, he didn't have socks on so I put some socks on him and a jacket. I gave him some chocolate. He ate half the chocolate bar."
The bushman let William eat and then carried him a bit before he walked out wearing Mr Gibbs' shoes.
"I am the one who stumbled across him, but everyone found him," he said.
Mr Gibbs felt like he was on track to finding William before discovering the boy.
"This is kind of our family mountain. I've been coming up here since I was a boy, so I know it really well," he said.
William was about 1.5km from the staging area - a 10 minute walk off the track in bushland, Acting Inspector Christine Lalor said.
"What an amazing result," she said. "He is alert, warm, eating and drinking and he actually asked for McDonald's. The best outcome we could hope for that William is found safe and well."
William's shoes were found about 100m away from the main track, fellow volunteer Carla Visona told media after he was found.
"I nearly started crying, it was crazy. Just the best feeling and the best outcome," she said, off to the pub to celebrate his return.
William was taken to the search staging area about 1pm and police asked searchers not to break out in the usual cheers so as not to scare him.
Within the hour, he left in an ambulance to undergo a health check while eating Tic Tacs, with his mother and stepfather Nathan Ezard.
That's when a huge cheer erupted across the search camp. It was a tearful and joyous end to a mammoth search effort for hundreds of people.
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