Culcairn SES unit controller Paul Burns said volunteers had scoured nearby paddocks, dams and canola fields in a line search.

Others tracked the Gerogery East Road into the township, while colleagues searched in the opposite direction towards Morven.

A neighbour covered about five square nautical miles in his plane.

Nicole was found about 600m from home and making her way back towards the property.

She jumped into Adrian Feuerherdt’s arms when he pulled up on his motorbike.

“We were standing in the shed out of the rain when we saw someone in the distance,” he said.

“I went for a ride on the bike and it was her.

“She was very happy to see someone — she just jumped up and put her arms around me, it was good.”

Mr Feuerherdt had never met Nicole or her foster mum, Liz Weir, before yesterday.

But he said that it was the “neighbourly thing to do” to join the search party when he heard about the missing youngster.

It wasn’t clear where Nicole had been for so many hours but, apart from missing her pyjama top, she seemed unharmed.

She was released after a quick check at Albury Base Hospital yesterday evening.

Ms Weir said it was surreal to have had rescuers scouring the land near her home after she had spent years as a volunteer in the SES.