Blackwater COVID-19 victim Nathan Turner had recently proposed to his partner

Australia’s youngest COVID-19 victim - Blackwater resident Nathan Turner – had only recently proposed to his girlfriend before his tragic death from the virus yesterday. Now authorities are desperately trying to trace the source of the infection.

AUSTRALIA’S youngest COVID-19 victim has been identified as Blackwater miner Nathan Turner.

The body of the 30-year-old was found by his partner at their Blackwater home about 4.30pm Tuesday when she returned from her job at the Fairnbairne bakery in what is shaping as one of the state’s most mysterious cases.

Nathan Turner, 30, has become Australia's youngest COVID-19 related death.

The pair became engaged late last year, The Courier-Mail understands.

Mr Turner had been off work from the Jellinbah mine since November with a complex medical condition, thought to relate to seizures and another respiratory condition.

He had not left the small, central Queensland mining town since February, and only tested positive to COVID-19 after his death, despite being sick for three weeks.

The Courier-Mail has been told Mr Turner’s initial post mortem test was positive for the virus.

A subsequent test that returned a negative result has been ruled invalid because it was contaminated, but news of that result has caused some in the community to question the COVID-19 diagnosis.

Blackwater residents: 'How did virus reach us?'

Paramedics who rushed to the scene could do nothing and are now in home isolation, along with three of the town’s police officers, causing the closure of their station.

The man’s partner, who has tested negative for COVID-19 but had symptoms, will be tested again and is also in home isolation.

The bakery she worked at is closed “indefinitely” after she had gone to work sick.