Fisherman who tried to save Burnett River incident victim tells of ordeal
A fisherman out on the river with his uncle and cousin has revealed what happened in the minutes after the trio first noticed a driverless boat doing circles in the water at Burnett Heads.
Bundaberg
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A young man who tried in vain to save the life of an 85-year-old Windemere man following an incident on the Burnett River has revealed what happened in the minutes that followed.
The older man tragically died on Tuesday, March 14, and another man in his 80s suffered minor injuries.
During an interview with Channel 7 Wide Bay, Noah Billios said he had been on a fishing trip with his uncle and cousin at Burnett Heads late on Tuesday morning when they spotted a driverless boat turning in circles in the water near the Strathdee boat ramp at Rubyanna.
“We looked away, we looked back and there were two heads in the water,” Mr Bilios said.
After moving their boat close to the men in distress, Mr Bilios and his cousin pulled them out of the river and into their boat.
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One of the men “wasn’t doing too well”.
“(He was) sort of semi conscious (with) a lot of liquid coming out of his mouth and (had) swallowed quite a lot of water,” Mr Billios said in the interview.
Mr Bilios called emergency services and started performing CPR on the man while they headed to the boat ramp.
Once on land, Mr Bilios and his family took the man into the nearby Bundaberg Sailing Club where an attempt was made to revive the man with a defibrillator owned by the club.
Queensland Ambulance Service paramedics then performed CPR on the man once they arrived on the scene.
Tragically, the heroic efforts to save the man’s life were unsuccessful.
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“We performed CPR for a period of time but unfortunately that gentleman has passed away,” QAS senior operations supervisor Nigel Jones said on Tuesday.
An 82-year-old Gooburrum man who was the driver of the boat was taken to hospital with a lacerated arm.
Water police are continuing to investigate the cause of the incident with assistance from Maritime Safety Queensland.
Queensland Police have called for any witnesses to come forward to assist with their investigations.
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