79-year-old Bundaberg fisherman found at The Narrows, south of Rockhampton
A group of three mates were on their way back from a day of fishing when their tinnie hit rough conditions and capsized. Sadly only two made it to shore.
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The body of a fisherman found at sea on Wednesday morning south of Rockhampton has been confirmed as a 79-year-old Bundaberg man.
Formal identification is now under way.
He and his two mates had been on a fishing trip for the day and were on their return to Thompson’s Point boat ramp at Rockhampton when the 5.3 metre tinnie is believed to have capsized in rough conditions and taken on water around The Narrows near Port Alma.
Family members raised the alarm to emergency services about 9.20pm on Tuesday night (October 31) as the vessel failed to dock by the expected time at 6pm.
A search operation was launched with police and water police, Coast Guard, State Emergency Services personnel and air assistance from RACQ CapRescue from Rockhampton and RACQ LifeFlight from Bundaberg.
The Bundaberg rescue helicopter was alerted by other emergency services to a fire on Balaclava Island and two men were found on the island’s beach at 3.10am.
“With no EPIRB or distress signal to follow, it was a challenging mission, in dark conditions,” a spokesman for RACQ LifeFlight said.
“The chopper crew was alerted by other emergency services that a fire had been spotted on a Keppel Bay island, where the pilot landed the aircraft and found two of the missing men, who had managed to swim to shore.”
The two men were taken to Rockhampton Hospital in stable conditions with minor injuries.
It is understood the three men all emerged from the sunken vessel and were all talking to each other but at some point during the night the third man got separated.
“It will form part of our investigations as to how that happened and the events that led to his death,” Rockhampton Police Acting Inspector Ben Wiltshire told media on Wednesday afternoon.
Acting Insp Wiltshire said police had interviewed the two men and don’t believe the vessel had struck anything rather that t it had capsized in rough weather.
“The three men were experienced fishermen and they were familiar with the area and the conditions,” he said.
“Steep waves and rough weather are believed to have contributed to the accident.”
The vessel capsized between Balaclava Island and Curtis Island and the deceased man was found in the water near where the two men were.
The body was sighted by RACQ Capricorn Rescue from the air about 10am on Wednesday.
“The three men were mates and to be present while one of their mates has lost his life in a tragic accident like this … must have been devastating,” Acting Insp Wiltshire said.
How the man died is yet to be determined.
“We will be looking medically what led to his death and all of the circumstances,” Acting Insp Wiltshire said.
The vessel was found to have sank 18 metres below the surface and police divers are now working on the technical aspects of recovering it.
#RACQ#CapRescue has joined the search for a man in his seventies missing near Port Alma. The boat carrying him and two others overturned last night. Two occupants have already been found. pic.twitter.com/wGda2zEsyY
— RACQ CapRescue (@caprescue) October 31, 2023
The Narrows is a narrow channel of the Fitzroy River saltwater with sharks and crocodiles inhabiting its saltwaters.
The waterway separates Curtis Island from the mainland and is the northern outlet of Gladstone Harbour and connects it to Keppel Bay near the mouth of the Fitzroy River.
The Narrows is also lined with mangroves and saltmarsh.
“Both the waterways and weather are always a concern, in this situation there were no crocodiles or sharks sighted,” Acting Insp Wiltshire said.
Speaking from the incident control centre set up at the new Port Alma boat ramp during the search on Wednesday morning, SES local controller Eddie Cowie said they had a number of vessels assisting police and water police, rescue helicopter and volunteer coastguard with search operations around Balaclava Island and Port Alma.
“We’re looking for anything at all that could be related to the marine incident,” he said.
Acting Insp Wiltshire said it was important to have EPIRBs and other safety devices on boats.
“We are looking into whether or not that was available and why it an EPIRB was not set off, it is possible there was one on the boat but there was no time to set that off given the circumstance,” Acting Insp Wiltshire said.
“We would like to stress the importance of raising the alarm when someone doesn’t return when they are expected to, and letting people know where you are going, so that in this case, we could raise a search and rescue that was at least successful in locating two of the men.”
A report on the man’s body will be prepared for the coroner.
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