Qld storms: Texts capture last moments before boat capsize

A string of text messages captured the last moments of an ill-fated fishing trip that ended with the loss of three lives.

A man who died in a freak boating accident in Moreton Bay sent frantic text messages to his family as the vessel sank, while attempting to rescue his friend, just minutes before he too drowned. 

The family of Robert Holden have revealed the 48-year-old’s broken calls and scattered text messages likely saved eight of the 11 men on-board a 39-foot vessel that capsized in Moreton Bay on Boxing Day.

Mr Holden died alongside former Queensland rugby players David “Mario” Logan and Stephen “Taity” Tait when their boat capsized about 200m off Green Island.

The trio were among a group of 11 friends on their annual fishing trip, but Mr Holden’s wife Michelle said she knew something was wrong when the family received a number of calls and text messages from the 48-year-old between 5pm and 5.04pm.

Mrs Holden and her daughter immediately alerted the coast guard but it was too late for the father of three who died inside the hull of the vessel.

Rob Holden with wife Michelle

She revealed that Stephen Tait’s brother Andrew was also on board, but that Graham Tait – Stephen and Andrew’s brother – owned the vessel.

“At 4.45pm, Graham reached out to Stephen and said ‘how are things?’ and he said, ‘Everything is OK, we are heading back now,’ which should have taken them about 20 to 25 minutes,” Mrs Holden said.

Mrs Holden said she messaged her husband at 4.45pm, just five minutes before she believed a violent storm capsized the vessel.

“I had messaged Rob saying ‘there’s a bad storm coming honey, I’m worried ... are you still out on the water?’ and he said ‘yes we are, it may be safer for us to stay here’. I sent him a picture of the (radar) and said ‘I don’t think so’ and then I didn’t hear from him until about 5pm,” she said.

“At 5pm – (my phone) rang – I thought it was a pocket dial, I couldn’t hear him so I hung up, (I) called him back straight away ... his phone went to message bank ... he was on the phone to my daughter ... my daughter called me and said ‘did you have a weird phone call from dad’ – I said ‘yes ... what’s happened?’ 

“She said to me, ‘Mum it sounded to me like he was under a heap of blankets’.”

Mrs Holden said her husband then sent the text message “we.ducked”. 

“(He) was trying to say ‘we are f---ed’ but he never swore so I knew something was very very wrong,” she said. 

The capsized vessel off Manly. Picture: 9 News

“The police constable that we met said (Rob) was in the (hull) of the boat, down where Stephen the captain was, trying to do what he could ... and I knew that both of them would be together ... because the way those two men were, there was no way that one wouldn’t help the other.”

Mrs Holden said 100km/h winds shattered the glass in the cabin but that Andrew had been holding the door open for his brother and Rob so they would not become trapped.

She said “for hours” the coast guard and water police believed no one was inside the vessel, but because the diesel had spilt “everything was pitch black”.

“The original divers weren’t equipped to go through the slurry,” she said.

“But I knew that (Stephen and Rob) would be together when we first found out that those two were missing. (Rob) was just so stupid in the face of fear ... he never panicked.”

Mrs Holden said that when a police officer arrived at their family home about 12.30am on Wednesday, they had a photo of the 48-year-old’s hand and his signet ring.

“I knew immediately that it was him,” she said. 

But Mrs Holden said that when she went to formally identify her husband of more than 20 years he was “unrecognisable”. 

The capsized boat seen on Moreton Bay on Thursday. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

“You’re affected by all the toxins in the water, all the saltwater ... all I wanted to do was reach out and touch him, I did touch his face but he just didn’t feel normal,” she said. 

“I wanted to wash my hand immediately but then I also knew that it would be the last time I touch him.

“It feels like a cruel prank ... that we are just going to wake up and he’s going to come in joking – he was always a joker.”

Mr Holden’s son Joshua said his father had been friends with the Tait family for about 20 years.

“Our father was a great man who always put others’ needs above himself,” Joshua said.

The group of friends left the Tait property about 10am but when the survivors returned that evening, Joshua said, “you could just tell that they had been through hell”.

“When they came back they were just different,” he said. 

Mrs Holden said it was possible that the group had been playing beach cricket on the island when the lunchtime storm warnings came through and did not have their phones or radios.

“They normally head back about 6.30pm ... (so) for them to be heading back at 4.45pm, they were well aware of the dangers,” she said.

“(The storm) turned ugly in a matter of minutes ... not even 15 minutes ... we are talking five minutes.” 

David ‘Mario’ Logan and Stephen ‘Taity’ Tait

Mrs Holden said that in the past couple of years the family had been struggling financially.

“We’ve been behind in our mortgage by three months and we have got $8000 owing on our rates,” she said.

“I feel like I can’t breathe and I can’t grieve for him ... our lives were so intertwined ... I just feel like my life is over now.”

Joshua has launched a GoFundMe to support his mother, saying his father was the “provider in our family”.

“He was reliable, trustworthy and a good man through thick and thin,” he said.

Joshua said his father was found with a lesion to his forehead and that they believed he was unconscious when he drowned.

“Where they found him in the hull of the boat – he would have been helping other people,” he said.

Joshua said he initially thought “my dad is just on an island, he is just asleep somewhere ... they will find him tomorrow”. 

“I think my dad is a hero – I think that he died a hero – I think he always was a hero.

“He raised me as his own son from the age of one. He was everything to us.”

Rob Holden

Redland Bay Water Police officer-in-charge Sergeant Paul Ryan said the 39-foot vessel would be taken further upstream to a mariner on Saturday, where it is expected to be “hauled out of the water”.

Sergeant Ryan described the Boxing Day tragedy as “very unfortunate” but urged other boaties to “constantly check” the radar and to make sure safety gear including life jackets were “readily available”.

“The entire incident is just awful - given the time of year it makes it harder on the families, even those that were involved in the initial incident,” he said.

Sergeant Ryan said once the vessel is removed from the water a “naval architect and our scenes of crime officers will go over it scientifically”.