Desperate bid to reunite long lost couple shipwrecked on Fantome Island thirty years ago
A traumatic incident off Palm Island thirty years ago has Lisa Thompson searching for the pieces of the puzzle missing from her memory of the ordeal.
Townsville
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A near-death experience off Palm Island has Lisa Thompson searching for answers 30 years later as she desperately tries to find the man she was marooned on an island with.
Ms Thompson was living on Magnetic Island when she endured three nights marooned on Fantome Island in April 1989 after a fishing trip turned into a nightmare.
While fishing 65km off Palm Island with her boyfriend Robert Brown on April 14, 1989, their five-metre fibreglass boat sank after springing a leak and taking on water.
The pair swam for four hours in shark infested waters before they were forced to drag themselves over a coral reef to reach the shore of Fantome Island.
The couple spent three days marooned on the island surviving on freshwater out of a rock pool and rock oysters.
On April 17, 1989 a missing person’s report was filed by Mr Brown’s workmates after he didn’t show up to work.
Police conducted a one-day air sea search with Ms Thompson saying the plane was so high “it could touch the moon” and did not see them on the island.
Ms Thompson recalls the hopelessness she felt while waiting to be rescued.
“I think after a couple of days, especially when the rescue plane went over, you just lose all hope and all I did was sleep because I thought this was it,” she said.
“I thought if I went to sleep and didn’t wake up, I wouldn’t care, I just felt despair.”
The couple were rescued by two local fisherman on April 18, 1989 and were found severely dehydrated and sunburnt.
With the help of Facebook, Ms Thompson has successfully reconnected with the two fisherman who rescued the pair, Ingham local Mario Tonon and Brisbane resident David Rodderick.
Ms Thompson said the two men had proved invaluable to helping her recall details of the shipwreck.
“It was nice to track them down and say thank you again and put together the pieces of the missing puzzle,” she said.
Ms Thompson has been scouring Facebook to locate Mr Brown in the hope he will can jog her memory about some of the finer details.
She is hoping Mr Brown will be able to help her finish the book she has been writing about the incident for six years called Phantom Menace.
The 50-year-old Mackay resident said she wanted to ask Mr Brown if she caught a plane or a boat back to Palm Island and how he has recovered from the ordeal.
Ms Thompson has been informed by friends of Facebook that Mr Brown is still alive with one friend reporting they had spoken to him only 18 months ago.
>>If you know the whereabouts of Robert Brown contact Lisa on 0428 674 674.
Originally published as Desperate bid to reunite long lost couple shipwrecked on Fantome Island thirty years ago