Friends say teenager who drowned in Mill Park lake was a ‘hero’

UPDATE: FRIENDS have paid tribute to a teenager who drowned while attempting to swim across a lake in Melbourne’s north yesterday.

Search crews have pulled two bodies from Redleap Reserve. Picture: Tony Gough

A TEENAGER who drowned while attempting to swim across a lake in Melbourne’s north has been remembered as a nice, happy person.

Haydyn Gibbons, 19, got into trouble while swimming across a lake at Redleap Reserve in Mill Park with a friend.

That man, initially believed to be aged in his 30s, also died at the scene.

Haydyn’s friend followed him into the lake but was unable to save him.

Police say the pair had been drinking at the reserve before attempting to swim across the lake.

Haydyn Gibbons, 19. Picture: Supplied.

Friends paid tribute to their friend, saying they’d lost a hero.

“You will always be missed, you have been taken too soon but I guess heaven needed a new hero, fly high and you will always be a brother to me,” one friend wrote.

“You are inspiration to some and family to others,” another wrote.

Police Search and Rescue found the bodies of the two swimmers ­late yesterday.

The older man has yet to be identified. It’s not clear if he was from Victoria or interstate.

It’s understood the older man met Haydyn and 21-year-old only yesterday.

Neighbour Nathan Henderson described how he rushed to the scene after he heard screams and crying outside his house.

“I was sitting in my room across the road and my dad came in and said there was screaming in the park,” he said.

“I walked outside to see what was going on and I could see their friend frantically running around in the water screaming and crying.”

Mr Henderson said when he heard the man yell “it’s too late, it’s been too long” he knew someone had drowned.

Emergency services workers remove one of the bodies from the lake. Picture: Tony Gough

A police diver at the scene of the drowning. Picture: Tony Gough

Police say the men began their swim from a pier. Picture: Nicole Garmston

“I ran over to him and then the police arrived so I sprinted home and grabbed my surfboard,” Mr Henderson told Sunrise.

“Me and the police conducted a search but you couldn’t see anything and I knew visibility wasn’t going to help at all.”

The lake has an average depth of ­two to three metres.

“About 5.30 this evening three males who had been ­consuming an amount of ­alcohol have taken it upon themselves to try and swim across the lake here,” ­Detective Senior Sergeant Mark Smith said last night.

“Unfortunately, probably because of the effects of ­alcohol, two of them have got into trouble while swimming across the lake.”

The three officers who ­arrived first on the scene spent 15 minutes in the water trying to find the pair before a full-scale search operation began.

The two younger men were friends but police say they had not met the older man until ­yesterday.

Family and friends of the 19-year-old were at the lake when police pulled his body from the water.

Lake is about two to three metres deep. Picture: Nicole Garmston

Picture: Nicole Garmston

The scene of last night’s drowning. Picture: Nicole Garmston

Redleap Reserve Mill Park.