NZ volcano eruption: grieving father tells of his last days with son

On Wednesday, 85-year-old Brian led the Dallow family into the front garden of their humble Adelaide home to confirm the worst.

Julie and Jessica Richards of Brisbane.

Just two weeks ago Brian Dallow spent a blissful three days with his only son Gavin at the Adelaide Oval watching the Second Test. In the New Year, the lawyer, Rotarian and tennis umpire was due to serve as a linesman at the Australian Open.

At 4.30pm on Wednesday, 85-year-old Brian led the Dallow family into the front garden of their humble home in Adelaide’s outer suburbs to confirm the worst.

His son Gavin, 53, and step-granddaughter Zoe Hosking, 15, were both dead in the New Zealand volcano tragedy.

Gavin and Zoe were among seven Australians and two New Zealanders identified as dead or presumed dead by New Zealand Police on Wednesday, with the list of nine expected to grow as the next of kin of at least five other missing people are notified.

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Also named were Brisbane mother and IT developer Julie Richards, 47, and her vet science student daughter Jessica, 20, Melbourne woman Krystal Browitt, 21, and Coffs Harbour couple Richard Elzer and Karla Mathews, both 32. The two New Zealanders were tour guides Hayden Marshall-Inman and Tipene Maangi.

Zoe’s mother, Santos engineer Lisa Dallow, 48, is among 22 volcano victims not named by police for privacy reasons, who remain in a critical condition in hospital, requiring airway support to breathe.

Ms Dallow is fighting for her life in a Hamilton hospital, in a coma with burns to 57 per cent of her body.

Gavin Dallow.

15-year-old Zoe Hosking.

Among other missing Australians feared dead or severely injured are two Sydney families, who remain unaccounted for after they visited White Island on Monday, as part of a 12-night Royal Caribbean cruise of New Zealand and the South Pacific aboard cruise liner Ovation of the Seas.

The Knox Grammar community was on Wednesday fearing the worst for students Matthew Hollander, 13 and his brother Berend, 16, their mother Barbara and father Martin, a Transport for NSW freight investment manager and Old Knox Grammarian.