Ron Connolly searches for Toowoomba man ‘Adam’, who was witness to horror jetty incident on the Tweed River

It was 2016 on Terranora Inlet when this Pittsworth man nearly drowned after a jetty gangway collapsed on him. Now he’s searching for the Toowoomba man who saw it happen.

Noelene Casey and Ron Connolly. Ron Connolly was victim of a gangway collapse on a jetty in Tweed Heads. Thursday, April 29, 2021. Picture: Nev Madsen.

For years, Ron Connolly’s nightmares have taken him back below the surface of the Terranora Creek to the place where he nearly drowned.

In his dreams he’s there, his foot pinned between the collapsed jetty walkway and a rock on the riverbed, surrounded by abandoned shopping trolleys and schools of fish, watching the last of his breath bubbling upward.

It was meant to be a happy little break in between trips to hospital in Brisbane for the disability pensioner.

But in 2016, the Pittsworth local’s fishing trip to the Tweed with his wife Noelene and sons went horribly wrong.

And with a civil court case over the incident set down for hearing in June, Mr Connolly is hoping to find the man who was there in his blue and white boat, who was witness to what happened and who helped him afterward.

Mr Connolly only knows the man as Adam, and that he lived in Toowoomba at the time.

Adam’s wife and kids were also there on the jetty on the morning of the incident, Mr Connolly said.

At about 9.30am on October 30, 2016, Mr Connolly walked down to the jetty near the hotel he was staying at on Terranora Creek with his and his sons’ fishing gear.

When he stepped off the jetty onto the walkway leading to a pontoon, it gave way and flipped sideways, throwing his gear into the water and Mr Connolly into the walkway railing, where is left leg got caught.

The walkway plunged into the water, and Mr Connolly ended up pinned on the riverbed, with spikes penetrating his boot and foot, he said.

Running out of air, he had to rock the walkway back and forth to free himself, and after coming to the surface, he was eventually pulled to safety.

“It was a nightmare that I wouldn’t wish upon the worst mongrel.”

In 2019, Mr Connolly had to get his little toe on his left foot amputated because of an ongoing bacterial infection, which he said resulted from the spike in his foot and not his diabetes.

Despite everything, he counts himself as being lucky to be alive.

Mr Connolly and his wife Noelene are now focused on trying to find Adam.

“It’s important, not just for us. These things shouldn’t happen to anybody as far as I’m concerned,” he said.

“So it’s important to find Adam and his wife because for simple reason, they’re our only hope.”

If this is you or you think you know Adam or his wife, please get in touch with us at [e-mail] or by phoning 4690 9300.