The body of a young Taiwanese man who drowned in a Far North Queensland gorge remained floating at the popular tourist attraction for more than four hours as a communications blackspot inhibited emergency services in their retrieval effort, an inquest has revealed.
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Cairns coroner Jane Bentley this month delivered her findings into the death of 28-year-old Che-Wei Su, who was swept into rapids by a strong current while attempting to cross Mossman Gorge, in the Daintree National Park, in February.
The young holidaymaker was visiting the gorge with his girlfriend and another couple on February 15, when the current swept him downstream and into rapids between a series of boulders, where he hit his head and subsequently drowned, Ms Bentley found.
His girlfriend and friends witnessed the tragedy unfold.
Ms Bentley said Mr Su had completed military training in Taiwan and was a strong swimmer but she did not find that any of the parties to the inquest contributed to his death.
However, she did recommend one of the parties, the gorge operator, Voyages Indigenous Tourism Australia, immediately review its emergency incident management procedures.
Other parties to the inquest included the Douglas Shire Council and the Department of Parks, Recreation, Sport and Racing.
Queensland Police Service, Queensland Fire and Emergency Services and Queensland Ambulance Service were also represented.
Emergency services received the first calls to the scene of Mr Su’s drowning about 2.50pm but it would take nearly four hours until his floating body was repatriated to the bank.
Police officers and paramedics searching for Mr Su’s body along the stretch of fast-flowing waters had no means of communicating with each other due to no mobile phone or satellite phone coverage and no radio contact, Ms Bentley said.
When it was found, Swift Water Rescue Teams had to be dispatched from Cairns to reach the body.
Joshua Trevino, counsel for the Voyages, the overseer of tourist activity at the gorge, said the company had taken immediate action to implement new emergency management measures following Mr Su’s death, including the implementation of new high powered radios so that bus drivers throughout the gorge can communicate with the site’s main centre from anywhere within the park.
On the day Mr Su drowned, a bus driver had to return to the centre to raise the alarm.
In her final comments, Ms Bentley said there had been just two deaths at the gorge since 2003, and only 31 reported incidents from one million visitations in the past five years.
“However, those favourable statistics should not result in complacency,” she said.
“The Mossman Gorge is an unpredictable and inherently dangerous waterway and the danger increases in the frequent times of high rainfall when flash flooding can result.
“Whilst the water at the edge of the swimming hole can be calm and shallow, the depth and strength of currents increases quickly once a swimmer moves out a short distance from the edge.”
She recommended the establishment of a committee of all stakeholders who operate within the Daintree National Park to review information provided to visitors at the centre, signage, access to the landline in the park ranger’s hut for all stakeholders and improved mobile phone coverage in the park.
