A police investigation into how a French tourist fell to his death from Brisbane's 'tower of power' continues as it becomes the second fatality linked to the urban explorer trend this year.
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Police are treating the 21-year-old man's death at the construction site of the state government's 1 William Street CBD development as misadventure rather than suicide.
They're dealing with the early theory he plummeted from a crane he was scaling for fun but haven't confirmed a Nine News report he was taking a selfie when he fell.
Prominent Brisbane explorer Bianca Insane said "craning" was one of several "genres" of urbex, along with exploring abandoned houses or buildings, drains and "rooftopping".
"That's where you try and get a photo from a rooftop of a building, usually the higher the better," she told 612 ABC Brisbane.
"I guess it's just to kind of go and enjoy places that are supposed to be inaccessible, get some great views and have some great experiences there and then years later you can talk about how you were up in a building that was under construction."
Senior Sergeant Dan O'Connor said he was not able to comment on whether a phone or camera was found near the man's body.
He said the French national had been working in Queensland and living in Brisbane.
His family has been notified of his passing.
Senior Sergeant O'Connor said construction workers found the man's body at the base of a crane at the site when they arrived for work just before 6am on Monday.
"Initial inquiries indicate he may have been trespassing and fallen from the crane," he said.
"We are treating the death as non-suspicious."
The urbex pastime is growing in popularity worldwide thanks in part to stunning photos of urban ruins and hard-to-access areas.
Academic and urban explorer Bradley Garrett told Fairfax Media last year people were attracted to the photos because they recognised something missing in their lives.
Keen photographer and urban explorer "Descent" died in March when he and a woman were trapped by rising waters while kayaking through an underground drain network in Brisbane.
Ms Insane said Brisbane's urbex community was "pretty small" and the Frenchman wasn't a regular.
She told the ABC the 1 William Street construction site was "extremely secure".
"It just goes to show that really it's just a fence at the end of the day, no matter how big or how strong they build it there's always going to be a way through it."
- with Kim Stephens
