SATURDAY 3.40pm: Heathcote residents embraced one another and shed tears after a minute’s silence before the seniors football match at Barrack Reserve this afternoon.
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The club paid tribute to the family and friends of those involved in the crash in northern Queensland that killed a 15-year-old Heathcote girl on Friday.
All junior netball games were cancelled.
Under-17 coach Mick Tobin said the family was heavily involved in the club, and the news had been “shattering”.
He said the club would organise a special event to support the family.
The family – including mother and three daughters – had planned to holiday in Queensland for a month. The father and two other daughters remained in Victoria.
SATURDAY 1.15pm: The Heathcote Football Netball Club is holding a minute’s silence before each match today as a show of respect to the family involved in the fatal crash.
The family was from Heathcote and was heavily involved in the club.
A family member told the Bendigo Advertiser it was an “absolute tragedy”.
He said it was an unimaginable situation for the two sisters involved in the crash, their mother and the father, who is flying up to Queensland today.
SATURDAY 12.40pm: The other three occupants of the car – a 45-year-old woman and two girls, aged 11 and 8 – avoided serious injury in the crash.
The 8-year-old girl suffered fractured legs and was flown to the Townsville Hospital overnight.
The 11-year-old girl was taken to Bowen Base Hospital for observation and the 45-year-old woman was uninjured.
A 15-year-old girl, who attends Bendigo South East College, was killed in the crash on the Bruce Highway south of Bowen at 12.30pm on Friday.
EARLIER: A 15-year-old Bendigo South East College student died in a car crash in north Queensland on Friday.
The girl was travelling as a passenger in a car on the Bruce Highway, 10 kilometres south of Bowen, when it collided head-on with a utility about 12.30pm.
Emergency services attended the crash but the girl died at the scene.
Queensland Police confirmed the 45-year-old driver of the car and two other passengers – believed to be from the same family – are being treated for injuries.
The two occupants of the utility avoided injury.
The girl was a Year 9 student at Bendigo South East College.
Principal Ernie Fleming said the school community was “devastated”.
“We’re working through how we support our students and how to support the family involved,” he said.
“She was a beautiful young lady.”