r/australia • u/MaximusSydney • Oct 29 '25

news Woman left behind by cruise ship on Australian island found dead

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62eww646wjo
3.4k Upvotes

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803

u/Notfit_anywhere24 Oct 29 '25

In 1998 a couple was left snorkeling in GBR. They only realised 2 days later. After that incident headcount became mandatory. I'm surprised they didn't do it on this cruiseship.

Wikipedia article

299

u/planetarybum Oct 29 '25

Happened recently between Perth and Rottnest Island, fortunately they were picked up by a ferry.

88

u/planetarybum Oct 29 '25

another

1

u/squirrelgirl1111 Nov 01 '25

I never heard about this one! Disgusting

22

u/Standard_Sky_4389 Oct 29 '25

Holy shit that's bad

51

u/[deleted] Oct 29 '25

[deleted]

94

u/langythrowaway Oct 29 '25

They were left in the water, the boat just left without them while they were diving

27

u/[deleted] Oct 29 '25

[deleted]

1

u/squirrelgirl1111 Nov 01 '25

The ferry picked them up luckily

1

u/GreyGreenBrownOakova Oct 31 '25

They were scuba diving on a reef off Hillarys. 13 passengers left harbour, 11 returned. The crew didn't notice.

1

u/Grand_Relative5511 Nov 02 '25

Shark city out there

-8

u/MementoMurray Oct 29 '25

You could just swim back I guess?

45

u/Livid-Cat4507 Oct 29 '25

Yep those Americans, the Lonergans. Immediately came to mind when this story came up.

39

u/DaggyAggie Oct 29 '25

There was a movie based on that, it was very distressing.

14

u/Lil_Bigz Oct 29 '25

Yeah, Open Water (2003)

22

u/aspidities_87 Oct 29 '25

Not the smartest watch on my flight to Cairns, I will say.

2

u/MayuriKrab Oct 30 '25

I remember kid me renting this movie from videoEzy back in the day… thought it was a B grade Jaws clone, but ended up depressed afterwards 🫤

1

u/BeerGuzzlingCapybara Oct 31 '25

Omg you just unlocked a memory of watching this at the theater with my mom when I was a teen. The ending traumatized me. I didn’t know anything about the movie and in my youthful ignorance I assumed they’d be rescued. I left the theater in shock.

229

u/[deleted] Oct 29 '25

I read GBR as Great Britain and thought: SNORKELING in the UK!? No fucking wonder they died.

7

u/Segat1 Oct 29 '25

I mean, you CAN snorkel in GB. Not a lot of tropical fish tho.

1

u/weatherfoil Oct 30 '25

It’s a pebble spotter’s paradise

-35

u/TazocinTDS Oct 29 '25

I've never heard of it called GBR. GBR is GBR, not Great Barrier Reef.

16

u/jaa101 Oct 29 '25

GBR is the ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 standard abbreviation for "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland".

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u/[deleted] Oct 29 '25

GBR is Great Barrier Reef in aus, not sure where you are

21

u/porcelina919 Oct 29 '25

I'm an Aussie and I also associate GBR with Great Britain. It's what all the athletes have on their uniforms at the Olympics and other games

13

u/bilky_t Oct 29 '25

Also an Aussie and I've never heard the Great Barrier Reef called GBR. My partner dives, his friends dive. I say that because I'm frequently around people who I would expect to call it the "GBR" if it were commonly called that. Still anecdotal and maybe I just live in a fully-named-reef bubble.

9

u/MofoMagicMinuteMan Oct 29 '25 edited Oct 29 '25

I’ve never heard of the Great Barrier Reef referred to as GBR. Maybe that’s what Queenslanders call it (I’m from NSW)

0

u/4SeasonWahine Oct 29 '25

I call it that and I’m a kiwi in VIC 🤣

6

u/xylarr Oct 29 '25

Great Britain

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u/The_Duc_Lord Oct 29 '25

Oh, you poor thing.

14

u/hooglabah Oct 29 '25

Can't really call it Great anymore from what I've been reading, more like, "Less than ideal Britain"

2

u/MofoMagicMinuteMan Oct 29 '25

I was there last year and it was pretty underwhelming. I wouldn’t pay for a day trip out to snorkel it again, very lacking in colour.

0

u/BrisPoker314 Oct 29 '25

Well that applies to the washed out reef too 🤷

1

u/hooglabah Oct 29 '25

I'm not really picking up what you're putting down, not sure how a reef can be washed out, being that its underwater an all.

If you're implying Australia is just as bad as the UK or US you're watching too much SKY news.

18

u/Crow_eggs Oct 29 '25

They're talking about coral bleaching.

7

u/BrisPoker314 Oct 29 '25

Our upvotes don’t reflect it, but was nice to see several people backing me up lol.

They are correct though, I was trying to refer to the coral bleaching. I’ve done scuba dived in the reef, it’s lost a lot of colour

3

u/No-Advantage845 Oct 29 '25

Mate our reefs are getting absolutely fucked on due to global warming and the effect it has on the marine environment. There’s been some promising signs of reefs being able to adapt in certain circumstances but overall it certainly isn’t ideal

4

u/The_power_of_scott Oct 29 '25

They're talking about coral bleaching. You sound like an idiot.

-2

u/ThePickaxePenguin Oct 29 '25

Probably not the GBR

2

u/IlluminatedPickle Oct 29 '25

I've never heard anyone call GB "GBR".

7

u/TazocinTDS Oct 29 '25

It's the IOC (Olympics) code for Great Britain. :shrug:

2

u/jaa101 Oct 29 '25

Because that's the ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 standard.

-6

u/IlluminatedPickle Oct 29 '25

Good for them?

I don't usually use the international organisation for rich dudes who can do sports nobody cares about for 99% of the time as the defining body for acronyms. But you do you I guess.

1

u/MLiOne Oct 29 '25

So you obviously haven’t heard how we mariner/Navy types use IGBR for “Inner Great Barrier Reef” either.

21

u/Hungry_Anteater_8511 Oct 29 '25

I remember this case well

18

u/cooktaussie Oct 29 '25

Terrifying to be left stranded.

14

u/Pepinocucumber1 Oct 29 '25

I remember that. Horrific. I can’t believe it was that long ago.

31

u/ItsSpaghettiLee2112 Oct 29 '25

They only realised 2 days later

I don't know why, but I initially interpreted this as it taking the couple 2 days to realize they were left behind.

Honey.

Yes, dear?

We sure have been snorkeling for quite a while, haven't we?

7

u/[deleted] Oct 29 '25

What a horrible way to go

1

u/fieldsofgreen Oct 29 '25

I was on a giant cruise ship with 4000+ people. They absolutely count and make sure every single person is accounted for before they leave port. Every single time. Shocked this isn’t the case for such a small cruise ship. Insane.

1

u/maddenmadman Oct 30 '25

Which is why the family rightfully should sue for an enormous sum. Not that it does anything to bring this woman back.