By Callum Ludwig
A man has died after falling into the Yarra River in East Warburton on Wednesday 29 May.
A Victoria Police spokesperson said police will prepare a report for the Coroner following the death.
“Emergency services were called to reports that a man had fallen into water off Cement Creek Road about 3pm,” they said.
“The man’s body was recovered following a search,”
“The death is not being treated as suspicious.”
A near seven-hour search was carried out for the man by Victoria Police and SES crews, with Ambulance Victoria paramedics on standby.
Upper Yarra SES Unit Controller Hannah Brunton said they were paged to an inland water rescue and dispatchers advised them that a person had fallen off a log while walking across the river.
“He was not able to be located by his friends and family so that triggered us and the police to head out there and we were supported by the Lilydale SES Swift Water Rescue team, Manningham and Maroondah SES Boat Rescue crews and Victoria Police had their boats as well,” she said.
“We also provided lighting to the scene just to help Victoria Police be able to do what they needed to do in the water.”
The water where the incident occurred is a relatively deep part of the river, with some areas where the water was fast-moving and others where the water was almost still.
Ms Brunton said there’s a lot of dangers around the river that people might not be aware of.
“There’s always so much debris in the river, it’s something that’s really stressful because obviously, we can’t remove it because it’s animal habitat, but a lot of people who don’t realise the danger can very easily get stuck or get injured,” she said.
“The water can also quickly become very fast-moving once there is a bit of rain, I think people need to have a lot more water awareness around rivers because there are a lot of campaigns about safety around pools and things like that, but rivers and creeks have a lot of danger factors that they can’t be accounted for or be predicted,”
“People need to know their ability, and if they don’t know the area or if they don’t know if they’re capable, just take the safe option and stay away.”
The incident occurred in an offshoot of the Yarra River behind the popular Redwood Forest.
Ms Brunton confirmed that SES crew members involved in the search were being supported.
“Before we’d even finished up the job, we had spoken to SES peer support to get our guys the help that they may or may not need, we have a lot of resources and police have a lot of resources, it’s the most important thing, especially in the event that we don’t have a great outcome,” she said.
“The trauma may not impact straight away, but in days, weeks, months down the track, you might realise that it’s been playing on your mind a little bit more than you expected it to so there’s always support there for us when we need it and we rely very heavily on each other.”
