Fishing mate tells of deaths

Coroner’s findings into tragic trip

A MAN has told a coroner of the moments before two of his friends drowned while on a fishing trip and the “hell of a job” he had swimming back to a beach to get help.

Coroner Olivia McTaggart yesterday published her findings into the deaths of former Liberal MP and state cricketer Tony Benneworth, 67, and his good friend Tony Long, 73, who both drowned in March last year while on a fishing trip on Ansons Bay on the East Coast.

Ms McTaggart said the two men and another friend, Guy McKibben, set out in Mr Long’s boat at 2.45pm on March 10. In a statement, Mr McKibben said while they were fishing, their boat landed on the crest of a swell “with a really hard thump” and the men then noticed water in the corner of the boat.

He said the bilge pump was not working and more water was coming in. “It seemed to be coming in quite quickly so we started bailing with an ice cream container that we had used for bait and I was using the fish box,” Mr McKibben said.

Mr McKibben said he and Mr Benneworth were wearing life jackets and they told Mr Long “to get his bloody jacket on”. Mr McKibben said the steering in the boat went and about 10 seconds later water poured in over the back. “We all jumped out. Tony Long still did not have a life jacket on.”

He told Mr Long to hang onto a rail on the boat while he tried to swim to shore and get help. Mr McKibben said Mr Benneworth sounded “quite panicked” because he could not inflate his life jacket.

“I said ‘don’t panic, mate, try and control your breathing and roll over on your back and float’,” he said.

He estimated it took him 45 minutes to get into the breakers. “I had a hell of a job getting through the breakers onto the beach because the undertow was sucking me back out.”

Ms McTaggart said two men on board a boat Mr McKibben hailed found Mr Long floating face down 40m southwest of his capsized vessel. She said efforts to resuscitate him were not successful.

She said another man who was on the beach, Brendan Groves, swam to where Mr Benneworth’s body was floating and brought him to shore.

Efforts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful.

Ms McTaggart said the boat the men were in was poorly maintained. She said the Stormy Seas life jacket Mr Benneworth was wearing was in good condition and would have inflated properly if activated.

She said the men’s deaths again highlighted the importance of wearing life jackets and knowing how they inflate.