Body found after boy swept away in fast-flowing river

[Pelican Press 0]

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Body found after boy swept away in fast-flowing river

The body of a teenage boy has been found after he was swept away while swimming with two friends in a rural river.

The 16-year-old’s body was found in the Macquarie River at Dubbo, in western NSW, on Tuesday afternoon.

Emergency services were called to Sandy Beach, a popular swimming spot on the river, about 5.50pm on Monday after the teenager disappeared in the water.

He had been swimming with two 16-year-old friends when the group was washed downstream.

“They were swimming in the river and they’ve been swept away by the current,” NSW Police Acting Inspector Scott Heckendorf told reporters at Sandy Beach on Tuesday.

“One of the males had failed to resurface.”

The water was moving quickly when the boy disappeared, Acting Insp Heckendorf said.

“The river is unpredictable and the currents are changing all the time.

“The river was flowing quite fast and it’s quite deep out there.”

Drones and sniffer dogs were used to search for the boy on Monday night and throughout Tuesday.

Community members joined the search, which involved police divers and crews from the NSW State Emergency Service and the Volunteer Rescue Association.

Before the discovery of the boy’s body, Acting Insp Heckendorf said counselling was being provided to classmates at his high school and his rugby club, where he was well known.

There have been several drownings in rivers and at waterfalls around Australia over summer.

A 21-year-old man drowned while swimming with family and friends in the Murrumbidgee River at Pine Island Reserve in Canberra’s south on January 29.

On the same day, an 18-year-old man died after falling 15 metres into a rock embankment after reportedly using a rope swing at the Coomera River on the Gold Coast.

A third of all drownings occurred in inland waterways in 2024, including 80 deaths in rivers, according to Royal Life Saving Australia’s national report.

“Isolated natural aquatic environments, such as rivers and creeks, increase the risk of drowning due to changeable conditions and often geographical remoteness,” the organisation’s research said.

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