Despite multiple Triple Zero (000) calls from at least two separate people, police did not arrive on the scene of a near-drowning in Tasmania until two hours after the first call was made.
In that time, 74-year-old David Mason had been swept out into Bass Strait and rescued by two young fishermen, who found him floating “lifeless” but alive more than 90 minutes after he entered the water.
Triple Zero call recordings and logs, obtained by the ABC under Right to Information laws, show two hours passed between the first Triple Zero call being made and police being “on scene”.
Kerry Porter was the second Triple Zero caller, and he said there must be lessons from Mr Mason’s near-death experience.
“At the time I was quite angry about it to be honest, that it took so long for [police] to turn up,” he said.
“I think they should have realised by the tone in my voice that I was quite worried.”
Police have now agreed that despite “communication challenges” with the first call, officers should have arrived much sooner, and training has been developed for its Radio Dispatch Services (RDS) unit to better respond to similar incidents in the future.
Several Triple Zero calls were made before police arrived “on scene”, call logs show. (ABC News: Kate Nickels)
Man tried to swim out to boat
The emergency came after Mr Mason launched his boat at the Ulverstone boat ramp in north-west Tasmania at 5:30am on Wednesday, January 7.
He said he roped the boat poorly to the dock, where someone was fishing, and as he parked his car and trailer, the boat began to float downstream to the Leven River mouth.
Mr Mason said he walked to the river mouth, removed his clothes, entered the water and tried to swim out to the boat, which he soon realised may have been a deadly decision.
The person on the dock, who did not want to be interviewed for this story, called Triple Zero at 5:40am, as Mr Mason’s boat was floating away and he was nowhere to be seen.
English was not their first language, and the operator had difficulty understanding what the emergency was, but understood within about a minute where they were calling from.
The caller pleaded for assistance.
“Can you come quickly and help him?” they asked.
Instead, the Triple Zero operator said they could not understand the caller, asked them to stop speaking and to put a passer-by on the phone.
A police spokesperson said that person advised “there was no person in immediate danger”, and the call was ended with no emergency response activated.
“I want to help him,” the caller could be heard saying as the six-minute recording ended.
Fisherman’s fortuitous stop at bakery
About 20 minutes later, at 6:10am, Mr Porter, who was towing his boat to go fishing in waters off Devonport, parked outside a bakery in Ulverstone.
He said he was inside ordering bread rolls when someone rushed in, asking if the boat parked outside was his, and said they needed help because a boat had drifted away from the ramp.
Mr Porter quickly launched his boat and, with the help of the first Triple Zero caller, retrieved the empty boat, which had floated out beyond the mouth of the river with its engine still idling.
Kerry Porter made three seperate Triple Zero calls. (ABC News: Mackenzie Heard)
They towed it back to the boat ramp and arrived about 6:30am, where Mr Porter began to worry as he had not seen the owner in the water or on the riverbank.
“I know if I’d lost my boat, I’d be so thankful and I’d have been at the boat ramp,” he said recently.
“He was nowhere to be seen, so that really pricked my concern.”
Mr Porter made three separate Triple Zero calls in the next half an hour, the first of which dropped out.
In the second he was told a police boat was coming from Stanley “at a fair clip”, which he can be heard scoffing at in the recording.
It was about 85 kilometres away, or 45 minutes by boat, Mr Porter said.
“Anything can happen in 45 minutes,” he said.
Tasmania Police has updated its procedures since the incident. (ABC News: Mackenzie Heard)
During the second call, he was told police officers would also be sent from the Ulverstone police station, but when they had not arrived 20 minutes later, he made a third phone call.
In this call, he told police another passer-by said they saw the missing man enter the water more than an hour beforehand.
“He took his clothes off and tried to swim after the boat,” Mr Porter said to the operator.
“I’m fearing he’s not alive.”Young fishermen become heroes
About 7:12am, Mr Porter was told police officers were being dispatched. At 7:24am, another call was logged with Triple Zero operators — this time for an ambulance.
That call was from Alec Newton and Callum Hodge, the two young fishermen who had found Mr Mason floating in the water beyond the river mouth.
“He was very lifeless,” Mr Newton said at the time.
Alec Newton and Callum Hodge pulled David Mason from the water. (ABC News: Sandy Powell)
“He was on the verge of being unconscious. Didn’t even know we were there,” Mr Hodge said.
The ambulance arrived shortly after they returned to the boat ramp, but the Triple Zero log recorded the first police officers on scene at 7:40am.
They had been assigned to the emergency 55 minutes earlier.
“I’m not here to bag the police out,” Mr Porter said.
“But there was a massive breakdown somewhere. It was just sheer luck that this guy was found alive.”
Mr Porter said if the man had not survived, a coroner would be investigating the chain of events.
“I don’t know what happened and I probably never will know what happened,” he said.
“But there definitely need to be some learnings taken from it.”
‘Initial attendance’ needed: police
In a statement, Tasmania Police said the incident had been reviewed, lessons had been learnt, and that police praised the actions of civilians involved in the rescue.
“Tasmania Police regularly reviews incidents and operational responses to identify opportunities for improvement,” a spokesperson said.
“Given there were communication challenges experienced in the first call, initial police attendance should have occurred to independently verify the circumstances,” they said.
“Guidance has been provided to the [Triple Zero] operator, and the incident has formed a learning opportunity more broadly within RDS, with additional training and direction being provided to reinforce expectations in similar circumstances.”
Tasmania Police says it regularly reviews incidents and responses. (
ABC News: Luke Bowden
)
They also said that information received around 6:30am, when Mr Porter called, “materially changed the understanding of the circumstances and resulted in a search and rescue response being initiated”.
But they did not dispute that officers were recorded “on scene” at 7:40am.
Survivor back in the water, with company
For his part, Mr Mason is grateful to everyone involved in his rescue, as one of the last thoughts he remembers having in the water was that he was about to die.
“After an hour or so I was bobbing around out there in the ocean, and I thought, ‘well, this is the end’,” he said.
“The funny thing is, I wasn’t scared at all. And then I went unconscious and the next thing I remember is a boat hitting me and two young fellows pulled me in.
David Mason says he no longer ventures out onto the water alone. (ABC News: Sandy Powell)
“They saved my life … and I told them that.”
Mr Mason has returned to the water on his boat several times since the incident, but he no longer ventures out alone, and he only goes out in good weather.
“When I was in hospital, and I was incapacitated, the thing that really got to me was that I wanted my old life back,” he said, laughing.
He recounted days spent in younger years free diving and spearfishing, which has given him a good knowledge of the ocean in the past half century.
But, he said, growing old was a matter of perspective.
“When you get to my age, you don’t think you’re old, and that was the problem. When I went into the water, I didn’t think I was old,” he said.
“I thought I was 25 again, in north Queensland in nice warm water, but it wasn’t quite like that.”