A luxury cruise ship stopped at a remote Australian island. Suzanne Rees was left behind and died alone | Queensland

The appeal of Lizard Island is its remoteness. The Great Barrier Reef island in Queensland’s tropical north, 250 kilometers from Cairns, is known for its impressive snorkeling, with giant clams nestled among the coral. There is also a scientific research station.

Due to its inaccessibility and eye-wateringly high accommodation prices, tourists are mostly kept away.

But a week ago in the west of the island, Suzanne Rees, a healthy and active 80-year-old, died alone. He probably watched as the luxury cruise ship Coral Adventurer set sail without him.

The avid gardener and hiker from Sydney had planned to hike to the island’s historic peak, Cook’s Look, with other travelers on the second day of his 60-day circumnavigation of Australia. However, on Saturday, he felt the heat and returned early. He never left the island and returned to the ship.

Authorities were not alerted until five hours after the Coral Adventurer left Lizard Island at 3.40pm local time. The next day, Sunday, Rees was found dead near the walkway.

Questions about how he died and why his absence from the ship was not immediately reported are being asked by his grieving family, other cruise passengers, industry experts and officials.

‘Then the ship set sail’

Rees and his fellow passengers boarded Coral Expeditions’ 120-guest Coral Adventurer in Cairns on Friday, October 24. Rooms with balconies on the cruise, which had a crew of 46 on the 94.5-foot custom-built ship, cost $86,400 per person, according to Clean Cruising.

VesselFinder satellite tracking data shows the ship left Cairns around 5.30pm and arrived at Lizard Island at 8.30am on Saturday.

Rees was among a group of travelers who went for a walk to the island but cut the walk short, according to his daughter Katherine Rees.

“We learned from the police that it was a very hot day and my mother felt unwell as she climbed the hill. She was asked to come down without being accompanied,” Katherine Rees said on Thursday.

“The ship then sailed, apparently without taking a passenger count. At some stage or shortly after this process, my mother died alone.”

The Bureau of Meteorology’s nearest weather station, about 30 kilometers away, recorded a high temperature of 31.9 degrees that day.

Sailor Traci Ayris, who was on a nearby boat, told News Corp Australia she heard about the number of snorkelers and that the ship set sail shortly after the last hikers returned from the island.

VesselFinder shows the Coral Adventurer leaving Lizard Island at 3:40pm and heading northwest.

When Rees did not arrive for dinner at around 6pm, the alarm was raised on the ship. Several bow-to-stern searches were made, initially believing Rees had overdone it.

The Coral Adventurer made a sudden return at 20.43 on Saturday. At the time it was approximately 114 km from Lizard Island off Cape Melville. He set off south, following the cruise ship path.

At 21:00, the ship’s captain informed the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (Amsa) that Rees was missing. Later that night Queensland police were alerted.

Coral Expeditions CEO Mark Fifield said in a statement this week that “a search and rescue operation has been launched on land and at sea.”

According to Rob Siganto, fisherman and owner of the charter boat South Pacific II, the search for Rees was continuing by helicopter on Lizard Island around midnight.

He told Australia’s national broadcaster ABC that he was anchored nearby and, while listening to the radio, heard the helicopter crew arguing “halfway” over the bush-covered hill that was Rees’ last known location.

Coral Adventurer’s tracking data shows it returned to Lizard Island at 3.25am on Sunday. A team in a smaller boat was reportedly sent ahead to search for Rees, but the search was eventually called off by daybreak.

Shortly after the aerial search resumed on Sunday morning, Ayris said Rees’ body was found at around 9.30am. The Coral Adventurer left Lizard Island for the second time at 18.55.

‘There seems to be a maintenance error’

Katherine Rees said her family was “shocked and saddened that the Coral Adventurer left Lizard Island after an organized trip without my mother Suzanne.”

“From what we’ve been told, there seems to be a lack of care and common sense.”

What exactly happened has not yet been determined, the general manager of Coral Expeditions said on Thursday.

“We offer our sincerest condolences to the Rees family and are deeply saddened by this incident,” Fifield said in a statement.

“The circumstances surrounding his tragic death are the subject of official investigations. We are fully co-operating with those investigations to establish the facts. It would therefore be inappropriate to comment further while investigations are ongoing.”

“We continue to provide our full support to the Rees family during this difficult time.”

Police are preparing a report for the forensic investigation, which Katherine Rees hopes will “reveal what the company should have done that could have saved my mother’s life”. Amsa and WorkSafe Queensland are also continuing the investigation.

On Friday the Coral Adventurer was close to Prince of Wales Island in the Torres Strait. Amsa said he planned to board the ship when it arrived in Darwin. A spokesman said part of the investigation would focus on why Rees might not have been accounted for during boarding.

‘Count the people’

David Beirman, an associate researcher in management and tourism at the University of Technology Sydney, said it was “very unusual” that not all passengers were accounted for.

“One of the standard things they always do during a shore excursion is to count those leaving and those returning. It’s basic common sense,” he said.

“For whatever reason, it seems like they didn’t do it as effectively as they could have this time.”

Former Coral Expeditions passengers expressed surprise that a passenger appeared to be missing.

“We sailed around the Kimberley coast in this little ship,” one wrote on Facebook.

“We had our names checked against the list as we boarded the tender boat and had them checked again as we boarded. It is inconceivable that the captain and crew would leave without anyone on board.”

Another Facebook user said he traveled with Coral Expeditions in May and said there were “lots of checks,” including a number assigned to each passenger when they returned to the ship.

“Many [us] I also watched older solo travelers to make sure they weren’t alone,” the traveler wrote.

Beirman said “a large number” of passengers were left behind despite protocols. Notable examples include the case of eight passengers struggling to catch their ship after being left behind in São Tomé and Príncipe last year.

But the Great Barrier Reef in particular has a history of misfortune at sea.

In 1998, Tom and Eileen Lonergan died after their tour boat separated while scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef. Authorities think they drowned or were eaten by sharks.

A British holidaymaker and his American girlfriend who survived 19 hours in shark-infested waters off the reef in 2008 told how the rescue helicopter failed to spot them as they frantically waved for help.

In 2011, authorities investigated a dive boat company that accidentally left behind a U.S. tourist snorkeling at the reef.