The young boy’s family held a vigil at the scene as police and a team of divers desperately searched for him, with the child later recovered in the early hours of this morning
A little boy who vanished down a drainpipe while swimming in Australia has tragically been found dead.
Police divers found the body of the boy, aged nine, at about 1.45 am on Wednesday (September 23), about eight hours after he was reported as entering the drainpipe earlier that day in the Northern Territory (NT).
The boy was swimming at a weir at the Katherine Low Level nature reserve, south of Katherine, at about 5.15 pm on Tuesday when he vanished into the drain.
The weir, found just south of the regional town of Katherine, is popular with locals and families alike. The frequently-used Outback swimming hole is about 1025 miles north of Uluru, the nation’s red centre.
The young boy’s family held a vigil at the scene as police and a team of divers desperately searched for him, with the child later recovered in the early hours of this morning.
NT Police Commander Neil Hayes said the incident was “an incredibly tragic incident, and we are providing welfare to the attending members”.
“Our thoughts are with the boy’s family,” he added.
NT Police have launched an investigation into the incident and a report will be prepared for the coroner.
This is not the first time someone has entered the water at Katherine Low Level and has not returned.
In fact, the Daily Mail Australia reports that it has uncovered multiple reports of locals dying and multiple near-drownings at the weir over recent decades.
One man, who was swimming in the weir in 1972, said he “came so close” to drowning after he swam at what he called the ‘topside’ of the dam wall.
“I tried swimming out (and) screaming, “Help!” to my two buddies standing on the bridge. I kept going forward then being pulled back and under,” he said.
“I was exhausted and I remember thinking this is the last time I can survive being pulled under again.
“Somehow my legs came up to the top of the water and I got out of the undertow – I was so damned lucky that day.”
Another local added that he had lost an “old school friend” at the same weir back in 1990.
“He went home to Katherine for the school holidays from boarding school and never came back,” he said.
“From what I understand, he drowned at the Low Level.”
Another person said a young man drowned there in the early 1960s due to a fault in the weir, but that was later fixed.
Some such tragedies have been documented at the Katherine Museum, an eclectic collection of local histories that include artefacts, photographs, maps, and pioneer memorabilia housed in a former World War II regional air terminal.
An entry at the museum regarding the weir at Low Level Bridge states that the place that has “brought a lot of sadness” to local families throughout recent decades.
“The river looks so inviting, but sometimes nature’s force has other ideas, and it is not safe to swim at the weir, especially while in flood,” reads a text written on previous drowning tragedies at the nature reserve
“Local families have lost loved ones while swimming near and at this bridge. Many people have swam at this bridge not knowing that the current at the weir has a capacity to hold you with force against the concrete wall.”
The passage ends with: “The river looks so inviting, but sometimes nature’s force has other ideas, and it is not safe to swim at the weir, especially while in flood.”
It is not known what depth the weir was at when the young boy was sucked into the drainpipe and drowned, but it is impassable during the majority of the NT’s wet season, which spans from December to April. During the tropical storm season, water levels are understood to rise to about 40 feet.
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