A 10-year-old girl visiting from Australia died on Thursday when she fell into Marian Creek. Photo: Unsplash / Tomas Sobek
Fiordland locals are devastated a 10-year-old girl from Australia died after being swept down a creek in Fiordland National Park.
Emergency services were alerted shortly after 11.30am on Thursday when the girl fell into Marian Creek.
The girl was found and removed from the fast-moving water a short time later, but was unable to be revived.
Southland District Council mayor Rob Scott told Morning Report's Corin Dann that Marian Creek was a "pretty special place" and the quality of the water made it one of the main tourist attractions in the area.
The track up to Marian Lake is a "harder day walk", but where the incident happened was "fairly accessible - a lot of people go there".
A map showing Marian Creek and surrounding areas. Photo: Screenshot / Department of Conservation
That part of Fiordland had seen a lot of rain recently, when a weather bomb "hammered" the West Coast, but the weather yesterday was standard for the area, he said.
Scott had not spoken to the girl's family, but the incident was "just heartbreaking".
"I can imagine they're going through a very tough time."
The police had been providing support for the family and liaising with the Australian embassy.
When asked if there needed to be an investigation into the state of the track, he said he thought it was OK.
"But there might be an investigation... and it's early days on that. It's just such a huge tragedy."
