Inquest into the death of Hayley McCurry-Parriman
Deceased
Hayley Lillian Rose McCurry-Parriman
Demographics
4y, female
Date of death
2001-10-14
Finding date
2002-05-01
Cause of death
Drowning in the waters of Lake Leanyer
AI-generated summary
Hayley Lillian Rose McCurry-Parriman, a 4-year-old Aboriginal girl, drowned at Lake Leanyer Recreation Park on 14 October 2001. She was part of a group of six children supervised by two adults. While playing in shallow water, she wandered into a deeper area and became submerged. The coroner found Lake Leanyer to be an unsafe recreational facility for children due to inadequate fencing, poor signage, lack of supervision, dangerous underwater ledges with algae-covered slopes, and limited water visibility. This was the second child drowning at the lake in 12 months. The coroner made extensive recommendations including proper fencing, improved signage, dedicated supervision, removal of the dangerous underwater ledge, water clarity improvements, and eventual redesign of the facility. The coroner noted that while supervision improvements may not have prevented this death, systemic safety deficiencies at the facility were significant contributing factors.
AI-generated summary and tagging — may contain inaccuracies; refer to original finding for legal purposes.
Contributing factors
- Inadequate fencing at Lake Leanyer Recreation Park
- Lack of supervision at the facility
- Dangerous underwater ledge with algae-covered concrete slope immediately adjacent to shallow children's area
- Poor visibility of water
- Inadequate warning signage
- No lifeguard or qualified water safety personnel on site
- Easy access for children to deep water from shallow area
- High ratio of children (6) to adult supervisors (2)
- Facility not operated to public pool safety standards
Coroner's recommendations
- Install proper fencing around the park bounds with self-closing gates similar to public suburban swimming pools
- Separately fence off the deeper water areas to prevent small children wandering into deep water
- Enclose all features and amenities designed for younger children into a specified small area
- Improve signage with greater use of pictorial signs, simplification, and better highlighting of important messages
- Install suitably qualified staff to provide proper emergency response, similar to public suburban swimming pools
- Remove the underwater ledge and concrete slope and replace with a gently-sloping bed constructed of non-slippery material
- Improve water visibility to ensure the bottom is visible to users
- Establish a Water Safety Council with representatives from KIDSAFE, RLSSANT, local and Territory Governments
- Consider transferring responsibility for operating Lake Leanyer from Parks and Wildlife Commission to an organisation better suited to operating a suburban swimming facility
- Retain consultants and engineers qualified and experienced in water safety for any redesign
- Install a public telephone at the park
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