Inquest into the Suspected Death of John (Jack) Edward CARTER
Deceased
John (Jack) Edward CARTER
Demographics
61y, male
Date of death
1965-12-10
Finding date
2019-11-14
Cause of death
Drowning
AI-generated summary
John Edward Carter, aged 61, died by drowning on 10 December 1965 after being swept from rocks at Sugar Loaf Rock by a freak wave while fishing with his wife. He initially surfaced and appeared to swim strongly but was struck by a second large wave, thrown into rocks, and rendered unconscious. Despite rescue attempts by his wife and a bystander, he was lost in the ocean. The death was found to have occurred by misadventure. This long-term missing person case was investigated and established through witness evidence 54 years after the incident to enable proper registration of death.
AI-generated summary and tagging — may contain inaccuracies; refer to original finding for legal purposes.
Clinical conditions
Contributing factors
- Freak wave swept deceased from rock face
- Second wave struck deceased and caused head injury from impact with rock
- Ocean current prevented movement away from rocks
- Unconsciousness from head injury following second immersion
- Environmental hazard - dangerous wave conditions at Sugar Loaf Rock
Full text
Source and disclaimer
This page reproduces or summarises information from publicly available findings published by Australian coroners' courts. Coronial is an independent educational resource and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of any coronial court or government body.
Content may be incomplete, reformatted, or summarised. All court orders for redaction and non-publication are respected; documents with technically defective redaction have been excluded from the database entirely. Always refer to the original court publication for the authoritative record.
Copyright in original materials remains with the relevant government jurisdiction. AI-generated summaries and tagging are for educational purposes only, may contain inaccuracies, and must not be treated as legal documents. We welcome feedback for correction —