By Mikayla van Loon
The death of a man has triggered a call from a coroner for more signage along a stretch of the Yarra River in Warrandyte warning of the dangerous conditions, paired with alcohol or drug use.
Frank Mellia, 39, was found dead after an extensive two day search of the river when friends reported him missing from Taroona Reserve on 14 January 2023.
Coroner Paul Lawrie found Mr Mellia’s death to be an unfortunate case of misadventure, mixed with a very high blood alcohol level resulting in his drowning.
Mr Mellia, who was living in Derrimut at the time, travelled to Warrandyte to meet friends around 2pm. Given the warm, high 30 degrees celsius temperature, the group had planned to swim.
Having packed a bag to stay with his friends that night in Ferntree Gully, when Mr Mellia arrived at Taroona Reserve he handed the bag to his friends to put in the car.
Mr Mellia walked to the river bank on his own and 15 minutes or so later, his two friends went in search of him but were unable to find him.
Given the warm summer day, it was said that there were around 40 people in and around the water “with some people standing in chest-deep water and others jumping into areas of deeper water”.
Searching both water and land for about an hour, Mr Mellia’s friends made their way to the Warrandyte Police Station to make a missing person’s report around 5.10pm.
It was picked up by Constable Watson at Doncaster Police Station and Mr Mellia’s friends disclosed that he may have been intoxicated and that he had a history of drinking and depression.
Earlier that day, at around 3.30pm, a separate report had been made by two members of the public who had witnessed a man struggling in a section of rapids.
“They had seen a male wearing a cap floating downstream treading water approximately 100 metres from where they were sitting on the riverbank in a secluded area,” the coroner’s report said.
“A short time later, he drifted into a section of rapids where they observed him go under the water and re-appear several times before going beneath the surface and failing to re-appear.
“They subsequently saw a cap floating along the river which they believed belonged to the man they had sighted but they were not sure whether he had exited the river at a spot they could not see.”
A search and rescue effort was established soon after, with police, airwing and SES volunteers patrolling around Taroona Reserve and Pound Bend Reserve, riverbanks and local bars and restaurants in Warrandyte.
Two days later, on 16 January, Mr Mellia’s body was found by an SES volunteer, near the entrance to the Pound Bend tunnel and approximately 650 metres downstream from the point he is thought to have entered the water.
A post-mortem examination and toxicological analysis confirmed drowning in the setting of a very high blood alcohol level was the cause of Mr Mellia’s death.
Mr Mellia had never had formal swimming lessons and was identified as not being “a strong or confident swimmer”.
“[The alcohol concentration] would have grossly impaired his judgement and his ability to properly coordinate his efforts to swim, or to get to safety once he found himself in faster flowing water. His latent swimming ability was limited and only exacerbated these dangers,” Mr Lawrie said.
Referencing the Royal Life Saving Society Australia’s National Drowning Report 2023, Mr Lawrie said rivers and creeks continue to be the lead drowning location across Australia, with 27 per cent occurring in this category of open water.
The Victorian Government ‘Water-Safety’ website stated in July 2024 that the “Yarra River is one of the top five river drowning black spots across Australia”, as referenced in the coroner’s report.
“Rivers are notorious for hidden dangers. Riverbeds are often uneven with difficult footing, deep holes and underwater obstructions. Stretches of difficult banks may make exit impossible,” Mr Lawrie said.
“Currents can be unpredictable, and the force of flowing water is often underestimated. The relevant stretch of the Yarra River at Warrandyte is no exception.”
As a response to Mr Mellia’s death, Mr Lawrie made the recommendation that Parks Victoria “review the signage warning the public of river hazards in the Warrandyte River Reserve” particularly warning of the “danger of alcohol or drugs in combination with use of the river”.
