Queensland Police reported in a press release that emergency services were alerted around 2:30pm local time after Honor, a 17-year-old girl, fell from a waterfall at Wappa Falls and did not reappear.
Honor was swimming upstream when she was caught in the strong currents and was swept over the falls.
Beau, who was with Honor at the time, leaped into the water to rescue her, but he too disappeared below the surface, according to police reports.
At approximately 2:50pm, Queensland Fire Department and Police divers initiated a search and rescue mission, eventually discovering Honor’s body in the water at 3:30pm.
Beau’s body was located four hours later, also unresponsive and declared deceased.
The two were former students of Sunshine Beach State High School, which expressed its sorrow, stating it was ‘heartbroken’ over the loss of Honor and Beau.
Family and friends have shared their grief, with Beau’s father, Adam Liddell, describing his son as ‘liked by everyone’.
“Everyone’s just destroyed at the moment,” he shared with ABC News.
Adam noted that Beau’s attempt to save Honor demonstrated his selfless nature.
“He’d put himself in danger just to help someone,” he remarked, also mentioning that Beau was one of four siblings.
Phoebe Loynd-Andersson, a friend of Honor’s, told ABC that Honor was ‘always there for everybody, no matter what she was going through herself’.
“As soon as I met her, she just immediately took me in, and I was just one with her and the group — we all just loved her,” Phoebe expressed.
“[She] just wanted to be there for other people and she would encourage people.”
Warning signs at Wappa Falls caution visitors about ‘heavy currents, deep water and submerged boulders’, yet Adam Liddell believes more preventive measures could be implemented to avert future tragedies.
Tragically, Honor and Beau are not the first to have perished at this swimming location; since 2007, at least three others have died at Wappa Falls, as reported by ABC.
In the aftermath of Beau’s passing, a GoFundMe page has been established to assist his family with funeral costs.