A coronial inquest into the drowning death of an international tourist on a South Australian snorkelling tour is expected to hear the tour company was operating outside of its permit zone and with limited rescue and first aid equipment on board.
Ardebby Oh Chua, 41, drowned while participating in a "Swim with the sea lions tour" hosted by Adventure Bay Charters near Port Lincoln on the state's Eyre Peninsula in December 2017.
The Philippines national was on holiday in Australia with her parents and siblings when she set out on the boat and swimming tour with 19 other participants and four staff members on board.
Counsel assisting the coroner, Emma Roper, told the Coroner's Court Ms Chua, who had told staff she was a weak swimmer, was found face down and unresponsive in the ocean after about 30 to 40 minutes of swimming in the ocean.
"This inquest will explore how it was that Ms Chua drowned while participating in a commercial snorkelling tour," Ms Roper told the court.
"Your honour might hear during this inquest that the area selected on this day was outside the permit zone allocated to the tour company by the Department for Environment and Water.
"Attention will also necessarily turn to the adequacy of first aid and rescue supplies on board … bearing in mind the distance between the snorkelling site and the nearest hospital.
"Ultimately, it may be suggested to your honour … that open water snorkelling is an activity that is sufficiently, inherently dangerous as to warrant a more comprehensive legislative regime, such as the regime that was first implemented in Queensland in 2011."
No flotation device on board, court told
Ms Roper told the court that "fortuitously" there were two "very experienced health professionals" on the tour that day, including the then vice-dean of medicine at the University of New South Wales, Bill Ledger, who tried to conduct CPR in the water.
"Professor Ledger is expected to tell the court that he swam back to the boat to look for any kind of board that they could use to carry Ms Chua back to the boat," Ms Roper said.
"He believed her best chance of survival would be if CPR could be conducted upon a hard surface.
"However, he was told there was no surfboard or anything of that nature on the boat.
"Accordingly, the group obtained some life jackets and those were placed under Ms Chua to hold her up.
"The Ledger family and others then took turns performing CPR."
The court also heard there were no flotation or inflation devices, defibrillators or adrenaline on board.
"Once on board the boat, Mrs Ledger (a retired nurse and Professor Ledger's wife) went to find the first aid equipment," Ms Roper told the court.
"She found the first aid box and opened it, looking for an airway device or other resuscitation equipment.
"However, all she could locate were plasters, bandages and a mask."
The court heard people continued to perform CPR on Ms Chua for the 60-minute boat ride from the snorkelling site back to Tumby Bay, but she was pronounced dead at the Tumby Bay Hospital.
The court heard Ms Chua did show some signs of life at one point, with the inquest expected to probe whether Ms Chua's death was initially prevented by resuscitation efforts.
The inquest will also explore whether the tour operator had satisfactory risk management procedures in place and adequate policies and procedures to gain information about the tour participants' swimming ability, physical health and English proficiency.
It is also expected to examine the instructions given to participants about how to use the snorkelling equipment and how to attract attention if they got into trouble in the water
The inquest before coroner Naomi Kereru is expected to begin at the end of March in Port Lincoln.
