Daughter of Suzanne Rees reveals she had to request a refund after her mum died on cruise ship shore excursion

• A 60 Minutes report on the death of Suzanne Rees has revealed more details about the incident and its aftermath.
• Investigations into the incident are still ongoing.
• Coral Expedition shared a statement, admitting failures in safety procedures.

Almost six months on from the tragic death of Suzanne Rees, many questions remain over her death. But surprising revelations about the aftermath, including the fact that her family had to request a refund, have come to light in an investigation by Channel 9’s 60 Minutes.

Rees was cruising with Coral Expeditions around Australia and was on an organised hiking excursion on Lizard Island, in the Great Barrier Reef, when she began feeling unwell. According to the report, the 81-year-old was allegedly sent back down the difficult trail to wait on the beach by herself but it appears she got lost and never made it to the meeting point. Shockingly, the cruise ship sailed off without her, not realising she hadn’t boarded for around five hours.

Rees sadly died alone on Lizard Island from heatstroke. 

Investigations into her death by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority are ongoing and no findings have been made public up until now.

60 Minutes recently aired a segment on the tragedy, during which Suzanne’s daughter Kate Rees, and Kate’s husband Andrew Cowie revealed what they perceive as poor treatment from Coral Expeditions and its owner NRMA, which describes itself as a “help” company.

Kate said Queensland police turned up on her doorstep and asked if her mother was home. This was the first real indication something was very wrong.

Cowie said “We had one contact from the company on Sunday, six hours after she was discovered and then we didn’t hear anything for two days, then we had a phone call from the CEO of the cruise company, saying that he’d been away travelling.

“Then we did get contact from NRMA, but by then we felt like a loose end that needed to be tied.”

The family says they still don’t know many basic details of the incident and exactly what happened.

When asked when the cruise company realised that Suzanne was missing, the couple responded: “We don’t know, they haven’t told us. Reports were that she was obviously missing at dinner and that’s when they realised.”

Kate also revealed that she had to ask the company for a refund of her mother’s $30,000 trip after they learned from a media report that all other passengers would be getting their money back.

“It’s also good that in the paper they mentioned that they would be refunding everyone’s passage, but they didn’t refund Sue’s. I had to ask them to refund that money. For the trip that she didn’t actually get to go on.

“I was pretty horrified that I actually had to ask. It’s like ripping the band-aid back off again.”

Adam Cutri, a commercial disputes lawyer, is now working with the family.

He told 60 Minutes: “From a legal perspective, it’s difficult to know what happened, or how it happened.”

However, he called it “indisputable” that Suzanne did not make a choice to be left behind.

Coral Expeditions shared a statement, admitting failures in safety procedures that day, and says it has introduced new safety measures since the incident.

“The death of Suzanne Rees on Lizard Island was devastating. We are deeply sorry to Ms Rees’ family for their loss and the distress and hurt her death has caused. 

“While Coral Expeditions had comprehensive safety systems and procedures in place, we acknowledge some of these were not adequately implemented on this tragic day.

“Ms Rees’ death has shocked our people to the core and we will continue to co-operate fully with the ongoing investigations. Coral Expeditions has introduced additional systems and procedures to further strengthen protections for our guests.”