Mother and Son Fall Over 600-foot Cliff

Horowhenua Chronicle, 30 April 1931, Page 3

Mother and Son Fall Over 600-foot Cliff

TRAGEDY AT MOUNTAIN RESORT.

Received Wednesday, 7.50 p.m. SYDNEY, April 29.

The body of Mrs. Vera Bailey, aged 36, was found impaled on a tree on the mountainside at Katoomba. Her son, aged nine, was discovered on a rocky ledge nearby with his hip broken and unconscious.

The pair had fallen nearly 600 feet at Echo Point, a favourite resort, and had been missing since yesterday afternoon. Rescuers had considerable difficulty in recovering the mother’s mutilated body. She had lately had a nervous breakdown.

When the injured son, William Bailey, recovered consciousness, he told the story of his mother’s disappearance while he was absent playing about the swing. He found his mother’s hat on a seat above the cliff and called to her. Getting no response he began to climb down the cliff and fell many feet. Then he saw her body in a tree in the chasm below and pluckily tried to reach her. He fell twenty feet to another ledge and broke his hip. He then remembered no more. He spent the night in bitter cold sleet and was found by the Park rangers today.