N.S.W. TRAGEDY

Opunake Times, 12 September 1941, Page 3

N.S.W. TRAGEDY

BOYS DEOWN IN WELL FALL THROUGH COVERING Two boys were drowned in a disused well at Cootamundra, New South Wales, recently. A third boy, aged three, was rescued from the brink of the well by his nine-year-old brother. On? of the boys drowned was named Kelloher, aged three, and the other, named Graniand, was aged 10. Ken Fuller, aged three, was saved by hi £ brother Peter.

About 4 p.m. the four boys were playing among rubbish in a disused brewery. The rubbish covered an old well from which water had once been drawn to make beer. Its existence had been forgotten. The weight of the boys broke the decayed covering on the well and Kellehor and Granland fell in with a shower of brok’en bottles and rubbish.

Ken Fuller was struggling to keep himself from falling in when his brother Peter heard the noise of the falling bottles, ran over, and managed to pull him to safety.

When the lire brigade had pumped 20ft. of water from the well, Kellehor’s body was discovered in silt at the bottom of the well. The other boy’s body was recovered an hour later. Both had been extensively cut with broken glass.