Cruise Passenger Tragically Dies After Being Left Behind On Remote Australian Island

It's uncommon to get left behind at a cruise port, but it does happen occasionally. Tragedy struck an Australian family on October 25, 2025, when 80-year-old Suzanne Rees was left behind by her cruise ship on a remote island in the Great Barrier Reef, one of Australia's top coastal getaways. Earlier that day, she disembarked the Coral Adventurer for a shore excursion on Lizard Island. The experience included a hike up to "Cook's Look," which is famously associated with Captain James Cook's 1770 voyage through the reef. Sadly, Rees never made it back to the ship, and the incident is raising questions about what went wrong.

Most descriptions say the hike to Cook's Look has steep segments, so completing the roughly 2.5-mile trek is challenging for most. Along the hike up, Rees wasn't feeling well. Rees was then reportedly asked to return to the ship — on her own (via AP News). "Then the ship left, apparently without doing a passenger count. At some stage in that sequence, or shortly after, Mum died, alone," Rees' daughter Katherine told the outlet.

The ship's crew didn't realize she was missing until later that night, with police alerted at 11:45 p.m. Her body was found the next day about 50 meters off the trail. While this incident is under investigation by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) and Queensland authorities, they described the circumstances of her death as "sudden and non-suspicious." But Rees's family wants answers, and they've requested a coronial inquest into the tragedy. "I hope that the coronial inquiry will find out what the company should have done that might have saved Mum's life," Katherine Rees said, according to Australia's ABC News.

Getting left behind is one of the least unsettling reasons to avoid taking a cruise because of the many safety protocols in place. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) requires ships like the Coral Adventurer to maintain regular headcounts recorded in the ship's logbook for passenger safety. However, sources have alleged that this time, the crew failed to account for all passengers before departing. AMSA said in a statement it would "make an assessment as to whether there was any non-compliance associated with the passenger not being counted onto the ship and, if necessary, will take action to address them."

Cruise expert Adrian Tassone told the Daily Mail: "This ship held a maximum of 120 passengers, so I struggle to understand how a headcount wasn't conducted. Typically, you get on a cruise ship and you scan a card that is your key card, which indicates when you're on and off the ship. ... I don't know if Coral Expeditions operates in a different manner to that, but I am really surprised something more robust isn't in place that should have prevented this from happening." According to The Australian, the victim's daughter believes, from the information they have so far, that there was "a failure of care and common sense."

The hours between Suzanne Rees being left behind and the discovery of her disappearance by staff were undoubtedly critical. While some speculate that she fell off a cliff, we can't say whether her death could have been prevented if only she were found earlier. Coral Expeditions said it's working with investigators, adding, "We have expressed our heartfelt condolences to the Rees family and remain deeply sorry that this has occurred."