A Melbourne man who died in a Gold Coast hotel pool while trying to save his daughter has been remembered as a hardworking, happy-go-lucky father who would do anything for his family.
Dharmvir Singh, 38, from Clyde North, died on Easter Sunday at the Top of the Mark apartment building in Surfers Paradise. His father Gurjinder Singh, 65, also died during the rescue.
His brother-in-law Lovejeet Singh said the pair had been sitting with their legs inside a spa beside the hotel pool when the tragedy occurred.
Singh said his sister had been carrying their youngest daughter when she lost her footing and the toddler fell into the pool. The toddler’s mother tried to pull her out, despite not being able to swim.
Dharmvir and Gurjinder rushed to help, but got into trouble themselves. Bystanders pulled both from the water and performed CPR, but were unable to save the men. The toddler and her mother were pulled from the water.
Dharmvir Singh and his father Gurjinder Singh died in a Gold Coast hotel pool on Easter Sunday.
Singh said he had caught the first available flight to the Gold Coast on Monday morning to be with the family, who were now back in Melbourne and trying to come to terms with their loss.
He said his sister and his brother-in-law had moved to Australia on student visas and had been married for about 10 years.
“They always wanted to get away on holidays whenever they got the time,” he said.
“It’s really hard for the family ... for all of us.”
Singh said he wanted to Dharmvir to be remembered as “one of the wisest men I ever met” and his father as “a good man who tried to save his son”.
A family spokesperson told Nine News that Gurjinder was retired but “still full of life”.
Close friend Hunny Sharma said Dharmvir was a hardworking man who was always laughing.
“I just can’t stop thinking about him and how these things could have happened,” Sharma said.
“We lost a good man.”
Sharma, who has known Dharmvir since the pair lived together in Springvale almost 20 years ago, said his friend had always worked multiple jobs to give his family the best possible life in Australia.
Sharma said Dharmvir had worked as a manager at Coles while driving for Uber and the bus company Ventura. “He was buying his investment property and was very happy. Everything was good,” Sharma said.
“[Dharmvir had] been working hard so long and that was a time now to relax just with the family and enjoy this time and now he’s not around there for them. That was shocking.”
Ventura managing director Andrew Cornwall said Dharmvir had worked as a driver at the Seaford depot for more than five years.
Cornwall said Dharmvir was much loved by all the employees and their thoughts were with his family. “We are deeply saddened to lose a lovely member of the Ventura bus driving team,” he said.
Indian community leader Charan Sodhi said the Easter tragedy had been all the more shocking because it was not a one-off.
In January, four members of an Indian-Australian family from the neighbouring suburb of Clyde died on Phillip Island – Victoria’s worst drowning tragedy in almost two decades. It sparked calls for better signage and more education about water safety within multicultural communities.
Sodhi, a spokesperson for Pakenham-based Baba Budha Ji Sports Club, said more needed to be done to prevent future drownings among migrant populations in Australia.
He said migrant families were typically moving to capital cities where visiting the beach was a way of life and that people moving from India to Australia had often not taken swimming lessons and had little knowledge of beach conditions.
In addition to swimming lessons for children, Sodhi said he would love to see the government provide free or subsidised lessons to adults who’ve recently settled in Australia.
Sodhi said the fact that Dharmvir and Gurjinder drowned in a pool was beyond understanding. “It has shocked and shaken the community,” he said. “It shouldn’t have happened in this way.”
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan on Wednesday offered her sympathies to the family.
“To have such a holiday conclude in such a tragic and terrible set of circumstances must be devastating for those family members, particularly given they were going into to protect another family member,” she said.
Asked about government initiatives to improve water safety, Allan said swimming programs and information targeting multicultural communities were available.
“Again, there will be investigations into what happened in this incident in Queensland, so I don’t want to cut across and presumed what may or may not have happened in this incidence,” she said.
“Today, I think our focus should be on supporting the family and the loved ones who have gone through such a terrible tragedy at a time when they were hoping to enjoy a really lovely holiday.”
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2024-04-02 08:02:45Z
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