{"id":468137,"date":"2026-02-09T08:21:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T08:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/468137\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T08:21:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T08:21:15","slug":"family-demand-justice-after-five-year-old-brisbane-girl-drowns-at-fiji-waterfall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/468137\/","title":{"rendered":"Family demand ‘justice’ after five-year-old Brisbane girl drowns at Fiji waterfall"},"content":{"rendered":"

T\ufeffhe family of a five-year-old Brisbane<\/a> girl who drowned at a waterfall in Fiji has demanded answers over why their tour went ahead despite hazardous conditions.Lilly Wal was killed while on holiday in Fiji<\/a> in January after being swept away during torrential rain<\/a> at Biausevu Waterfall on the island of Viti Levu.<\/p>\n

Her body was discovered in a nearby river the following day.<\/p>\n

\"BiausevuBiausevu Waterfall in Fiji. (File image) (Google Maps)<\/p>\n

Lilly’s cousin Chiara Subek \u2013 who said she was speaking on behalf of Lilly’s mother Mary \u2013 alleged the tour operator did not adequately inform the family of the risks of visiting the waterfall during inclement weather.<\/p>\n

“What was meant to be a beautiful getaway for my aunty and her little family instead became the most traumatic experience,” Subek said in a post on social media.<\/p>\n

“My five-year-old cousin Lilly Wal passed away in Fiji due to a complete failure in duty of care.<\/p>\n

“The family was never properly briefed on the risks, never given safety warnings, and never told what to do if it started raining, despite locals later telling us that people are not supposed to go up to the waterfall when it is raining.”<\/p>\n

Subek claims Lilly and her family were taken to the waterfall without “proper \ufeffguidance” or “clear safety protocols”.<\/p>\n

She also alleged they were led to the tourist spot by a child who had no formal training nor was associated with the company.<\/p>\n

“On top of this mess, the tour guide company involved were clearly more focused on money than safety, overcharging my aunty and pushing the experience through despite the risks,” Subek continued.<\/p>\n

“After Lilly’s passing, there was a shocking lack of accountability and compassion.”<\/p>\n

Subek said local police blamed Lilly’s mother for her death and that the investigation had not been taken seriously.<\/p>\n

She called for “accountability, awareness and change”.\ufeff<\/p>\n

“We need justice for our sweet Lilly\ufeff,” she added.<\/p>\n

Fiji Police previ\ufeffously confirmed an investigation into Lilly’s death was ongoing.<\/p>\n

Nine.com.au<\/a> has contacted Fiji Police and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) for comment.\ufeff<\/p>\n

NEVER MISS A STORY: Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"T\ufeffhe family of a five-year-old Brisbane girl who drowned at a waterfall in Fiji has demanded answers over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-468137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}