Gold Coast Window Cleaner Falls 20m To Death

Police and emergency services at the scene of this morning’s tragedy.

Gold Coast Convention Centre window cleaner falls 20m to death (Australia): A man who plunged 20m to his death at the Gold Coast Convention Centre today has been revealed as an experienced abseiler from overseas, who was wearing safety gear when he fell.

Police say the man, 29, fell from the roof cavity of the main convention hall about 9.50am while performing maintenance work. “He was kitted up in full abseiling gear and he’s fallen approximately 20m,’’ Gold Coast police Senior Sergeant Angelique Maloney said. “He had safety harnesses and full abseiling gear.’’

Sen-Sgt Maloney said a Department of Workplace Health and Safety investigation was under way to determine how the man fell, with a specialist photographer called in to photograph the roof area. She said the man was an experienced abseiler worked for a Gold Coast industrial abseiling company. She said his family was being contacted through an overseas consulate.

Several co-workers with him when he fell were in shock and undergoing counselling, she said. It was the second workplace death on the Gold Coast this morning, following a fatal explosion at a Yatala oil-reclaiming factory. And it comes two weeks after two window cleaners miraculously survived a 12-storey plunge from a Sydney high-rise when the cable supporting their metal cage snapped.

Aerial view of the Gold Coast Convention Centre upon its completion in 2004.