“They didn’t even swim there, he was sitting on the rock and must have slipped. They were having so much fun.” Ms Bading was also enjoying the picturesque surrounds when she suddenly heard screaming. "We got halfway out where the water was very deep, then all these people started screaming and pointing," she said. "At that point we had no idea what was going on. We thought some sort of animal was in the water. We couldn’t understand what was going on and they kept screaming and pointing." Ms Bading and her friends swam to the shore where the commotion was happening.

"One girl grabbed my GoPro stick ... I then clicked someone was drowning."

Ms Bading, an administration and accounting worker from Coburg, said the girl used the camera stick to try to find the man in the water, but it was to no avail.

Anneka Bading was filming herself and her friends on a hot day at the waterfall in the Grampians when tragedy struck. Credit:Anneka Bading The group of Taiwanese friends also grabbed a log and started walking into the water with it to try to find the man, Ms Bading said. "[But] they realised it was way too deep and came back."

She said there were more than 40 people – including an off-duty lifeguard – at the falls. “[The lifeguard] jumped in ... but he said it [was] so deep and the pressure was intense,” she said. “We all told him not to risk it. Thank God he didn’t. “Everyone didn’t know what to do and we couldn’t understand [the victim’s friends]. My legs were shaking when I knew what was going on, but no one knew what to do. "No one could see him at all."

Ms Bading said she tried to dial triple zero, only to discover there was no phone reception in the area. “I got out of the water and tried to call triple zero, asking everyone if they had [phone] service. Not one person had service." Ms Bading said she ran up a steep flight of stairs and about one kilometre to the carpark to reach her car. She drove for 10 minutes before she finally got phone reception. All the while she was frantically trying to dial triple zero and catch her breath in the stifling heat. Ms Bading said she was told by emergency services that there was a rock shelf under the water beneath the falls, which may have trapped the man.

The man's body was found about 9.30am on Sunday. Ms Bading said she was angry there was no phone reception and claimed there were inadequate warning signs about the dangers of swimming at the falls. She said it was all the more galling given the tragic events of Christmas day in 2004, when four members of the same family drowned at MacKenzie Falls during a family picnic. She said she would lodge a complaint with Parks Victoria and had spoken to many people who witnessed the event and planned to do the same. The ordeal, Ms Bading she said, had left her horrified.

“We were swimming to where he was under the falls,” she said. “It could’ve been us. You just don’t know how powerful it is. We all cried on the way back saying how lucky we were to be alive.” Parks Victoria chief operating officer Simon Talbot said there were three signs at MacKenzie Falls advising visitors that swimming was prohibited. “We’re terribly saddened by this incident at MacKenzie Falls,” he said in a statement. “In all of the state’s national parks and reserves it’s important for visitors to observe warning signs and the advice of park rangers.”

Mr Talbot said it was "extremely challenging" to get mobile phone reception at the base of the falls but Telstra was exploring options for coverage in the carpark. Ms Bading called for better mobile phone reception and more signage to improve safety in the area.