Tanya McNab travels to New South Wales to attend vigil for missing British tourist

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The mother of a British tourist who went missing in Australia a week ago has visited the beach where his belongings were found.

Tanya McNab travelled to Shelly Beach in New South Wales to attend a vigil for Hugo Palmer and his friend Erwan Ferrieux, a French national, on Sunday.

“I’m feeling numb, completely numb. I have been since I heard the news,” she said.

Her son had been fulfilling his dream by visiting Australia, she said. Palmer, from East Sussex, and Ferrieux arrived in Australia in November and had been in the Port Macquarie area, 240 miles (390km) north of Sydney, since 17 February.

A major search, involving police and other emergency services, was launched after items belonging to the 20-year-olds were found on the beach at sunrise last Monday. Their rental car, a silver Commodore, was later found in the car park containing other belongings, including travel documents.

With no reported sightings of the pair, police said on Wednesday that they were scaling back their air and sea search, although sweeps of the area would continue. Insp Peter Neville said the search team remained hopeful of finding the men alive.

Locals and backpackers from Port Macquarie joined McNab and other members of Palmer’s family on the beach for the vigil. The belongings of the missing pair were arranged on the sand and flowers were laid.

One of the vigil’s organisers, Betsey Drake, told ABC: “We decided as a community we were missing them too, even though we never met them.”

Social media posts show the men spent time in Melbourne and Sydney and visited the Great Ocean Road before travelling north.