This photo from a popular waterfall in Australia accidentally captured the moment a Taiwanese man drowned (Picture: Anneka Bading)

A woman discovered she had captured the moment a man drowned after scrawling through photos of her trip to a popular waterfall.

Anneka Brading filmed herself swimming alongside two friends at MacKenzie Falls in the Grampians National Park, west of Melbourne, Australia on Saturday.

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Moments later, a 28-year-old man slipped and fell into the water.

Despite his friends desperately trying to save him, the man from Taiwan drowned.


After searching through GoPro footage from her trip, Anneka discovered her selfie had captured the moment the man slipped in the water and drowned behind her.

A group of people can be seen on rocks near a waterfall in the background frantically trying to rescue the man. His body was recovered at 9.30am the next day.



The 24-year-old said she heard his friends screaming and pointing at the water.

A general view of MacKenzie Falls in the Grampians National Park, Victoria, Australia (Picture: AAP)

‘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,’ she told The Stawell Times.

She said it wasn’t until a female friend of the man grabbed her GoPro stick that she realised someone was drowning. They then attempted to raise the alarm using their phones.

‘I got out of the water and tried to call triple zero, asking everyone if they had service. Not one person had service,’ Anneka said.

‘Everyone didn’t know what to do and we couldn’t understand [the man’s friends]. My legs were shaking when I knew what was going on but no one knew what to do.’

About 40 people were visiting the waterfall at the time, including an off-duty lifeguard who jumped in the water, but the pressure from the waterfall was too strong.

The 24-year-old, who said she didn’t see signs nearby prohibiting swimming, was only able to receive service after running a kilometre to the car park and driving for another 10 minutes.

She is now calling for better phone reception in the area.

Anneka said paramedics told her the man may have become trapped under a rock shelf. His body was recovered the following morning.

Authorities said there are three signs in the area prohibiting swimming and said mobile network Telstra was looking into extending coverage to the waterfall’s car park.