A Tasmanian coroner has formally identified the body of a 17-year-old fisherman who drowned in 1959, more than 66 years after his death went unresolved.
Graham Ronald Pettman died on December 19, 1959, when his dinghy sank near Yellow Bluff, south of Eaglehawk Neck.
Pettman and his older brother Neville, 19, were trying to pull in a cray pot stuck in kelp when their 18-foot dinghy flooded and sank.
Both brothers entered the water. Neither was wearing a life jacket.
Neville was rescued by a fisherman, but Graham, a weak swimmer, did not resurface.
Police divers searched the area but found no trace of him.
On December 31, 1959, the badly decomposed body of a young man was recovered from the sea near Pulpit Rocks, about nine kilometres north of where Pettman went missing.
The body could not be positively identified at the time. A former coroner recorded an open finding for an unknown male and Pettman was listed as missing.
Pettman’s family always believed the body was his.
They had been told it was buried at Cornelian Bay Cemetery as an unknown male, but burial records could not be located.
The case was reopened in 2020 after a police review and a request from Graham’s surviving brother.
Checks found no evidence Graham was alive and no one else had been reported missing in the area at the time.
In findings released last month, Coroner Madeleine Wilson concluded the Pulpit Rocks body was that of Graham Pettman.
“I convey my sincere condolences to the family and loved ones of Mr Pettman,” she said.
