THE wife of a Cranbourne West man who drowned while trying to rescue two children at Lysterfield Lake has described her husband as a good and loving man.
Kelekolio Latu, 34, disappeared when swimming towards his 11-year-old daughter and 12-year-old nephew, who were in a dinghy, at around 4pm on Sunday.
His body was found several hours later by officers from the Victoria Police search and rescue squad.
The children made it back to shore unharmed.
Mr Latu’s wife Matu said her husband was a committed family man who loved sport.
“He was a good man to everyone and he loved family and sport, particularly rugby,” she said.
Mr Latu, a printer, moved from New Zealand four years ago and settled in Cranbourne West.
Mrs Latu said the grief stricken family had received plenty of support from the family and friends.
“We are trying to get everything arranged, but we have had great support from both family and the community,” she said.
Family and friends will travel from New Zealand for the funeral service for the father of two.
The tragedy occurred after the children’s boat became stuck in reeds.
Mr Latu swam towards them to assist, but started to struggle before disappearing underwater.
Other swimmers went to his assistance but were unable to locate him.
Narre Warren SES crews were among the first on the scene, helping organise the search of the lake.
Incident controller Nicky Turner said three Narre Warren trucks were at the lake within 40 minutes of receiving the emergency call.
She said the fast response showed the importance of local emergency volunteers.
“We had one crew on the bank searching around the lake and another on a boat with an ambulance officer,” she said.
“We were up and running within 40 minutes compared to the couple of hours it took for the police search and rescue to come up from Geelong.”
Ms Turner said the local volunteers were touched by the tragic afternoon’s events, but had the benefits of experience and counselling.
“The SES has really got good support and we have a proper debrief, but it takes a certain kind of person to be able to do this work,” she said.
