There are now ten people confirmed dead, including nine Australians.

Berend Hollander, 16, and his brother Matthew Hollander, 13, were killed while visiting the site. The pair attended Knox Grammar School in Wahroonga, on Sydney’s north shore, where their father also went to school.

“It is with the greatest sadness that I can confirm that Matthew Hollander (Year 8) and Berend (known as ‘Ben’) Hollander (Year 10) have passed away in hospital as a result of injuries sustained in the White Island volcano eruption,” the school’s headmaster Scott James wrote in a letter to parents. “Please take some time to reflect on the lives of Matthew and Ben and this devastating loss for our community.

“Matthew was a vibrant member of the Class of 2023. He was involved in cadets and representing the school in basketball, squash and debating. He was elected as a Mentor Representative in 2018/19. Matthew had a close circle of friends and was popular among his peers. He was always enthusiastic about life and was actively involved in school and year group activities.

Ben was actively engaged in sports and co-curricular activities at Knox, developing a passion for AFL, cadets, CRU and his biggest passion, baseball. He had a great love for the outdoors and camp. Ben was a compassionate and enthusiastic student, with an interest in software design. Ben’s engaging smile and quirky sense of humour made him a good mate to his close group of friends and a welcome member to every classroom.”




so sorry   their mum and dad are still missing......
RIP boys.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/world/whakatne-mayor-judy-turner-defends-...

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has not ruled out continued tourism operations around White Island.

Asked whether Monday’s eruption signalled the end of tours there, Ms Ardern said it was one of a number of questions that needed to be asked, but the immediate focus was on survivors.

“Tourism operations have been undertaken there for several decades, up to 30 years, and it’s been a live volcano throughout that time, and at various times has been at level two [alert level], but it is a very unpredictable volcano,” she said.

“There will be questions that will be asked and they will need to be answered by the appropriate authorities, and we will be ensuring that that happens,” Ms Ardern said.

It has been estimated that 10,000 people visit the volcanic site each year, making it the primary tourism destination in the Whakatāne region.

Helicopter tours to the island – also known as Whakaari – commenced in 1987.

According to the Whakatāne District Council, tourism contributes over $100 million to the local economy, and the industry employs 10 per cent of the total workforce.

In a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, Whakatāne Mayor Judy Turner said she wanted tourism operations to the site to continue.

White Island Tours is an absolutely iconic business, not just for Whakatāne, but for New Zealand, and has been successfully operating under the procedures that would be expected of them for 30 years,” she said.

“I have been out with them and was very impressed with the briefings that we were given and the attention to health and safety protocols that were done at the time. I’m very confident that they’re a safe practitioner.”

Ms Turner said Monday’s disaster would have an immediate impact on local tourism, but the longer term effect was “yet to be seen”.

Local cafe owner Ethan Poulton said: “That mistake affects everyone – all the businesses around here.

“It is terrible that people have been hurt but now we are worried on what this will mean for the rest of the summer. The volcano brings people to Whakatane,” the owner of the Double Zero cafe said.

Professor Ross Dowling, Honorary Professor at the School of Business and Law at Edith Cowan University, said ‘volcano tourism’ was a worldwide trend.

“Part of the attraction is to visit an unpredictable natural environment and for most tourists they assume that they will be able to visit such dangerous sites in relative safety,” Prof Dowling said.


A Royal Geographical Society study by University of Cambridge geographer Amy Donovan warned that “volcano tourists” put themselves and overstretched rescue services in danger.

She said “volcanophiles” were fascinated by the elemental power of the earth, particularly rushing towards erupting volcanoes.

“You can breathe the gas, hear the sounds the earth is making. They want to get closer to feel the power of the earth,” she said.

But they did not realise the dangers of being hit by falling rock or lava bombs and the poisonous gases released by the superheated molten rock, she added.


money over LIFE I guess....... the ripple effect will go on and on  just like it will for those who survive...

...can we really put MONEY ahead of life and or everlasting injury????

absolutely bobby   but in this case those who didnt go  or even those who did  say there was no warning...

ts a money maker thats for sure  did you read the Mayors words.... ..

I dont think I would be saying that at this stage...

lets not forget NZs are used to living in volatile conditions   land shaking and all that  evil smelling gas coming out of cracks in the road ..... is quite normal...


those that have been rescued  will never be the same this is what gets me  they didnt stand a chance....and the rest of their lives they will pay for that adventure.

cods wrote on Dec 12^th, 2019 at 5:30pm:



I think the people knew the risk.

cods wrote on Dec 12^th, 2019 at 6:00pm:


They probably rate the risk according to how much money they didn't make in the week before

It was just on TV that the rating "2" has been the rating for quite a while. Complacency may have set in, and it seems there was a lack of communication between the monitors of seismic activity and the tour guide company

The rating should have been "3" apparently. "3" means stop the tours for a while

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/world/new-zealand-government-exempt-of-vo...

The New Zealand Government has absolved itself of any liability over the volcano eruption that killed up to 13 people and injured 30 others, with victims and families facing potentially lengthy delays in receiving compensation.

All levels of government from the local council through to the minister responsible for offshore territories have said White Island was the sole responsibility of tour operators and the private trust company that owned it.

The declaration comes as public grief has turned to frustration and anger over a befuddled co-ordination of the recovery of at least eight bodies left on the island.

Eight people are confirmed dead, another eight pronounced missing presumed dead and 25 remain in critical condition in hospital after White Island erupted on Monday with 47 tourists on the atoll.

Today, to relieve the tension the government buckled to public pressure and offered to conduct “a quick uplift” of the eight bodies on the island as opposed to what they initially suggested would be a long drawn out process involving a crime scene and WorkSafe NZ investigation.

The disaster has also put enormous pressure on Australia’s burns units that had already donated 10,000 sq cm of skin to New Zealand counterparts and now needed more themselves to cope with treating those Australian victims being repatriated.

The donor skin acts as a type of temporary biological dressing for serious burns patients as their own skin grows for grafting later on.

Severely burnt victims could need anywhere up to 30,000 square centimetres of skin.

Police Minister Stuart Nash conceded he had demanded a greater level of transparency in what authorities were doing not just for the recovery of the bodies but for their families and survivors in hospitals around the country.

“You can imagine there is a degree of frustration, I mean I can imagine that but what we have decided is that perhaps the level of communication needs to be just a little bit more robust to ensure that victims families are up to date the whole time,” he said.

“The level of communication with the families will increase.”

The comment came after police abruptly ended a press conference and refused to answer questions and also when they announced a criminal investigation only to two hours later back track and say it was a coronial inquiry.

Lawyers said the dropping of the “criminal” word suggested authorities no longer wanted to predetermine the possibility of criminal negligence of taking tourists to the active volcano.

New Zealand has a public insurance compensation scheme were tourists and residents can apply for monetary compensation for a physical or mental injury without having to prove in court anyone identifiable person particularly was at fault.

But the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) would be infinitely less than a criminal case finding against tour operators or the cruise liner Royal Caribbean who effectively endorsed the operators by offering the trip to its passengers.

The Australian government has not weighed in yet on financial relief for families facing huge medical costs to have victims treated for burns, in some cases of up to 70 per cent of their bodies.

However, defence will absorb the costs of the ADF component of the repatriation efforts.

As police and WorkSafe investigators look at Kiwi bureaucracy today denied they had authority over the volcanic outcrop.

Whakatane District Mayor Judy Turner declined to be interviewed by News Corp Australia but said the only point she wanted to make was despite the island being off her Bay of Plenty shore, her council had no control or authority over it.

Ms Turner said the Department of Internal Affairs was responsible.

The department said no, the responsibility sat with the Local Government MP and Minister for Māori Development and Local Government and Associate Minister for the Environment Nanai Mahuta.

A departmental spokeswoman said they only supported the minister in her work and had no role in licensing of activities or looking at compliance.

Ms Mahuta said while she may have responsibility for New Zealand’s offshore islands that responsibility did not extend to access, tourism or health and safety.

She said it was a private island and she had no role.

“I do not have consenting or permitting responsibilities for he activities of tourism operators and I do not have health and safety responsibilities for the operations of private businesses such as tour operators,” she said.

“This is the responsibility of local operators on the island, they are registered by WorkSafe NZ.”

The Bay of Plenty Regional Council agreed it too had no powers or legislative responsibility to what occurs on the island but only had an agreement to respond if there was an emergency such as the eruption on Monday.

Some New Zealand families have had to set up social media funding page appeals for money for treatment and funerals of loved ones.




ahh the buck passing has started...

it didnt take long!

No one is a criminal in New Zealand any more, proving wrongdoing isn't necessary to get an insurance payout in NZ. So the Operators can be as negligent as they like it would seem. Just get your skin graft and put it down to experience

In New Zealand, everyone's covered by public indemnity insurance.

While this scheme has an equal share of detractors and champions, some have suggested that removing the need to prove fault may end up exposing people to greater levels of risk

.


https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-12/new-zealand-whakaari-white-island-disaste...