Scooter found as Murray River search for missing fisherman continues

The search concerned a 56-year-old man who had set out to fish near Nyah West on Thursday, November 5. ABC News’s account, published at 8:39am AEDT on November 6, described the continuing search effort. His whereabouts were unestablished in that report; no subsequent outcome has been verified for this article.⁠1

Nyah West lies north-west of Swan Hill, near the Victoria–New South Wales border. The man’s stated destination was Trotting Track along the Murray River. He had left a note for a friend that morning saying he was going fishing there, according to police information reproduced by The National Tribune. The note established his plan, rather than confirming that he reached the spot.⁠1⁠2

Victoria Police said witnesses saw the man, who uses a mobility scooter, driving toward the fishing spot at about 10:30am. That is the latest reported sighting of him in ABC’s account. A later observation concerned the fishing equipment, not the man himself—a distinction that matters to understanding the hours before the alarm was raised.⁠1

The campers were staying at a nearby recreation reserve. Their observation of the set-up at 3pm provides a point in the day’s chronology, but it does not establish that the man was there at that time. It cannot extend the last reported sighting from the morning into the afternoon. The account does not explain what happened after witnesses saw him heading toward Trotting Track.⁠1

A search of the river subsequently found what appeared to be a fishing set-up and a mobility scooter, along with some of the man’s possessions. Those discoveries gave searchers belongings associated with the missing man, but they did not establish his movements or what had happened to him. The report did not establish any injury or death.⁠1

Local police, the Victoria Police Air Wing and the State Emergency Service searched overnight from November 5 into November 6. Their operation covered the river, the riverbank, nearby tracks and the surrounding area. The reported effort was therefore broader than a search of the water alone, with both the river and the routes around it receiving attention.⁠1

ABC reported that police from Victoria and New South Wales would search the land and river again on November 6. It also said Victoria Police divers were understood to have been deployed. That detail remains qualified: the account confirms the overnight involvement of local police, the Air Wing and the SES, but describes the divers’ involvement less definitively.⁠1

The available account identifies Trotting Track as the intended fishing destination, not as a precisely defined search perimeter. It does not provide coordinates, riverbank limits or access-point boundaries. Nor does it establish that every item was found at that destination. Those limits leave the broad search area clear without supplying a precise location for the discoveries.⁠1⁠2

Police urged anyone with information about the man’s whereabouts to contact Crime Stoppers. The man was not named in the verified account, which did not supply an appeal-specific telephone number or ask members of the public to join the search. It also did not establish a river closure or special safety instructions associated with the operation.⁠1

For now, the finding of his belongings and the finding of the man remain separate matters. At the November 6 morning reporting point, the cross-border search was continuing, and the central question—where he was—had not been answered.⁠1