Finding that 21-year-old fashion designer Cora Kazmirowicz died in an accident from "penetrating trauma to her chest", NSW Deputy State Coroner Jane Culver recommended warning signs be located at the site.

[u]After pleas from her parents, Ms Culver also recommended a plaque be erected with the names and ages of people - believed to total up to six - who had died at the swimming hole at times dating back to the 1800s.[/i]

Ms Kazmirowicz, from nearby Hornsby, died on April 1 this year at Fish Ponds, Berowra Valley Regional Park.

Her mother, Joanna Kazmirowicz, urged the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) to erect a sign listing the fatalities in order to personalise the danger to young people.

"This is a beautiful place but unfortunately it is a beautiful cemetery," she said in Glebe Coroners Court.

Ms Culver said Ms Kazmirowicz died in the manner in which she had led her life.

"From all accounts, she was a young woman who wanted greatly to help people, in that endeavour she died," she said.

She had gone to the water hole with a friend. "Upon arrival she saw a group of young boys, about the age of 14, some of whom apparently were teasing another boy for not jumping in," Ms Culver said.

To help him, Ms Kazmirowicz tried to jump in the swimming hole but apparently slipped and was impaled by a branch protruding from a ledge near the water. Ms Culver said the warning signs should at least refer to the danger of swimming and jumping.

While she did not have the power to recommend a monument or memorial, the coroner "greatly encouraged" NPWS to consider erecting a plaque with names and ages of those who had died there.

The dead woman's father, Waldemar Kazmirowicz, told the coroner he and his wife went to the scene many times after the tragedy and saw lots of children jumping off the rocks. On one occasion, his wife approached a group of kids, aged around 12, 13 and 14, saying: "Please don't do it".

When they asked why, she told them her daughter had died there. "They did not say anything and we were waiting," he said. "Suddenly they dressed up and quietly left."

From The Age

CORA KAZMIROWICZ was walking in the Berowra Valley Regional Park on April 1 when she came across a a teenage boy stranded on a clifftop, afraid to jump into the water below. He only needed confidence to make the leap, she thought.

The 21-year-old woman, a member of the Army Reserve who had done scuba diving, kayaking, canyoning, caving and canoeing, hardly lacked confidence herself.

Despite the occasional death through drowning or falling, people, mainly teenage boys, had been making the jump since colonial times at the Fishponds Waterhole. It had to be done deliberately, using a run-up of more than five metres.

Ms Kazmirowicz, not wanting to see the youngster teased by other boys, tried the jump but slipped at the clifftop and plunged over the edge. With insufficient speed to clear foliage below, the third-year fashion design student at the University of Technology, Sydney, was fatally impaled on a protruding branch.

A death had been reported at the spot in 1825. Eight-year-old Peter Duffy died there in 1854. In 1915 Thomas Raymond Brown, of Thornleigh, drowned while trying to help two girls in difficulties. In 1962 Jonathan Myers, 12, slipped on rocks above the waterhole, fell and drowned. The Hornsby historian Hedley Somerville said there had been "at least six deaths" at the spot.

National Parks and Wildlife Service warning signs merely told visitors to keep to the tracks and that the water at the Fishponds Waterhole was "unsuitable for drinking or swimming".

The pain had "never gone" Ms Kazmirowicz's father, Waldemar, 52, told Glebe Coroners Court yesterday. "We have been simply hoping it would not get to the state where people have to stress the importance of putting signage at the spot where several people have died. We thought the death of our daughter would have been enough."

The continued cliff-jumping by boys was too much for Joanna Kazmirowicz, who one day told a group: "Please don't do that!" Asked why, she said: "Because our daughter died there!"

Leading Senior Constable Peter Bradbury, stationed at Hornsby, who had dealt with up to 150 untimely deaths, found this one horrifying.

Boys would continue to jump from the cliff, he said. A strong warning sign would be worthwhile, especially one saying "fatalities". Mrs Kazmirowicz advocated a sign right at the spot, with a memorial and the names of those who had died there.

Chris McIntosh, the parks and wildlife north region manager, conceded the signs were a bit mild, but said the site was not substantially different from "many, many other areas of bushland".

The coroner, Jane Culver, said: "What I am trying to glean is what has been proposed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service. I cannot imagine that consideration has not occurred before today."

Angela Seward, for the service, said her instructions were that the word "fatalities" was not normally used in signs erected by the service and that if the word were to be used, it would have to be considered at "departmental level".

Ms Culver found that Ms Kazmirowicz's death was accidental. She recommended the service and associated agencies erect warning signs at all access points to the Fishponds Waterhole, with wording along the lines of: "Danger. Swimming and jumping at the Fishponds Waterhole has resulted in fatalities."

From Sydney Morning Herald

JUST over a month after their daughter plunged to her death at a popular Sydney swimming hole, Joanna and Waldemar Kazmirowicz were laying flowers and praying when they saw two boys about to jump from the same rocks.

Despite their daughter Cora's death on April 1, the National Parks and Wildlife Service failed to erect signs to repel people from jumping from the rocks at Fishpond waterhole, in Berowra Valley Regional Park.

Grief-striken Mrs Kazmirowicz climbed up to the rock where the two teenage boys were in their swimming gear, to warn them of the dangers. "Joanne approached them and said could they not do it and they asked why," Mr Kazmirowicz said.

"And we said that spot was where our daughter died and they went quiet . . . 15 minutes later they took their things and left." The death of their 21-year-old daughter Cora, a talented fashion student and adventurous spirit, has inspired the pair to embark on a campaign to ensure it never happens to someone else's child.

Yesterday, Glebe Coroner's Court was told that up to six people had died at the same spot - four of them documented - dating back to 1854, due to misadventure including drowning.

The death of Cora, an army reservist, scuba diver, water-skiier and canoer, was the latest of them.

She and a male friend were walking along a bush path when they passed a group of young boys, one of whom was being teased for his fear of jumping off the jutting rocks into the water below.

She stopped and came to his aid, telling him she would jump if he did. But as she stood on the tallest rock, 7.5m from the water, she slipped, fell and was impaled in the chest by a tree branch. She died instantly.

Cora's parents yesterday told the inquest that they had been campaigning to have signage listing the fatalities that had occurred at the spot.

They also wanted a memorial plaque placed into the rock, outlining the names of those who died, to drive home the message to children.

Coroner Jane Culver described the fishponds as a fatality "hotspot".

She quizzed Chris McIntosh, manager with the Department of Environment and Conservation, as to why - eight months after Cora's death - a warning sign had not been erected, except to warn about the water quality for drinking and swimming.

Mr McIntosh said there were many other dangerous areas in the parklands that, if unsigned, may indicate to tourists that they were safe.

"Young people are not particularly guided by signage and in some respects see it as a challenge," he said.

Ms Culver recommended signage be installed at all entrances, saying, at least: "Danger, swimming and jumping at Fishponds waterhole have resulted in fatalities".

From Daily telegraph