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The grieving mother of an Army veteran and dad-of-three killed when he jumped off a historic floating crane in Wellington last month wants the structure moved so no other family has to suffer as hers is.
Jarreth Colquhoun died on January 26 after jumping off the Hikitia FloatingCrane, a 97-year-old structure permanently moored on a boat near the Taranaki St Dive Platform in Wellington Harbour.
The 33-year-old failed to surface, and his body was found the same afternoon. His death comes after a 20-year-old man died after jumping off the 45m crane on a night out drinking with friends in 2015.
Sue Colquhoun knows the second eldest of her four children shouldn’t have jumped from the crane - and she urged others not to copy the act.
Jarreth Colquhoun died on January 26 when he jumped from Hikitia Floating Crane into Wellington Harbour.
But she still believed it was too accessible to the public.
“I have to put it bluntly because I don’t know how you can mince words with this: Just don’t make a stupid decision like doing something like that”, Colquhoun said through tears.
“And I wish I didn’t [have to say that] because if that crane wasn’t there and so accessible I wouldn’t have had to … but we don’t want other people to go through this, because [the crane] is so accessible. It’s just too easy - they made it too easy for people like him.”
The crane is owned by the Maritime Heritage Trust of Wellington and has been at the same site since at least 1990, with the two deaths in the last nine years the only ones recorded in that time, trustee Malcolm McGregor said.
He offered his sympathy to Colquhoun’s family but said there were no plans to move the crane.
“It’s the best place in Wellington for it.”
That was because of the buffeting systems in the wharf where the crane is moored, and because it was highly visible to the public, which encouraged people to volunteer and otherwise support its long-term future.
Health and safety around the Hikitia Floating Crane site was reviewed by Wellington Council and the Maritime Heritage Trust after a man died in 2015, but it was ultimately decided not to move the structure. Photo / Mark Mitchell
The 2015 death - five days after video of a man leaping from Hikitia went viral online - sparked an extensive review of health and safety around the site by Wellington Council and the trust, but it was ultimately decided not to move the structure.
Signs warned people to stay off, CCTV had been installed and it was also controlled by security “up to a point”, but there was only so much that could be done to stop determined people from accessing it, he said.
“It’s not the crane’s fault. It’s the mentality of the people jumping off.”
Until Jarreth’s death she didn’t know another man had also died jumping from the crane in 2015, Colquhoun said.
She’d love to speak with his family, and for them to add their voice to her call for the crane to be moved.
“Because we’re only one voice, and I’m sure we’re going through exactly what they did back in 2015.”
Police and firefighters pictured during the search for Jarreth Colquhoun after he jumped from the Hikitia Floating Crane in Wellington on January 26. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Family don’t know why Jarreth decided to jump that day, but his mum thought he might’ve been influenced by the Manu World Champs diving competition planned nearby that weekend.
Her son was “fearless” and energetic - as a teenager living with family in Tolaga Bay the Wairoa-native, who was Ngāti Ruapani, Ngāti Kahungunu and Ngāti Porou, joined the Harriers and “loved running along the hills”.
In recent years Jarreth’s life had taken a turn, including drug use and time in jail. He was living on the streets “by choice”, but held a special affection for his sister, respected his older brother and had contact with his kids, Colquhoun said.
More recently, the former plasterer and infantryman - previously posted to Germany and Malaysia - was in a community transition programme.
Jarreth Colquhoun pictured with B Company 2/1 RNZIR (New Zealand Infantry Regiment) on exercise Cooperative Spirit in Germany in 2008.
Police are making inquiries into the tragedy but after speaking to a friend who was with him in the hours before he died, family don’t believe Jarreth wanted to take his own life, she said.
“The common feeling around my family was that it was just him. He would [want to] prove to people he can do something.
“I can’t say for sure that he was just showing off that he could do it, but it fits in with the type of person he was … we don’t dispute that it was a stupid and really bad decision he made in doing that.”
Cherie Howie is an Auckland-based reporter who joined the Herald in 2011. She has been a journalist for more than 20 years and specialises in general news and features.
