Overview
- The search ended with police recovering the body of Tony Aspden, 65, in the far northeast of South Australia near the Queensland border.
- He was swept away after trying to cross the closed Cordillo Downs Road on foot near Innamincka.
- Police ran a multi‑agency operation with a SAAS helicopter, PolAir, water operations officers, SES crews, local patrols and volunteers, and his family joined the effort.
- Conditions on Cooper Creek hindered crews, with fast water, hidden hazards and poor visibility making it hard to spot a person in the floodplain.
- Authorities will prepare a report for the coroner, and the Cooper Creek floodplain’s regular flooding as one of the last free‑flowing desert river systems helps explain why rescues there are so complex.