Gisborne fishing tragedy: Brothers farewell ‘fearless’ Damien Macpherson

Karl (centre) and Brad Macpherson (right) are paying tribute to their brother Damien (left) after he passed away on Wednesday.

Damien Macpherson was many things.

He was a plumber, farmer, hunter and fisherman. A shearer, dog trialist, horse rider and rugby referee. Most importantly, he was a loving father and husband.

He was fearless and funny, determined and loyal. Committed to his family and his East Coast community.

This is the man his brothers Brad and Karl will remember.

A man whose life was tragically cut short at just 38 years old when he and two friends were discovered on a beach along the Mahia Peninsula on Wednesday, passing away after going missing at sea.

Taina Sinoti (left), Elwood Higgins (centre) and Damien Macpherson passed away at sea after going missing while fishing on Monday. Photo / NZME

From a living room in Ormond near Gisborne, Brad and Karl are speaking publicly for the first time about losing Damien and the two-day search and rescue mission that was interrupted by treacherous weather conditions almost worthy of a local state of emergency.

They want to pay tribute to their brother and thank the scores of people who scoured the ocean and coastlines as well as those who held the fort at home, hoping the three men would return.

“We know that everyone did as much as they could,” Brad says.

“I know they all put in their best effort to try and get our brother back.”

Born in 1986 to John and Mandy Macpherson, identical twins Damien and Brad came as a package deal before they were joined six years later by Karl.

They lived on a 1400ha farm running sheep and cattle in Ruakituri, a remote rural area north of Wairoa on the south side of Hawke’s Bay’s border with the Gisborne District.

Karl, who now runs the farm, says it used to be about 70 minutes’ drive from the Gisborne township. Now it’s more like an hour and a half, thanks to the poor state of the roads.

Through the farm snakes the Ruakituri River, famous for being the home to some of the strongest and wildest trout in the country.

Damien Macpherson, seen here with his wife Vivienne and children Harvey (left) and Maddy (right).

In the late 1990s, the farm had up to 60 horses, which meant the brothers took to riding like ducks to water.

“Before we could walk just about, we were on a horse,” Brad remembers.

“After school, we used to come home and have to ride our horses and keep them fit.”

Closed gates were quite irrelevant when the boys were on horseback, a mentality that contributed to a fair few scrapes and bruises.

“Granddad said, ‘You boys aren’t cowboys, you’re Indians’, the way we rode,” Brad says with a laugh.

Damien continued to ride into adulthood. He flirted with the idea of becoming a farrier but settled for a horse of his own and ponies for his two children.

With horses came hunting. Through the Mahia hunt club, Damien and Brad from ages 9 to 12 were eagerly involved in hunts for hare as far south as Tūtira and up to Tiniroto near their own farm, as well as where Damien’s body would be found on the Mahia Peninsula.

“We were known on the hunt field as the master’s shadows because we’d be just right there behind them. They couldn’t get rid of us,” Brad says proudly.

The boys began their education at Ruakituri School as part of a tiny 20-pupil roll. They went on to Gisborne Boys’ High School, where their shared love of rugby was sparked.

From left: Damien and Vivienne Macpherson, Brad and Susie Macpherson, and Karl and Bianca Macpherson at Brad's wedding.

Brad says Damien’s “fearless nature” made him a formidable opponent, despite a considerable difference in size to his teammates.

‘When [Damien] played rugby... he just went in hard.

“He would have probably made it if he was another 10 or 20kg heavier.”

After school, Damien and Brad joined Ngatapa Rugby Club, following in the footsteps of many of his family, including All Blacks uncle Gordon Macpherson.

Despite being flankers at school, the twins were put on the wing.

“We were too skinny to be in the forwards,” Brad says, grinning.

“That was the only reason. We were slow, we weren’t fast runners.”

The pair would eventually transition into the forwards and in Damien’s final year with the premier side with Brad in the senior 1s in 2008, both teams won their respective divisions – a feat the club hadn’t achieved since the 1980s.

Despite that, Brad maintains Karl was the best of the three brothers, having exceeded Damien’s number of appearances for Ngatapa and Poverty Bay.

Ngatapa would go on to play a central part in Damien’s life as he transitioned from player to referee.

Damien Macpherson, 38, of Te Karaka was a Heartland level referee, seen here refereeing a game at his Ngatapa Rugby Club. Photo / Ngatapa Rugby Club

Renowned as Gisborne’s best referee, Damien went on to ref Heartland games and was selected in what was once known as New Zealand Rugby’s national referee squad before the demands of family and work life saw him step back into a co-ordinator role.

Professionally, Damien trained as a plumber at the request of his parents. They wanted their boys to have skills to fall back on if farming didn’t work out – Brad is a builder and Karl an electrician.

But farming was always his passion, settling in Te Karaka and running two blocks.

As twins, Brad said he and Damien were “side-by-side all the time”.

Being identical, people often mistook one for the other. During Brad’s wedding, Damien wore a name tag so friends and family would stop congratulating him instead.

Karl praised his older brothers for paving the way for him in many aspects of life.

“[Damien] was a really good older brother and he used to take me under his wing if I was getting in the s*** somewhere.”

The three Macpherson brothers (from left) Damien, Karl and Brad, seen here at Karl's wedding.

Damien married Vivienne Hall in November, 2016 and have been together for 17 years. They were known as “real soulmates” and a “great team”, Brad says. The pair had two children, Maddie, 7, and Harvey, 5.

Damien’s family was the “centre of his universe” and he always put them first, Brad says, describing them as a “tight-knit unit”.

The last time Brad and Karl saw Damien was on the weekend before he went missing.

The immediate family had come together for Maddie’s seventh birthday. “Maddie said it was the best birthday ever,” Brad notes.

Waking early on the Saturday morning, Damien cooked Karl some eggs on toast before his younger brother headed back to the farm in Ruakituri.

Karl says his brother was focused on the day ahead, where he’d watch Maddie and Harvey play football at Watson Park in Gisborne before going to their swimming - all while organising refs for the day’s senior rugby games.

“They’re going to miss him all right,” Karl says of the children.

On Monday, Damien and friends Elwood Higgins and Taina Sinoti went fishing for bluefin tuna alongside two other boats.

A breeze expected to be at 5 knots reached 40, causing at least 6m swells.

The two other boats came in. They tried contacting the three men aboard Elwood’s boat, but had no luck.

The flight radar track of a Royal New Zealand Air Force Poseidon plane searching for the fishermen missing off the coast of Gisborne.

When they hadn’t returned by late afternoon, police alerted Damien’s family and the search commenced.

Talking about what happened between the hours of Monday afternoon and Wednesday morning is understandably difficult for Brad and Karl.

The younger brother describes it as a “rollercoaster” to begin with, as expectations the men would come back eventually morphed into growing concern as time dragged on.

Brad hadn’t known Damien was going fishing but in a matter of hours, was part of a 40-person team searching on foot, helped by friends in helicopters and IRBs who covered the coast from Gisborne all the way down to the peninsula.

A sighting of two men alive on Tuesday by container ship African Tiger sparked hope the men would return home, but the torrential rain, howling wind and ferocious seas prevented the African Tiger from saving them.

Search and rescue efforts had to be called off in conditions two Mahia locals described as “worse than [Cyclone] Gabrielle”.

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Karl and Brad found their brother.

“It was good to see him one last time,” Karl says.

“It was the same route that I was doing those three days and I was happy. I was in the right place,” Brad says.

Both Karl and Brad want to thank everyone who contributed to the search, but also those who stayed at home, fearing for the safety of their own.

The loss of Damien, Elwood and Taina has hit the East Coast community hard, but it has prompted overwhelming support.

Damien Macpherson, seen here with his wife Vivienne and children Harvey (left) and Maddy (right).

Givealittle pages set up for each of the families and one from the Gisborne Tatapouri Sports Fishing Club had all received thousands of donations from across the country.

“Without the support of all our mates and stuff, it would be such a different affair. I feel more at ease having everyone behind my back,” Brad says.

Damien will be farewelled at Gisborne’s Showgrounds Park Event Centre on Wednesday from 1.30pm.

Adam Pearse is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team, based at Parliament. He has worked for NZME since 2018, covering sport and health for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei before moving to the Herald in Auckland, covering Covid-19 and crime.