British lady, 35, was crushed to demise beneath her personal campervan after tropical cyclone struck Australia throughout travelling ‘journey’

A British woman fatally crushed by her own campervan during an Australian ‘adventure’ may have died as a result of the impact of a tropical cyclone, an inquest heard today. 

Ellie Thompson, 35, was pronounced dead after she was found under the vehicle at a property where she was house-sitting in Burringbar, New South Wales, on March 11.

Described as leading a life ‘full of adventure’, she had worked in London doing marketing and events for clients including Apple TV and the Groucho Club, before travelling solo to Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam in 2022.

After returning to the UK she travelled to Australia in 2023 where she had been converting a van and had promised her father a road trip later in the year, Ruthin Coroner’s Court heard.

But she failed to arrive for her shift at work at a pub in Mullabimby on March 10.

Friends went to the house where she had been staying the following day and saw her Mazda van off the side of the sloping driveway, wedged into overgrown vegetation.

Ms Thompson’s body was found underneath the vehicle with a post-mortem examination recording her cause of death as multiple injuries.

The region had just been struck by tropical cyclone Storm Alfred during which people had been warned to stay indoors, with around 290,000 homes left without power for days.

Ellie Thompson, 35, was house-sitting in Australia after leaving her former life in London to go travelling, but tragically died after being struck by her own campervan at the tail end of a tropical cyclone in March

Ellie Thompson ‘truly was one in a million’, her father Peter told an inquest in Ruthin, North Wales today 

A police report read by North East Wales coroner John Gittins said: ‘Although no causal link can be drawn, it’s of significance at the time of her passing an unprecedented and severe tropical cyclone, Alfred, was impacting the region.’

The inquest heard the storm lasted from February 22 to March 8, and its impacts were felt into the morning of March 11.

Mr Gittins said police in Australia were of the opinion that the vehicle had rolled or slid forward because of the incline of the slope, or inclement weather.

Other factors may have been a failure to apply the handbrake, police said.

A vehicle examiner found no mechanical defects. 

Her father Peter told the hearing the family had visited the site and the ‘unanswered element’ was why Ms Thompson was in front of her vehicle when it rolled forward.

‘The question for us is why did Ellie get out and be in front of the vehicle?’ he asked.

‘Did she fail to put the handbrake on?’ 

Ellie Thompson was staying in a house in remote Burringbar, New South Wales, while the householder was away when she was tragically crushed by her own converted van

Fallen trees following Cyclone Alfred are pictured above in Pottsville Beach, New South Wales on March 10

The family said they believed she had died on March 8, as she had not been in touch with anyone since then.

She sent a text message to her mother Amanda just before midday and then saw a friend, but had not been identified as speaking to anyone else after 1pm that day, the court was told. 

Mrs Thompson said: ‘Ellie knew people were concerned, she knew I would be concerned.

‘I would definitely have had a text on Sunday because in the text on Saturday she promised she would be in touch the next day.’

Originally from Mold, Flintshire, Ms Thompson ‘made everyone feel seen and valued’, her father said in a statement to the hearing.

He described his daughter as being ‘as courageous as a lion and curious as a cat’.

‘Ellie had a good heart and beautiful soul,’ he added. 

‘She truly was one in a million.’

The coroner agreed that it was most likely that the tragedy occurred on March 8 ‘because the most compelling thing is the absence of any contact from her’.

After recording a verdict of accidental death, Mr Gittins thanked Ms Thompson’s parents and brother Luke for attending the inquest.

He added: ‘You must be incredibly proud.’

Mrs Thompson said: ‘The tributes we had on social media and from her friends, people who spoke at the funeral, it was truly, truly moving. 

‘It really has given us great comfort.’