Two young Chinese backpackers who were found dead inside a 4WD in flood-ravaged Queensland have been identified by their devastated families.
Qingwei Qiu, 26, and Yuchen Guo, 23, were travelling from Brisbane to the North Burnett region last week.
Their last phone signal pinged on Sunday night in Kilkivan, west of Gympie, which has been hit by heavy rain and flooding in recent days.
They were reported missing on Wednesday after they failed to arrive at their destination for farm work, sparking a wide-scale ground and aerial search.
Police found their bodies inside a silver Subaru Forester submerged in floodwaters near Kilkivan on Thursday morning.
‘Both of our families are shattered,’ Qingwei’s father, Jianxiang Guo, told 7News.
‘On March 7, she posted that the rain was extremely heavy and she could barely see the road. They must have had real guts (to keep driving).’
The grieving father said his daughter came to Australia from China’s Shandong province in September to pursue her dream of travelling.
Chinese backpackers Yuchen Guo (pictured) and Qingwei Qiu were found dead in a 4WD after driving through heavy rain and flooding in Queensland
The pair’s family and friends are shattered at the tragedy (pictured, Qingwei Qiu)
The pair were reported missing on Wednesday after they failed to arrive at their destination (pictured, their flooded Subaru Forester)
He realised something was wrong when her AirTag stopped updating its location.
Mr Guo said the university graduate was a ‘bright, kind, and incredibly brave girl who loved life and always had a beautiful smile’.
It was reported Guo was driving from Sydney to Queensland for her next fruit-picking job with Qingwei Qiu after they met in a working holiday group chat.
A friend of Qiu, Yongqi Xie, said he had enlisted in the military, opened a bar in China and ridden a motorbike from Fujian province to Lhasa, almost a 2,800km trip.
‘He loved cars and seemed to make new friends everywhere he went,’ Xie said.
‘He was easygoing and got along with everyone.’
Qiu arrived in Australia late last year and had been road-tripping with friends.
Gympie mayor Glen Hartwig said the deaths were an ‘absolute tragedy’.
The pair had been driving from Brisbane to go and do farm work
The disappearance sparked a wide-scale ground and aerial search involving police and SES
‘These people have come to Australia to see our beautiful country… and tragically they’ve ended up losing their lives,’ he told ABC News.
‘We’re very grateful that they chose to come and see our country and we’re so sorry for their loss and the pain that [family members] are now feeling.
‘We warn people about biosecurity when they come into the country, but I also think we need to warn them about the dangers of floodwaters.’