Western Australia's deputy state coroner has recommended more signage at a fishing spot where a Malaysian man was swept off rocks and drowned.
Foo Kun Khor, 39, was living in WA illegally after his visa expired and was working with other Malaysian nationals on farms and plantations around Carnarvon, in the state's Gascoyne region, in June 2013.
He and his friend Boon Hooi Lee, who had also overstayed his visa, went to a well-known fishing spot just north of the blow holes on Quobba Station.
But both had difficulties with English and may not have understood the signage explaining that fishing was dangerous along portions of the coast due to unpredictable waves.
Mr Khor moved to a lower ledge and was knocked over by a wave described by Mr Lee as a "freak".
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Mr Lee ran back to the emergency sign and took the buoy, which he tried to throw to the deceased, but Mr Khor could not grab it.
Two passers-by also threw surfboards into the water and a boat out at sea moved closer to the cliff to search for Mr Khor.
The skipper was an off-duty policeman who maintained a grid pattern search using the floating surfboards and life ring as drift indicators until rescue vessels joined the search.
But Mr Khor was never seen again.
In her findings, Deputy State Coroner Evelyn Vicker recommended that in addition to the warning sign above the fishing spot known as "second grid", there should also be a separate large picture of a fisherman being swept from a cliff, similar to the diagram at the top of the current sign.
She said considering the number of overseas workers in the area, specific warnings in several languages would also be helpful, such as Vietnamese, Japanese, Cantonese, French, German and Italian.
