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A woman has been found dead on a remote island after becoming stranded from a cruise ship. An investigation has been launched after the 80-year-old solo traveller died during the first stop of a 60-day circumnavigation of Australia - a near £40,000 cruise. The woman had been out walking on the remote Lizard Island in Far North Queensland after disembarking from the Coral Expeditions cruise ship, reports the Mirror . Lizard Island is roughly 1,600 km north east of Brisbane and 95 km north east of Cooktown, its closest population centre. The ship departed from Cairns, in Queensland, on Friday before it anchored off the coast of Lizard Island the following day. Authorities said they believe the woman had been hiking Lizard Island's summit off the Queensland coast. The woman had been part of a group that walked up to the Cook's Look summit were she stopped and became lost on her way to the shop. A source told The Australian : "The group continued on and boarded the vessel before realising she was not there." Another source claimed she had fallen off a cliff. The tourist was reported missing on the Saturday night after she failed to return to the cruise ship. Police and a coroner have launched an investigation as they bid to find out how the woman became stranded on the remote island. Investigators are also determining whether the woman could have been saved from the tourist spot. Yachtie Traci Ayris said she raised "questions about safety protocols," according to the Cairns Post . She and her partner were aboard the SV Vellamo when it was anchored off Lizard Island and had been listening to emergency radio transmissions sent from the ship, operated by Coral Expeditions. She told the outlet: "They did headcounts for snorkelers (which we heard) but not for other guests on the island it would seem. The last people came down from the track and got into tender then the (ship) left very soon after that. "There was not a lot of time between when the last passengers left the beach to when they up anchored." A helicopter arrived after the search was called out at 3am and the woman's remains were finally airlifted just before 4pm. Coral Expeditions confirmed the woman had died in a statement shared with the Daily Mail. A spokesperson said: "The crew notified authorities that a woman was missing, and a search and rescue operation was launched on land and sea. "Following the operation, Coral Expeditions was notified by Queensland Police that the woman had been found deceased on Lizard Island." The organisation later said it had been in contact with her family as well as the Queensland Police .
