Police on Monday recovered the body of a 30-year-old Kununurra man missing since Saturday night following a boating accident on the Ord River.

Former Perth man Paul Duggan had been missing since his speedboat collided with a barge towing an aluminium tender on Lake Kununurra about 10pm Saturday.

Senior Sergeant Graham Sears of Kununurra police said police and marine rescue volunteers had located the man’s body at 5:45pm Monday, about 40m from where the speedboat sank.

Police divers flew from Perth to Kununurra Sunday to join in the search with local SES crews and the East Kimberley Volunteer Marine Rescue unit after the accident about 2km up stream from Kununurra.

A witness on the barge at the time of the accident, who asked not to be named, said passengers heard the speedboat approach but could not see it.

“The boat just came out of the dark and hit us front on,” the man said.

“It just happened that quickly…there was the sound then we saw it and then someone yelled ‘look out’,” he said.

Police said it appeared the fibreglass speedboat had clipped the barge and smashed into a 5.5m aluminium tender lashed to the barge. It is understood the barge was fully lit.

A woman who was asleep in the aluminium tender was taken to Kununurra Districted Hospital with neck and back injuries. She is in a stable condition.

The five remaining passengers on the barge and the occupants of another boat were unable to locate the speedboat driver before the fibreglass vessel sank in about five metres of water.

A search for the missing man was launched soon after by police and members of East Kimberley Volunteer Marine Rescue who searched throughout Saturday night.

A helicopter was used by SES crews to search the shoreline Sunday morning before members of the Police Diving Squad joined the search at about 2.30pm.

It is understood the man was returning to the Kununurra race track after ferrying his partner and a friend to a nearby property when the accident occurred following the Kununurra Cup.

Mr Duggan’s parents who were travelling overseas at the time of the accident flew into Kununurra on Tuesday.

Snr Sgt Sears said the man’s body would be flown to Perth for the Coroner to determine the cause of death.

He paid tribute to local volunteers involved in the search.

By NATHAN DYER