Two Australians die in Peru rafting accident Irene Wilson and Colleen Matthews. The husband of a Sydney woman who died in a white water rafting accident on a swollen river in Peru yesterday says he is struggling to discover details about his wife's death. Terry Wilson, the husband of Irene Wilson, 60, said she was travelling with close friend Colleen Matthews, 65, when their raft tipped on a raging river near Cusco in southern Peru. Mr Wilson, of Sylvania Heights, said specifics about the tragedy remain scant, but he understands the rafting company was warned not to send groups down the river due to a recent spell of bad weather. "But they went against the warning," he said. All I know is there were seven on the raft plus the tour director. The raft capsized. Four or five got back on with the director and my wife and her friend didn't get back. Mr Wilson said a doctor who was on the same raft as his wife saw the two women hauled into a second raft. "The raft behind them pulled them out of the water to give them resuscitation but apparently to no avail," he said. Mr Wilson said his wife "worked to travel" and the white water rafting trip had been a spur-of-the-moment decision. "They've had a lay day between trips and decided to do something different," he said. My wife's a very adventurous person and she thought, well, whitewater rafting. The friends had spent the past year planning the trip, Mr Wilson said. They wanted to go to Carnivale in Rio and to Machu Picchu. Then the mudslides happened and they couldn't get to Machu Picchu. But they'd paid their money and decided to still go on the trip. Mr Wilson said the adventure-seeking pair, who were both from Sydney, had been friends for 10 years. They had previously travelled together to Europe, South Africa, and the US and were "very excited" about their South American trip.