A shearer from Southland has died days after being struck by a car in the Australian state of Victoria on Christmas Eve.
Winton Tuhakaraina was struck by a car in Warrnambool and spent Christmas alone in a Melbourne hospital with serious head injuries while police struggled to identify him as he had no identification on him at the time of the accident.
His family launched a Giveallittle page to bring him home and say he died in the Melbourne hospital on New Year's Eve due to the severity of his injuries.
"We want our brother home to his whanau in New Zealand and are reaching out for support & assistance to bring him home and funeral expenses," family spokeswoman Lana Puru wrote on the crowdfunding page.
The 43-year-old's family is still seeking assistance "to help us bring our brother home to New Zealand at this most extreme sad time".
Ms Puru told The Southland Times Mr Tuhakaraina's mother flew to Melbourne to be at his side before they took him off life support.
His family was a shearing family and Mr Tuhakaraina had been back and forth to Australia doing shearing work for about a decade, Ms Puru said.
The male driver of the car involved in the crash stopped at the scene.
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