FAMILY and friends of a former Lake District chef are mourning his tragic sudden death at the age of 26 in Australia.

Andrew David Berrie, formerly of Millans Park, Ambleside, died at his home in Wollongong, New South Wales, on September 10.

An inquest was opened and adjourned in Australia and his body was due to be flown back on Wednesday.

There are no suspicious circumstances.

Mr Berrie, who was educated at Windermere C of E School and the Lakes School, Troutbeck Bridge, had been a chef at the Rothay Manor, Ambleside, and the Skelwith Bridge Hotel.

He did his basic training with the English Lakes Hotels.

While he was working in the Lake District he met an Australian girl called Kiley Martin and in 1998 went out to the Antipodes on a two-year visitor's visa working as a chef on Hamilton Island.

He returned to Ambleside for five months after deciding to apply to become a permanent resident and had only recently gone back to Australia.

His mother, Christine Margaret Morton, lives at Fisherbeck Lane.

She described her son as somebody who was very private but who had a lot of friends.

"He kept himself very much to himself," she said.

Mr Berrie, whose hobbies included cycling and canoeing, also leaves two brothers, Iain, 29, who works in transport haulage, and Robert, 22, who has just graduated from Liverpool University.