Hine Taingahue, a teenage girl who was working with the couple on a shearing contract at the time, helped the man put Julia McLean into a ute so she could be taken to hospital after she had been struggling to breathe one afternoon.

Ms Taingahue didn’t believe Ms McLean told Mr Patterson she loved him that day, because as far as she could tell, the 19-year-old was already dead by that stage.

Ms McLean was working as a rouseabout with Mr Patterson and a team of shearers at Pampas, a property about 60 kilometres east of Walgett, when she became sick and began struggling to breathe.

A post-mortem examination found her lungs were drenched in blood and she had died as a result of respiratory failure.

But the cause of the acute lung syndrome is not yet known and an inquest into her death is being held in Dubbo this week.

Bromoxynil, a type of pesticide, was found in her system.

Mr Patterson gave evidence to the Coroners Court yesterday that he and Ms McLean met in October of 2007 in Deniliquin and when they went to the job at Pampas in November, they were very happy together.

“She loved animals and farm work,” the court heard.

After working at Pampas for five days, Ms McLean fainted in the shearing shed and was taken back to the living quarters.

It was a Friday. She had vomited the night before and early that morning, the court heard.

Fellow rouseabout Ms Taingahue found her on the floor of her room with one leg out the door after lunch that day breathing loudly.

Mr Patterson gave evidence to the court about being told Ms McLean was not right. He went to the room and found her taking quick, shallow breaths, staring blankly at the wall and not blinking.

He said he went to ask his boss what to do and was told to pump air into her mouth from a paper bag.

Unable to find a paper bag, Mr Patterson said he blew into a freezer bag and pumped air into Ms McLean’s mouth in about 15 to 20 minute intervals across an hour.

Her breathing became worse and he again went to tell his boss, who told him to take her to hospital.

Mr Patterson went back and he and Ms Taingahue lifted Ms McLean and put her into the ute.

Mr Patterson went by himself toward the hospital, stopping to open and close gates at the property.

When his phone reached reception, he called the hospital and they transferred him to triple-0.

An ambulance met Mr Patterson about halfway between the property and Walgett, the court heard.

She was later pronounced dead.

The “young, fit and healthy” girl died in “unusual circumstances”, Dr Firouz-Abadi, a pathologist who works at Dubbo Base Hospital told the court yesterday.

He performed the post-mortem examination on Ms McLean’s body.

The weight of her lungs was twice what they should have been and they were full of fluid, Dr Firouz-Abadi said.

“There was tremendous bleeding into the lungs,” he said.

He said he was confident Ms McLean died as a result of her lungs not functioning but there were literally hundreds of possibilities as to why that happened.

The inquest continues.