Paul, from the well-known Dubbo family of Pat and Kier Yeo, first heard of the bombings in Bali while driving to work at 6.45am on Sunday.

A plumbing contractor in Sydney's Coogee Bay area, Paul had set off early to start a job when he heard the news on his car radio.

"I heard about the bombing and straight away called the emergency hotline," Paul said.

"As soon as they said it was the Sari Club, I sort of knew Gerard would have been involved."

Apprenticed to his older brother, Gerard had discussed the trip with Paul during their regular conversations at work.

"I was pretty sure Gerard would have been there because that's all he talked about, going to the Sari Club. It's like a mecca for Aussie tourists, that's the one place they all want to be at."

Paul's sister Megan, a flight attendant for Qantas, was in a briefing preparing to fly out to Honolulu when she received news of the tragedy. Another sister Greta, who also lives in Sydney, was notified and they all met at Paul's to decide what action to take.

"We met at Paul's at about 10am and pretty much decided straight away to see if we could get a flight to Bali," brother-in-law Alex said.

"Qantas were great; they held a flight for us until we got a few clothes and our passports together."

Despite some reservations from their parents about the danger of heading into the troubled area the four raced out to the airport and left Sydney at 1.30pm.

After a harrowing six hour flight the anxious group touched down in Bali with one thing on their mind: finding out what had happened to their brother.

Soon after arrival conflicting and confusing messages were coming through to the group, who were battling to determine where they should start their search.

Paul contacted the hotel where the team had been staying and was told all team members had been accounted for.

"Then we got a call from my wife Judi (in Sydney) saying Gerard's body had been found in a morgue."

Although they'd been resigned to the prospect that he was probably dead, the news hit them hard.

"Greta collapsed," Megan said.

"We called home to tell Mum and Dad and they collapsed too, we were told."

Determined to carry through their grisly task the group caught a taxi to take them to the morgue.

"When we got there the hospital staff told us girls not to go in there," Megan said.

"They said just the guys should go in but we were masked up and felt we'd come all this way we had to be sure."

Not knowing what to expect when they opened the first body bag, the sight presented to them became commonplace by the end of the day.

"The first one was probably the worst we saw all day and we saw a lot," Greta said.

We searched through 30 bags and there were another 100 you couldn't identify.

"It was a horrible feeling each time we looked because we were hoping we wouldn't find Gerard but then we also wanted to, so we'd know for sure what happened to him."

Another phone call came through telling them Gerard's five team mates who were with him at the time of the explosion had been found but there was no trace of Gerard.

The two men Paul and Alex spent hours going over the bodies while Megan and Greta went to search in the hospitals.

"We went and looked at all the people in the hospitals despite Gerard's name not being on any of their lists," Megan said.

Two of the Dolphin players who left the Sari Club moments before the explosion Eric Deharrt and Paddy Byrne provided invaluable assistance to the group.

"Eric asked us if we could you identify Gerard's watch as one had been found on one of the victims," Megan said.

A quick call to Coogee revealed Gerard had left his watch at home leaving the searchers to try another angle.

"We tried to identify him through a process of elimination as we searched through the piles of body parts," Paul said.

"It was tormenting us, it got the point where we wanted to say, is it him? Just so we could identify something and go home."

But they couldn't there were still more places to search.

A makeshift morgue had been made on a verandah of a building with bodies placed along it with large blocks of ice between them.

"It didn't take long for the ice to melt and the blood and mess of human bodies began melting into each other," Megan said.

"You couldn't blame the Balinese for the problems they were trying to cope the best they could with very limited resources - they just had nowhere to put the body parts."

Much of the first aid equipment the Balinese had was particularly antiquated the group discovered as they made their way around the hospitals.

"The old stretchers and trolleys were like something out of a MASH show on TV," Greta said.

The group believed they were lucky they arrived there as early as they did as the bodies and body parts were perishing fast in the humid tropical heat.

"We were lucky we were able to get around and see a lot of the bodies before they started to deteriorate," Megan said.

"We had a break after seven hours of searching and when we started again five hours later you could really notice the difference.

"Anyone coming later than us to search for missing friend or relatives wouldn't have had much hope."

The volunteers, mostly local made an impact on the group with their kindness and helpful support.

"Everyone was so kind to us and couldn't do enough to help," they said.

"Our taxi driver kept driving us around until he was nearly falling asleep."

Having exhausted almost all possible places to look and ready to give up and go home they came across a truck being loaded with bodies and body parts to be sent back to Australia.

"We found a body that had remnants of a pair of cargo pants similar to the ones we were told Gerard was wearing at the time and there was a necklace that we later identified as possibly being his," Paul said.

"It (the body) was tagged as being Swedish but we double tagged it and hopefully we'll get a definitive answer once they start doing DNA testing in Australia.

With nowhere else to look the sad group made preparations to return to their waiting family in Dubbo.

"It was hard making that decision to come home," Megan said.

"We all felt like we were abandoning him and leaving him for dead but there was nothing more we could do.

"We think the last body we saw was him and it gave us some measure of relief.

"It didn't look as though he suffered, it would have been very quick."

Paul said there was a degree of certainty that Gerard was with the main group of his friends and that he like them was killed instantly.

"From what Paddy Byrne told us they were all together at the bar near the front of the building," Paul said.

"Paddy had only left them one minute before and was only 100 metres up the street when the bomb went off.

"He'd been with just moments before, so he knew who was there and exactly where they were, so we feel that's pretty conclusive evidence."

Paul reflected on the fact that Gerard and his mates had just arrived in Bali that afternoon and had just begun to celebrate.

"It was good that he was out with his mates having fun," Paul said.

"Paddy told us they all went out to dinner earlier in the evening before they went to the Sari Club.

"During their dinner the guys took turns standing up and saying what they liked about the Dolphins.

"Gerard said the best thing for him was getting to play with his brother (Paul).

Arriving back in Dubbo on Wednesday the travel weary group took time out yesterday to comfort one another and the other members of their family before tomorrow's planned memorial service.

Gathered in the family home yesterday Paul produced a scribbled note Gerard wrote in their work vehicle last week.

"It contained a bit of nonsense," Paul said.

"But it finished: ' I love my family and wish not to hurt any of them or my cousins."