Warnings about the dangers of a notorious Northern Territory swimming spot stretched back decades before a nine-year-old boy drowned after disappearing into a drainpipe this week.

The boy was swimming at the weir at Katherine Low Level Nature Reserve when he vanished into the drainpipe at about 5.15pm on Tuesday.

His family held a vigil at the scene as police divers searched through the night before his body was recovered at 1.45am on Wednesday.

NT Police have launched an investigation into the tragedy and a report will be prepared for the coroner.

The boy’s death has now renewed scrutiny of the popular swimming spot, where locals have previously drowned or narrowly escaped death and where warnings have long been issued about dangerous currents around the weir.

Katherine Town Council announced on Thursday it had begun discussions with the NT Government about immediate works to improve safety at the site.

‘Our community requires a river crossing designed for today’s Katherine, one that retains the important connection the Low Level Bridge provides while addressing the safety risks associated with an 84-year-old bridge and weir,’ a media statement read.

‘The responsibility for infrastructure in and around the crossing has shifted among different levels of government over its long history… council is calling on all three levels of government to work together to investigate replacing the Low Level Bridge with a safer structure.’

A nine-year-old boy has died after drowning in a drainpipe at the Katherine Low Level weir

NT Police Commander Neil Hayes said the incident was ‘incredibly tragic’

The council has also conceded no major work has been carried out on the bridge since it was constructed in 1942 as an urgent wartime project.

But concerns about the dangers surrounding the weir are far from new.

Multiple locals have recalled drownings and terrifying near-misses at the site stretching back more than half a century.

One man said he ‘came so close’ to drowning while swimming at the weir in 1972 after becoming trapped in a powerful current near the dam wall.

‘I tried swimming out (and) screaming, ‘Help!’ to my two buddies standing on the bridge. I kept going forward then being pulled back and under,’ he said.

‘I was exhausted and I remember thinking this is the last time I can survive being pulled under again.

‘Somehow my legs came up to the top of the water and I got out of the undertow – I was so damned lucky that day.’

Another man said he lost an ‘old school friend’ at the weir in 1990.

‘He went home to Katherine for school holidays from boarding school and never came back,’ he said.

The local council has now vowed to do ‘major work’ on the site following the tragedy, in addition to past drownings which have occurred for decades

The site’s grim history has even been documented by the Katherine Museum, which says the Low Level Bridge has ‘brought a lot of sadness’ to the community.

‘Many people have swam at this bridge not knowing that the current at the weir has a capacity to hold you with force against the concrete wall,’ the museum states in an online exhibition about the town.

‘The river looks so inviting but sometimes natures force has other ideas and it not safe to swim at the weir especially while in flood.’

It is not known how deep the water was when the nine-year-old entered the drainpipe on Tuesday.

Water safety advocate and former Olympic swimming coach Laurie Lawrence said he hopes the tragic death will serve as a reminder for children not to swim in drains heading into the Top End’s wet season.

‘To lose a life so young, that’s what really affects a lot of people,’ Mr Lawrence told the ABC.

‘It’s not going to bring the young boy back, but let’s hope it helps somebody by pushing the message [of water safety] even stronger out in the community. 

‘In the Territory when it rains, the waters just go through those drains at super-fast pace. There’s very little chance, even for a good swimmer.’

The crossing becomes impassable during much of the wet season, from December to April, when water levels can rise dramatically.

In 2014, a long-running campaign was launched across the NT to warn children of the dangers of playing in pipes and drains after an eight-year-old boy drowned in a stormwater drain in Palmerston.