An Australian man holidaying in Fiji with his family had been killed after two boats collided near a resort island last week.

The 40-year-old from Sydney’s west, identified as Mark Hardaker, was a guest at the Mana Island Resort with his wife and three children.

“He died after a serious boat accident on Thursday,” Fijian West police spokesman Naina Ragigia said.

A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has confirmed the report.

Ragigia said the man was returning from a fishing trip in a boat carrying four other men when they were hit by another boat travelling at high speed.

Hardaker was rushed to the resort’s medical centre but he died from his injuries. Three other people were injured.

Ragigia said collisions involving tourist boats were rare and the company operating the vessel the man was on had never been involved in an accident before.

Hardaker had been staying at the Mana Island Resort, where he was set to celebrate his wife Vanessa’s 40th birthday with their three children.

One of the men on the resort boat, 24-year-old Australian Nick McGee from Brisbane, said he was next to Hardaker when the two boats collided.

“I saw the driver going a little bit faster and I thought it was a bit weird so I turned my head to the right and in the corner of my eye I saw another boat smash into ours,” McGee said.

“The front of the boat hit him in the head. He didn’t see it happen.”

McGee said he had his hand on Hardaker when the crash happened and was very nearly struck himself.

“I was touching his elbow when he got hit and died,’’ he said. “I was only about 200 millimetres away. If the driver didn’t speed up I think we all would be dead.

“The people in the other boat were yelling and crying. Everyone was just in shock.”

Other passengers on the boat lifted Hardaker onto a third vessel which arrived moments after the crash.

They then rushed the badly injured man back to Mana Island Resort’s medical centre.

“We tried to revive him back at Mana Island Resort but I already knew he was dead,” McGee said. “He died from the impact to his head.

McGee has now left the island and is making enquiries about coming back from Fiji to his home in Brisbane.

He is still coming to terms with what happened.

“I got there that day and this incident happened in the afternoon,” he said.

“Mark was a nice guy, he was making jokes on the boat about not catching any fish, he would say ‘10 more minutes and I’ll have my first fish’. He was a nice and easy going guy.”

Matseumoto Horosi, manager of the Mana Island Resort, said people on the ­island were still coming to terms with the man’s death.

“It was a shock when the accident happened,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Fiji Times reports that a 33-year-old man has been charged and has made a first appearance in court for allegedly causing the death of a tourist in the Mamanucas last week.

Police spokesman Inspector Atunaisa Sokomuri said the man has been charged with a count of manslaughter, a count of negligence and operating without an outboard license.