RIVER guides battled in vain for nearly an hour to revive a woman who drowned on a kayaking trip down the Russell River near Babinda yesterday.

The 50-year-old  woman was pulled from the river after falling out of an inflatable kayak towards the end of a day with adventure company Foaming Fury.

"We've been told her boat became lodged in a section of the river and she was thrown out," Innisfail Police District Inspector David Tucker said.

"The other person in her vessel got to safety but she did not," Insp Tucker said.

The Sydney woman was on the adventure tour with two relatives.

Ambulance officers arrived at the river as river guides were still trying to resuscitate her in a kayak beside the water.

"They had brought her down about a kilometre from where it happened and a woman and a man were doing CPR and had been for 50 minutes," an ambulance spokesman said.

The woman died at the scene.

Ambulance officers and police, who hiked several kilometres in from popular swimming spot the Golden Hole, carried her out on a stretcher with the help of river guides.

Her stunned companions were also walked out through the rainforest.

Police said 12 people had been on the trip, described as an "extreme rafting experience" in two-man sports kayaks through grade 1-4 rapids.

Workplace, Health and Safety officers were at the scene late yesterday and will return today.

The woman, whose name had not been released by police last night, is believed to have been on a two-week holiday in the Far North with her son and another relative.

Investigations are continuing.

But early indications were that the woman's kayak had taken a different route down its final section of river than the others.

River guides called 000 for help about 2.40pm.

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