This is a good interview Wayno, and not surprisingly given his experience, pretty well covers it. Also a bit on how the track is marketed.
I'm really not sure what more DOC can do, practically, for out of season independant walkers that are inexperienced.
It does seem to boil down to this group under-estimating the force of the water in the Pompolona Creek, and if so, they would'nt have even considered the possibility of being washed into Clinton River - which is the possibility they should have been focused on.
I think the warnings should be more explicitly explanatory about forces of water at knee/thigh high, and the consequence of ending up in a flooded Clinton River, which would be an order of magnitude worse than a flooded Pompolona Creek.
I don't think it's enough to say , in effect , don't do it - it needs to be spelt out why not.
Also, they would have been walking along side the absolutely roaring Clinton River (at 2m above normal), but didn't perceive the real danger.
Sort of in the same vein, when we were there(no snow) we saw the avalanche signs designating start/end of zones. Having no experience with avalanches, I found it hard to imagine the snow coming that far onto the track, although I believed the signs.