Robin Armson, who emigrated to Australia from the UK, described as his "English rose" his daughter Cody, who fell more than 30ft from a viewpoint while drinking with friends at Sydney's Coogee Beach.
He asked her to "ease up" on her regular nights out two months ago. "They'll be drinking like teenagers do, they were 'Bondi girls'," Mr Armson told the Sydney Morning Herald.
"I spoke to her quite a bit about it a couple of months ago to ease up a bit, [saying] 'Dad's really worried', but she's had that many friends she couldn't get grounded for a couple of hours. She was always out or organising something."
Police believe Cody was standing on the edge of the cliff with a friend at about 11pm on Friday night when she lost her footing and toppled over the edge. She died from serious head injuries.
"As far as we know at this stage it's just a tragic accident but I'm waiting to hear from [police] today," Mr Armson, a teetotaller for more than 20 years, said.
He said he would never get over the shock of losing his "baby", who had left school and was about to start work in a chocolate shop in Sydney.
He learned of her death when police knocked on the door at 4am the next morning.
"As soon as I saw the police I just knew, the way they looked at me I just knew it," Mr Armson said.
"I'm still waiting for her to come home because Cody always comes home, sooner or later.
"Everyone she touched loved her. She never said a bad word about anybody. She always protected the other girls, she never left her friends behind, put everyone before [her] to the sacrifice of herself."
A 20-year-old woman also fell to her death after slipping from a cliff at the same spot last November.
The local council said following that tragedy, more fencing and warning signs had been installed, but there would be a review to determine if the extra measures were sufficient.
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