React-Native-Webview: Expected nodeHandle to be not null

I am using react-native-webview for rendering a webview. When I navigate from one page to other inside the webview and then try to go back using this.webviewref.goBack() I get the exception of nodeHandle expected to be non-null.

Here is my piece of code

<View style={{ flex: 1 }}><Header          headingText={headerText}          onpress={() => {            // this.dispatchCustomEvent(BACK_PRESS);            if (this.canGoBack) {              this.webViewRef.goBack();            } else NavigationActions.pop();          }}        /><WebView          source={{ uri: "http://localhost:3001/invite/" }}          bounces={false}          javaScriptEnabled={true}          ref={webViewRef => (this.webViewRef = webViewRef)}          // injectedJavaScript={patchPostMessageJsCode}          onMessage={event => {            const { type, data } = JSON.parse(event.nativeEvent.data);            console.log({ type });            console.log({ data });            this.handleEvent(type, data);          }}          onNavigationStateChange={navState =>            (this.canGoBack = navState.canGoBack)          }        /></View>

console logging this.webViewRef shows that the goBack method exists in the weViewRef

The code for which throws the nodeHandle expected to be non-null can be found here https://github.com/react-native-community/react-native-webview/blob/master/src/WebView.ios.tsx

I am unable to understand what is the problem with getWebViewHandleand why nodeHandle is null.