We Must Have a Chopper to Locate Them’: Adolescent’s Distress Call to Rescue Family Lost Off Down Under Coast Revealed

“We got lost out there,” a 13-year-old boy informs the emergency operator, having swum 2.5 miles in rough, the sea and jogging 2km to get assistance for his family.

The call taker asks how long has elapsed since he set off.

“[It] was ages past … I think they’re kilometres out to sea. I think we need a rescue aircraft to go find them,” he says.

Police have made public the emergency phone call made previously after the youth departed from his loved ones drifting at sea off the Western Australian coast to fetch help.

His voice remains lucid and collected, even as he expresses his worry for his family members.

“I have no idea about what their condition is right now, and I’m terrified,” he tells the operator.

“Mum said to find rescue … We were in grave peril.”

The Dangerous Incident

The holidaymakers had been pulled 4km out to sea in rough conditions while kayaking and paddleboarding.

His mother instructed him to set out and find help, so the teenager commenced, abandoning first his failing kayak then his cumbersome lifejacket to cover the remaining stretch.

After getting to the beach – four hours later – he raced for 1.25 miles to retrieve a cell phone.

“Hello, my name is Austin … I have younger siblings, Beau and Grace. Beau is 12 and Grace is eight,” he explains the emergency services.

“I’m positioned on the beach right now, and I have to also explain – I think I need an ambulance because I think I have exposure … I’m really, I’m utterly fatigued. I have hyperthermia, and I feel like I’m about to collapse.”

A Holiday Turned Crisis

The family was on vacation in Quindalup, two hundred kilometres south of Perth. They began their trip from Geographe Bay some time after 10am on a Friday in late January.

The parent later described that they were having fun when the young ones “went out a bit too far”. The conditions worsened, they lost their oars, and started floating away.

“It pretty much all went wrong very, very quickly,” she remarked.

The parent also described having to make “a terribly difficult call” to instruct her son to make the swim for help.

“I knew he was the strongest and he was able to manage it,” she commented.

The Rescue Effort

The youth recalled being “completely out of breath”.

“I just continued swimming, I do the breaststroke, I do front crawl, I do survival backstroke,” he explained.

The distress call was made at about 6pm.

At about 8.30pm, ten hours after they first departed, the family were found and brought to safety. They had been carried about fourteen kilometres out to sea.

The emergency call was released with the parents' permission.

A police sergeant who oversaw the search and rescue effort said the group was in an “desperately dangerous position”.

“They were in genuine danger, and time was extremely pressing given how long they had been in the water and with night approaching.

“What the boy did was truly remarkable. His heroic actions in those conditions were astonishing, and his actions were crucial in bringing about a rescue.”

The sergeant also commended how the boy calmly conveyed critical information.

When asked to identify the equipment for the authorities, the boy replied: “They were a green and white colour.”

“And I’m not sure if it’s there, but they had this rod, and there was a fish hooked. Since we hooked one.”