‘We Need a Helicopter to Search For Them’: 13-Year-Old’s Emergency Call to Rescue Family Lost Off Aussie Coast Unveiled

“We ended up adrift out there,” a 13-year-old boy tells the emergency operator, following a swim 4km in rough, the sea and sprinting 2km to summon rescue for his family.

The dispatcher asks how much time has passed since he set off.

“[It] was a very long time ago … I think they’re kilometres out to sea. I think we require a rescue aircraft to locate them,” he reports.

Police have made public the recorded plea made last month after the boy departed from his relatives adrift at sea off the WA coast to seek assistance.

His demeanour remains clear and calm, even as he details his worry for his family.

“I don’t know what their status is right now, and I’m terrified,” he tells the operator.

“Mum said to seek assistance … We were in massive trouble.”

The Dangerous Incident

The family group had been swept 2.5 miles out to sea in stormy conditions while enjoying water sports.

His parent instructed him to set out and locate rescue, so the boy commenced, abandoning first his failing kayak then his bulky flotation device to swim the distance.

After reaching land – following a four-hour swim – 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 states the call handler.

“I’m sitting on the beach right now, and I have to also explain – I think I need an medical help because I think I have hypothermia … I’m really, I’m utterly fatigued. I have sunstroke, and I feel like I’m about to faint.”

A Holiday Turned Crisis

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

The parent later described that they were having fun when the kids “went out a bit too far”. The wind picked up, they lost their oars, and started drifting.

“It kind of all went wrong very, very quickly,” she noted.

The mother also described having to make “a terribly difficult call” to instruct her son to swim to land.

“I knew he was the most capable and he was able to manage it,” she stated.

The Successful Mission

The youth explained being “completely out of breath”.

“I just keep swimming, I do breaststroke, I do freestyle, I do survival backstroke,” he explained.

The distress call was made at around 6pm.

At about 8.30pm, ten hours after they first set out, the stranded individuals were found and brought to safety. They had drifted about 14km out to sea.

The audio was released with the family’s permission.

A police sergeant who coordinated the operation said the group was in an “incredibly perilous state”.

“They were in real trouble, and time was absolutely critical given how much time they had been in the water and with night approaching.

“What the teenager did was nothing short of extraordinary. His bravery and courage in those conditions were remarkable, and his actions were instrumental in bringing about a positive result.”

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

When asked to detail the boards for the search crew, the teenager responded: “They were a green and white colour.”

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