‘We Need a Helicopter to Locate Them’: 13-Year-Old’s Distress Call to Save Loved Ones Lost Off Aussie Coast Revealed

“We ended up adrift out there,” a 13-year-old boy tells the triple-zero dispatcher, after swimming four kilometres in choppy, the sea and running two kilometres to secure help for his kin.

The call taker questions how long has elapsed since he began.

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

Emergency services have released the recorded plea made previously after the youth left his family floating at sea off the West Australian coast to fetch help.

His demeanour remains lucid and collected, even as he details his fear for his family.

“I don’t know what their condition is right now, and I’m terrified,” he confides in the person on the line.

“Mum said to seek assistance … We were in grave peril.”

The Harrowing Ordeal

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

His mum instructed him to take his kayak and locate rescue, so the youth set off, discarding first his failing kayak then his bulky flotation device to make the journey by swimming.

After reaching land – four hours later – he sprinted for two kilometres to get to a mobile phone.

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

“I’m sitting on the beach right now, and I have to also mention – I think I need an paramedic because I think I have exposure … I’m really, I’m utterly fatigued. I have sunstroke, and I feel like I’m about to pass out.”

A Holiday Turned Crisis

The family was on holiday in Quindalup, two hundred kilometres south of Perth. They set off from Geographe Bay following 10am on a Friday in late January.

The mother later described that they were playing around when the children “ventured out too far”. The breeze strengthened, they lost their oars, and started drifting.

“It sort of all turned bad very, very quickly,” she remarked.

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

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

The Successful Mission

The youth recalled being “extremely winded”.

“I just continued swimming, I do the breaststroke, I do front crawl, I do a floating stroke,” he said.

The distress call was made at around 6pm.

At roughly 8.30pm, ten hours after they first began, the stranded individuals were found and brought to safety. They had floated about fourteen kilometres out to sea.

The audio was released with the parents' permission.

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

“They were in real trouble, and time was of the essence given how much time they had been in the water and with daylight fading.

“What the teenager did was incredibly brave. His fortitude and resolve in those conditions were exceptional, and his actions were instrumental in bringing about a successful outcome.”

The sergeant also highlighted how the youth calmly conveyed critical information.

When asked to identify the equipment for the search crew, the youth replied: “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 caught one.”