‘We Need a Aircraft to Search For Them’: 13-Year-Old’s Urgent Plea to Save Relatives Adrift Off Aussie Coast Revealed

“We got lost out there,” a 13-year-old boy informs the triple-zero dispatcher, following a swim four kilometres in treacherous, the sea and jogging 1.25 miles to secure help for his family.

The operator asks how much time has elapsed since he set off.

“[It] was a very long time ago … I think they’re far offshore. I think we must get a helicopter to locate them,” he says.

Authorities have released the emergency phone call made in recent weeks after the youth departed from his family adrift at sea off the Western Australian coast to seek assistance.

His voice remains steady and composed, even as he details his worry for his family members.

“I am unsure of what their status is right now, and I’m extremely frightened,” he informs the operator.

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

The Perilous Situation

The family group had been carried 4km out to sea in rough conditions while kayaking and paddleboarding.

His mum asked him to use his craft and locate rescue, so the teenager commenced, abandoning first his sinking craft then his cumbersome lifejacket to cover the remaining stretch.

After making it to shore – four hours later – he raced for 1.25 miles to access a mobile phone.

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

“I’m located on the beach right now, and I have to also explain – I think I need an medical help because I think I have a dangerously low body temperature … I’m really, I’m utterly fatigued. I have heatstroke, and I feel like I’m about to collapse.”

A Holiday Turned Crisis

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

The parent later explained that they were playing around when the young ones “ventured out too far”. The breeze strengthened, they lost their oars, and started floating away.

“It kind of all turned bad very, very quickly,” she noted.

The parent also spoke of 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 could do it,” she commented.

The Successful Mission

The boy recalled being “very puffed out”.

“I just continued swimming, I do breaststroke, I do front crawl, I do elementary backstroke,” he said.

The distress call was made at around 6pm.

At around 8.30pm, ten hours after they first departed, the family were located and saved. They had drifted about 14km out to sea.

The recording was shared with the mother’s permission.

A police sergeant who coordinated the rescue mission said the family was in an “extremely dire situation”.

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

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

The sergeant also highlighted how the teenager clearly relayed key facts.

When asked to describe the boards for the search crew, the youth said: “They were coloured green and white.”

“And I’m not sure if it’s still on, but they had this fishing rod, and there was a fish on there. As we managed to catch a fish.”