We Require a Chopper to Search For Them’: Teenager’s Distress Call to Save Family Stranded Off Down Under Coast Unveiled

“We became disoriented out there,” the teenager informs the triple-zero dispatcher, having swum 2.5 miles in choppy, the sea and running 1.25 miles to secure help for his kin.

The call taker questions how much time has elapsed since he began.

“[It] was quite some time back … I think they’re far offshore. I think we need a rescue aircraft to go find them,” he reports.

Emergency services have disclosed the emergency phone call made previously after the boy departed from his family adrift at sea off the WA coast to seek assistance.

His demeanour remains steady and composed, even as he details his fear for his kin.

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

“Mum said go get help … We were in massive trouble.”

The Perilous Situation

The mother and children had been carried 4km out to sea in stormy conditions while kayaking and paddleboarding.

His parent instructed him to use his craft and locate rescue, so the youth commenced, abandoning first his waterlogged vessel then his cumbersome lifejacket to cover the remaining stretch.

After making it to shore – after an extensive period – he ran for 1.25 miles to retrieve a mobile phone.

“Hello, my name is Austin … I have a brother and sister, Beau and Grace. Beau is 12 and Grace is eight,” he states the call handler.

“I’m located on the beach right now, and I have to also add – 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 sunstroke, and I feel like I’m about to pass out.”

A Holiday Turned Crisis

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

The mother 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 drifting.

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

The parent also referenced having to make “an incredibly tough choice” to ask her son to swim to land.

“I knew he was the strongest and he had the ability to succeed,” she said.

The Successful Mission

The youth described being “very puffed out”.

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

The distress call was made at about 6pm.

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

The recording was released with the parents' permission.

A senior officer who managed the search and rescue effort said the group was in an “extremely dire situation”.

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

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

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

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

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