We Require a Chopper to Search For Them’: 13-Year-Old’s Urgent Plea to Save Relatives Lost Off Down Under Coast Unveiled

“We got lost out there,” a 13-year-old boy explains to the 000 call handler, following a swim 2.5 miles in treacherous, open water and jogging two kilometres to secure help for his kin.

The dispatcher inquires how long has elapsed since he began.

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

Emergency services have released the emergency phone call made in recent weeks after the youth departed from his loved ones adrift at sea off the Western Australian coast to fetch help.

His demeanour remains steady and composed, even as he voices his fear for his family members.

“I have no idea about what their state is right now, and I’m really scared,” he tells the dispatcher.

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

The Dangerous Incident

The holidaymakers had been carried 2.5 miles out to sea in rough conditions while using kayaks and paddleboards.

His parent instructed him to use his craft and find help, so the teenager commenced, abandoning first his waterlogged vessel then his unwieldy PFD to make the journey by swimming.

After making it to shore – following a four-hour swim – he sprinted for 1.25 miles to get to a phone.

“Hello, my name is Austin … I have a brother and sister, Beau and Grace. Beau is 12 and Grace is eight,” he tells the emergency services.

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

A Vacation Gone Wrong

The group was on vacation 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 explained that they were having fun when the children “ventured out too far”. The wind picked up, they dropped their paddles, and started drifting.

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

The parent also spoke of having to make “an incredibly tough choice” to send her son to swim ashore.

“I knew he was the best swimmer and he had the ability to succeed,” she commented.

The Search Operation

The teenager recalled being “extremely winded”.

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

The call for help was made at approximately 6pm.

At roughly 8.30pm, ten hours after they first set out, the group were spotted and rescued. They had been carried about 14km out to sea.

The emergency call was made public with the family’s permission.

A senior officer who oversaw the operation said the family was in an “desperately dangerous position”.

“They were in real trouble, and time was extremely pressing given how long they had been in the water and with daylight fading.

“What the boy did was nothing short of extraordinary. His fortitude and resolve in those conditions were exceptional, and his actions were instrumental in bringing about a positive result.”

The sergeant also commended how the youth effectively communicated key facts.

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

“And I’m not sure if it’s still attached, but they had this fishing line, and there was a catch on the line. Since we hooked one.”