We Require a Helicopter to Search For Them’: Teenager’s Urgent Plea to Rescue Family Lost Off Australian Coast Disclosed

“We got lost out there,” the teenager tells the 000 call handler, following a swim 4km in choppy, the sea and jogging 2km to get assistance for his family.

The dispatcher asks how long has elapsed since he began.

“[It] was ages past … I think they’re kilometres out to sea. I think we require a rescue aircraft to locate them,” he states.

Emergency services have released the recorded plea made last month after the teen departed from his relatives drifting at sea off the Western Australian coast to seek assistance.

His tone remains lucid and collected, even as he expresses his fear for his kin.

“I don’t know what their status is right now, and I’m really scared,” he tells the person on the line.

“Mum said go get help … We were in serious danger.”

The Perilous Situation

The mother and children had been pulled 2.5 miles out to sea in rough conditions while kayaking and paddleboarding.

His mother urged him to take his kayak and get assistance, so the teenager commenced, abandoning first his sinking craft then his bulky flotation device to cover the remaining stretch.

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

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

A Getaway in Peril

The group was on vacation in Quindalup, two hundred kilometres south of Perth. They began their trip from Geographe Bay some time after 10am on a Friday in late January.

The parent later recalled that they were playing around when the kids “went out a bit too far”. The wind picked up, they were separated from their equipment, and started drifting.

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

The mother also described having to make “one of the hardest decisions” to instruct her son to swim to land.

“I knew he was the most capable and he could do it,” she stated.

The Successful Mission

The teenager described being “completely out of breath”.

“I just continued swimming, I do breaststroke, I do freestyle, I do survival backstroke,” he said.

The call for help was made at approximately 6pm.

At roughly 8.30pm, ten hours after they first began, the group were spotted and rescued. They had been carried about 9 miles out to sea.

The audio was made public with the parents' permission.

A police sergeant who coordinated the search and rescue effort said the group was in an “extremely dire situation”.

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

“What the boy did was nothing short of extraordinary. His heroic actions in those conditions were remarkable, and his actions were crucial in bringing about a successful outcome.”

The commander also praised how the youth clearly relayed critical information.

When asked to detail the equipment for the search crew, the teenager responded: “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 caught one.”