We Require a Helicopter to Go Find Them’: Adolescent’s Distress Call to Rescue Loved Ones Stranded Off Down Under Coast Revealed

“We ended up adrift out there,” a 13-year-old boy explains to the 000 call handler, having swum 2.5 miles in rough, open water and jogging 1.25 miles to summon rescue for his family.

The dispatcher inquires how long has passed since he began.

“[It] was ages past … I think they’re kilometres out to sea. I think we must get a chopper to go find them,” he says.

Emergency services have made public the emergency phone call made previously after the teen left his relatives adrift at sea off the West Australian coast to find rescuers.

His demeanour remains clear and calm, even as he expresses his fear for his family.

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

“Mum said to find rescue … We were in grave peril.”

The Perilous Situation

The holidaymakers had been carried 4km out to sea in stormy conditions while using kayaks and paddleboards.

His mother instructed him to take his kayak and find help, so the boy set off, abandoning first his failing kayak then his bulky flotation device to cover the remaining stretch.

After making it to shore – four hours later – he ran for two kilometres to access a cell phone.

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

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

A Getaway in Peril

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

The mother later recalled that they were enjoying themselves 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 turned bad very, very quickly,” she noted.

The mother also described having to make “a terribly difficult call” to ask her son to swim ashore.

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

The Rescue Effort

The youth recalled being “extremely winded”.

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

The distress call was made at around 6pm.

At roughly 8.30pm, ten hours after they first began, the group were found and brought to safety. They had floated about 9 miles out to sea.

The audio was shared with the family’s permission.

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

“They were in real trouble, and time was extremely pressing given how much time they had been in the water and with night approaching.

“What the boy did was incredibly brave. His bravery and courage in those conditions were astonishing, and his actions were pivotal in bringing about a rescue.”

The officer also highlighted how the youth clearly relayed vital details.

When asked to describe the paddleboards for the rescue team, the teenager responded: “They were coloured green and white.”

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