We Must Have a Aircraft to Search For Them’: Teenager’s Distress Call to Rescue Family Lost Off Aussie Coast Unveiled

“We ended up adrift out there,” a 13-year-old boy informs the triple-zero dispatcher, after swimming 4km in choppy, open ocean and sprinting two kilometres to secure help for his kin.

The call taker asks how much time has passed since he began.

“[It] was a very long time ago … I think they’re kilometres out to sea. I think we must get a chopper to go find them,” he states.

Authorities have released the distress call made in recent weeks after the teen departed from his loved ones adrift at sea off the WA coast to find rescuers.

His voice remains lucid and collected, even as he expresses his worry for his family members.

“I am unsure of what their status is right now, and I’m terrified,” he confides in the dispatcher.

“Mum said to find rescue … We were in massive trouble.”

The Harrowing Ordeal

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

His mum urged him to set out and locate rescue, so the boy began, abandoning first his failing kayak then his unwieldy PFD to make the journey by swimming.

After getting to the beach – following a four-hour swim – he raced for two kilometres to retrieve a mobile phone.

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

“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 hypothermia … I’m really, I’m utterly fatigued. I have sunstroke, and I feel like I’m about to faint.”

A Vacation Gone Wrong

The holidaymakers was on a break in Quindalup, 125 miles south of Perth. They began their trip from Geographe Bay following 10am on a Friday in late January.

The parent later explained that they were playing around when the kids “ventured out too far”. The wind picked up, they dropped their paddles, and started drifting.

“It kind of all became dangerous very, very quickly,” she noted.

The mother also spoke of having to make “an incredibly tough choice” to instruct her son to make the swim for help.

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

The Search Operation

The youth recalled being “completely out of breath”.

“I just keep swimming, I do breaststroke, I do freestyle, I do a floating stroke,” he said.

The call for help was made at around 6pm.

At roughly 8.30pm, ten hours after they first set out, the stranded individuals were found and brought to safety. They had drifted about 14km out to sea.

The recording was made public with the parents' permission.

A police sergeant who oversaw the operation said the family 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 incredibly brave. His heroic actions in those conditions were exceptional, and his actions were instrumental in bringing about a rescue.”

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

When asked to identify the paddleboards for the rescue team, the teenager said: “They were a green and white colour.”

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