We Must Have a Aircraft to Locate Them’: Teenager’s Distress Call to Rescue Loved Ones Lost Off Aussie Coast Unveiled

“We ended up adrift out there,” the teenager informs the triple-zero dispatcher, having swum 2.5 miles in rough, open water and running 2km to secure help for his family.

The dispatcher asks how long has gone by since he set off.

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

Police have disclosed the emergency phone call made in recent weeks after the teen left his relatives drifting at sea off the West Australian coast to find rescuers.

His voice remains lucid and collected, even as he voices his worry for his kin.

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

“Mum said to seek assistance … We were in grave peril.”

The Harrowing Ordeal

The mother and children had been swept 4km out to sea in treacherous conditions while enjoying water sports.

His mum instructed him to use his craft and find help, so the teenager began, abandoning first his waterlogged vessel then his bulky flotation device to swim the distance.

After reaching land – following a four-hour swim – he raced for 1.25 miles to retrieve 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 call handler.

“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 a dangerously low body temperature … I’m really, I’m utterly fatigued. I have sunstroke, and I feel like I’m about to collapse.”

A Vacation Gone Wrong

The family was on vacation in Quindalup, 200km south of Perth. They departed from Geographe Bay around 10am on a Friday in late January.

The woman later described that they were enjoying themselves when the young ones “went out a bit too far”. The wind picked up, they were separated from their equipment, and started being carried out.

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

The mother also referenced having to make “an incredibly tough choice” to send her son to swim ashore.

“I knew he was the strongest and he was able to manage it,” she stated.

The Search Operation

The teenager explained being “very puffed out”.

“I just pressed on, I do breaststroke, I do front crawl, I do survival backstroke,” he explained.

The distress call was made at approximately 6pm.

At around 8.30pm, a full ten hours after they first departed, the group were spotted and rescued. They had floated about 9 miles out to sea.

The recording was shared with the mother’s permission.

A police sergeant who oversaw the rescue mission said the group was in an “incredibly perilous state”.

“They were in genuine danger, and time was of the essence given how long they had been in the water and with daylight fading.

“What the teenager did was incredibly brave. His heroic actions in those conditions were astonishing, and his actions were instrumental in bringing about a positive result.”

The sergeant also highlighted how the youth calmly conveyed key facts.

When asked to describe the boards for the rescue team, the boy responded: “They were green and white.”

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