We Must Have a Chopper to Go Find Them’: 13-Year-Old’s Distress Call to Aid Relatives Stranded Off Aussie Coast Unveiled

“We got lost out there,” the teenager informs the 000 call handler, having swum 4km in rough, the sea and sprinting 2km to summon rescue for his kin.

The dispatcher inquires how much time has elapsed since he set off.

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

Authorities have released the emergency phone call made in recent weeks after the youth left his loved ones drifting at sea off the Western Australian coast to seek assistance.

His tone remains lucid and collected, even as he voices his concern for his kin.

“I am unsure of what their status is right now, and I’m really scared,” he informs the operator.

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

The Dangerous Incident

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

His mum asked him to use his craft and find help, so the youth began, discarding first his waterlogged vessel then his bulky flotation device to cover the remaining stretch.

After reaching land – after an extensive period – he raced for two kilometres to access a mobile phone.

“Hello, my name is Austin … I have a brother and sister, Beau and Grace. Beau is 12 and Grace is eight,” he explains the call handler.

“I’m positioned on the beach right now, and I have to also add – I think I need an ambulance because I think I have a dangerously low body temperature … I’m really, I’m completely exhausted. I have heatstroke, and I feel like I’m about to pass out.”

A Getaway in Peril

The family 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 parent later described that they were playing around when the children “ventured out too far”. The conditions worsened, they dropped their paddles, and started floating away.

“It pretty much all turned bad very, very quickly,” she noted.

The mother also described having to make “an incredibly tough choice” to ask her son to swim to land.

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

The Rescue Effort

The teenager explained being “very puffed out”.

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

The distress call was made at around 6pm.

At about 8.30pm, many hours after they first departed, the group were located and saved. They had been carried about 9 miles out to sea.

The recording was made public with the parents' permission.

A forward commander who coordinated the search and rescue effort said the group was in an “incredibly perilous state”.

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

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

The officer also highlighted how the boy calmly conveyed vital details.

When asked to describe the paddleboards 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 on there. Since we caught one.”