‘We Need a Helicopter to Go Find Them’: Adolescent’s Emergency Call to Rescue Loved Ones Stranded Off Aussie Coast Unveiled

“We ended up adrift out there,” the teenager explains to the emergency operator, after swimming four kilometres in choppy, open ocean and jogging 2km to secure help for his household.

The operator questions how long has gone by since he started out.

“[It] was a very long time ago … I think they’re far offshore. I think we need a rescue aircraft to go find them,” he says.

Police have made public the emergency phone call made in recent weeks after the boy left his loved ones adrift at sea off the West Australian coast to fetch help.

His tone remains clear and calm, even as he expresses his concern for his family members.

“I have no idea about what their state is right now, and I’m extremely frightened,” he confides in the dispatcher.

“Mum said go get help … We were in grave peril.”

The Perilous Situation

The mother and children had been carried 2.5 miles out to sea in treacherous conditions while using kayaks and paddleboards.

His mum urged him to take his kayak and locate rescue, so the boy commenced, abandoning first his sinking craft then his cumbersome lifejacket to make the journey by swimming.

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 younger siblings, Beau and Grace. Beau is 12 and Grace is eight,” he tells the call handler.

“I’m sitting on the beach right now, and I have to also explain – I think I need an paramedic because I think I have a dangerously low body temperature … I’m really, I’m completely exhausted. I have hyperthermia, and I feel like I’m about to faint.”

A Getaway in Peril

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

The mother later recalled that they were playing around when the children “drifted further than intended”. The wind picked up, they lost their oars, and started drifting.

“It kind of all turned bad very, very quickly,” she said.

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

“I knew he was the best swimmer and he had the ability to succeed,” she said.

The Search Operation

The teenager recalled being “extremely winded”.

“I just keep swimming, I do breaststroke, I do front crawl, I do a floating stroke,” he explained.

The distress call was made at about 6pm.

At about 8.30pm, a full ten hours after they first set out, the family were found and brought to safety. They had floated about 14km out to sea.

The emergency call was made public 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 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 truly remarkable. His heroic actions in those conditions were exceptional, and his actions were pivotal in bringing about a rescue.”

The officer also praised how the youth clearly relayed key facts.

When asked to detail the equipment for the authorities, the youth responded: “They were green and white.”

“And I’m not sure if it’s there, but they had this fishing line, and there was a fish hooked. As we managed to catch a fish.”