We Must Have a Chopper to Go Find Them’: 13-Year-Old’s Urgent Plea to Rescue Relatives Stranded Off Aussie Coast Disclosed

“We got lost out there,” the teenager explains to the 000 call handler, after swimming 2.5 miles in choppy, the sea and jogging two kilometres to secure help for his household.

The dispatcher asks how much time has gone by since he began.

“[It] was a very long time ago … I think they’re far offshore. I think we require a rescue aircraft to search for them,” he reports.

Police have disclosed the recorded plea made in recent weeks after the youth departed from his relatives adrift at sea off the WA coast to fetch help.

His demeanour remains steady and composed, even as he details his fear for his kin.

“I don’t know what their condition is right now, and I’m terrified,” he tells the operator.

“Mum said to seek assistance … We were in serious danger.”

The Harrowing Ordeal

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

His mother instructed him to use his craft and get assistance, so the teenager began, ditching first his sinking craft then his cumbersome lifejacket to cover the remaining stretch.

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

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

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

A Vacation Gone Wrong

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

The woman later explained that they were playing around when the children “ventured out too far”. The conditions worsened, they were separated from their equipment, and started drifting.

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

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

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

The Search Operation

The boy explained being “extremely winded”.

“I just keep swimming, I do the breaststroke, I do freestyle, I do survival backstroke,” he explained.

The emergency call was made at about 6pm.

At roughly 8.30pm, a full ten hours after they first departed, the family were found and brought to safety. They had drifted about fourteen kilometres out to sea.

The audio was shared with the mother’s permission.

A police sergeant who coordinated the operation said the family was in an “extremely dire situation”.

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

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

The sergeant also commended how the teenager effectively communicated vital details.

When asked to identify the paddleboards for the search crew, the boy said: “They were a green and white colour.”

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