We Require a Helicopter to Go Find Them’: 13-Year-Old’s Urgent Plea to Aid Relatives Adrift Off Aussie Coast Revealed

“We got lost out there,” a 13-year-old boy explains to the emergency operator, following a swim 2.5 miles in treacherous, the sea and running 1.25 miles to summon rescue for his kin.

The operator questions how much time has elapsed since he set off.

“[It] was ages past … I think they’re a long way from land. I think we must get a rescue aircraft to go find them,” he says.

Emergency services have disclosed the recorded plea made in recent weeks after the boy left his family floating at sea off the Western Australian coast to find rescuers.

His demeanour remains clear and calm, even as he voices his concern for his family.

“I am unsure of what their condition is right now, and I’m terrified,” he tells the operator.

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

The Dangerous Incident

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

His mother asked him to use his craft and locate rescue, so the youth commenced, abandoning first his waterlogged vessel then his unwieldy PFD to make the journey by swimming.

After getting to the beach – following a four-hour swim – he sprinted for 2km to retrieve a 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 mention – I think I need an paramedic because I think I have a dangerously low body temperature … I’m really, I’m utterly fatigued. I have hyperthermia, and I feel like I’m about to pass out.”

A Holiday Turned Crisis

The group was on vacation in Quindalup, 200km south of Perth. They set off from Geographe Bay following 10am on a Friday in late January.

The woman later recalled that they were enjoying themselves when the children “drifted further than intended”. The breeze strengthened, they were separated from their equipment, and started being carried out.

“It pretty much all became dangerous very, very quickly,” she noted.

The parent also referenced having to make “one of the hardest decisions” to ask her son to swim to land.

“I knew he was the most capable and he was able to manage it,” 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 survival backstroke,” he recalled.

The emergency call was made at approximately 6pm.

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

The emergency call was shared with the parents' permission.

A senior officer who managed the operation said the group was in an “extremely dire situation”.

“They were in genuine danger, and time was extremely pressing given how long they had been in the water and with light running out.

“What the boy did was truly remarkable. His bravery and courage in those conditions were astonishing, and his actions were instrumental in bringing about a successful outcome.”

The officer also commended how the youth clearly relayed critical information.

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

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