We Must Have a Helicopter to Locate Them’: 13-Year-Old’s Urgent Plea to Save Relatives Stranded Off Down Under Coast Unveiled

“We ended up adrift out there,” a 13-year-old boy explains to the 000 call handler, having swum 4km in rough, open water and running 2km to secure help for his kin.

The call taker inquires how long has passed since he began.

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

Authorities have released the emergency phone call made last month after the youth left his family floating at sea off the WA coast to seek assistance.

His demeanour remains steady and composed, even as he expresses his concern for his kin.

“I don’t know what their status is right now, and I’m terrified,” he informs the person on the line.

“Mum said to find rescue … We were in serious danger.”

The Perilous Situation

The holidaymakers had been carried four kilometres out to sea in stormy conditions while kayaking and paddleboarding.

His mum instructed him to use his craft and find help, so the teenager set off, discarding first his waterlogged vessel then his unwieldy PFD to cover the remaining stretch.

After getting to the beach – after an extensive period – he sprinted for two kilometres to get to a mobile phone.

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

“I’m positioned 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 extremely tired. I have hyperthermia, and I feel like I’m about to faint.”

A Vacation Gone Wrong

The family was on vacation in Quindalup, two hundred kilometres south of Perth. They began their trip from Geographe Bay some time after 10am on a Friday in late January.

The woman later described that they were playing around when the children “went out a bit too far”. The breeze strengthened, they dropped their paddles, and started drifting.

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

The mother also spoke of having to make “a terribly difficult call” to ask her son to swim to land.

“I knew he was the most capable and he could do it,” she commented.

The Search Operation

The teenager described being “completely out of breath”.

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

The distress call was made at around 6pm.

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

The audio was shared with the parents' permission.

A forward commander who coordinated the search and rescue effort said the family was in an “extremely dire situation”.

“They were in serious jeopardy, and time was extremely pressing given how much time they had been in the water and with night approaching.

“What Austin did was incredibly brave. His bravery and courage in those conditions were exceptional, and his actions were pivotal in bringing about a successful outcome.”

The commander also highlighted how the youth clearly relayed vital details.

When asked to describe the equipment for the authorities, the boy replied: “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. Since we managed to catch a fish.”