‘We Need a Aircraft to Locate Them’: 13-Year-Old’s Distress Call to Rescue Relatives Adrift Off Aussie Coast Unveiled

“We ended up adrift out there,” a 13-year-old boy explains to the triple-zero dispatcher, following a swim 4km in treacherous, open water and sprinting 2km to summon rescue for his family.

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

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

Emergency services have released the distress call made in recent weeks after the youth departed from his loved ones adrift at sea off the Western Australian coast to seek assistance.

His demeanour remains steady and composed, even as he expresses his fear for his family.

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

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

The Perilous Situation

The mother and children had been pulled 2.5 miles out to sea in treacherous conditions while kayaking and paddleboarding.

His mother instructed him to take his kayak and find help, so the teenager began, abandoning first his waterlogged vessel then his unwieldy PFD to swim the distance.

After reaching land – following a four-hour swim – he raced for 1.25 miles to access a phone.

“Hello, my name is Austin … I have a brother and sister, Beau and Grace. Beau is 12 and Grace is eight,” he states the emergency services.

“I’m located on the beach right now, and I have to also explain – I think I need an medical help because I think I have exposure … 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 holidaymakers was on vacation in Quindalup, 125 miles south of Perth. They set off from Geographe Bay some time after 10am on a Friday in late January.

The woman later explained that they were having fun when the kids “ventured out too far”. The conditions worsened, they dropped their paddles, and started drifting.

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

The parent also referenced having to make “a terribly difficult call” to ask her son to swim to land.

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

The Rescue Effort

The teenager recalled being “extremely winded”.

“I just continued swimming, I do breaststroke, I do freestyle, I do survival backstroke,” he said.

The distress call was made at approximately 6pm.

At around 8.30pm, ten hours after they first began, the group were located and saved. They had drifted about 9 miles out to sea.

The emergency call was made public with the mother’s permission.

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

“They were in real trouble, and time was of the essence given how much time they had been in the water and with daylight fading.

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

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

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

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