‘We Need a Helicopter to Go Find Them’: 13-Year-Old’s Distress Call to Rescue Family Lost Off Down Under Coast Unveiled

“We ended up adrift out there,” the teenager informs the 000 call handler, having swum four kilometres in rough, the sea and running 2km to get assistance for his household.

The dispatcher asks how much time has passed since he began.

“[It] was quite some time back … I think they’re kilometres out to sea. I think we require a chopper to search for them,” he reports.

Police have disclosed the emergency phone call made last month after the boy left his relatives drifting at sea off the WA coast to seek assistance.

His demeanour remains lucid and collected, even as he expresses his fear for his family members.

“I don’t know what their state is right now, and I’m really scared,” he confides in the person on the line.

“Mum said to seek assistance … We were in massive trouble.”

The Harrowing Ordeal

The family group had been pulled 4km out to sea in treacherous conditions while kayaking and paddleboarding.

His parent urged him to take his kayak 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 – four hours later – he sprinted for 2km to get to a phone.

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

“I’m sitting on the beach right now, and I have to also mention – I think I need an medical help 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 Holiday Turned Crisis

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

The parent later recalled that they were having fun when the children “ventured out too far”. The breeze strengthened, they were separated from their equipment, and started being carried out.

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

The parent also described having to make “one of the hardest decisions” to send her son to make the swim for help.

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

The Rescue Effort

The youth explained being “very puffed out”.

“I just keep swimming, I do breaststroke, I do front crawl, I do survival backstroke,” he recalled.

The emergency call was made at about 6pm.

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

The audio was released with the parents' permission.

A police sergeant who coordinated the rescue mission said the family was in an “desperately dangerous position”.

“They were in real trouble, and time was absolutely critical given how long they had been in the water and with daylight fading.

“What the teenager did was truly remarkable. His fortitude and resolve in those conditions were exceptional, and his actions were instrumental in bringing about a positive result.”

The officer also commended how the boy effectively communicated critical information.

When asked to detail the paddleboards for the rescue team, the youth replied: “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 caught one.”