We Must Have a Aircraft to Search For Them’: Teenager’s Urgent Plea to Save Family Lost Off Australian Coast Revealed

“We became disoriented out there,” the teenager informs the emergency operator, having swum 4km in treacherous, the sea and running 2km to summon rescue for his kin.

The call taker questions how long has gone by since he set off.

“[It] was ages past … I think they’re a long way from land. I think we must get a chopper to locate them,” he states.

Police have released the emergency phone call made in recent weeks after the teen departed from his loved ones adrift at sea off the WA coast to seek assistance.

His voice remains clear and calm, even as he expresses his concern for his kin.

“I don’t know what their status is right now, and I’m extremely frightened,” he confides in the dispatcher.

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

The Harrowing Ordeal

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

His parent instructed him to use his craft and locate rescue, so the teenager began, ditching first his sinking craft then his unwieldy PFD to make the journey by swimming.

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

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

“I’m sitting on the beach right now, and I have to also add – I think I need an medical help because I think I have hypothermia … I’m really, I’m extremely tired. I have hyperthermia, and I feel like I’m about to pass out.”

A Holiday Turned Crisis

The group was on vacation in Quindalup, 125 miles south of Perth. They set off from Geographe Bay around 10am on a Friday in late January.

The mother later described that they were playing around when the kids “ventured out too far”. The conditions worsened, they lost their oars, and started being carried out.

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

The mother also spoke of having to make “an incredibly tough choice” to instruct her son to swim ashore.

“I knew he was the most capable and he was able to manage it,” she commented.

The Rescue Effort

The boy recalled being “completely out of breath”.

“I just pressed on, I do the breaststroke, I do freestyle, I do elementary backstroke,” he recalled.

The call for help was made at about 6pm.

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

The recording was made public with the parents' permission.

A senior officer who oversaw the operation said the group was in an “desperately dangerous position”.

“They were in real trouble, and time was of the essence given how long they had been in the water and with night approaching.

“What the teenager did was nothing short of extraordinary. His heroic actions in those conditions were astonishing, and his actions were instrumental in bringing about a rescue.”

The commander also praised how the youth calmly conveyed vital details.

When asked to detail the paddleboards for the search crew, the youth responded: “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. Because we hooked one.”