We Require a Chopper to Go Find Them’: 13-Year-Old’s Emergency Call to Aid Loved Ones Adrift Off Down Under Coast Unveiled

“We ended up adrift out there,” the teenager explains to the triple-zero dispatcher, after swimming 4km in treacherous, open water and running 1.25 miles to secure help for his family.

The call taker asks how long has elapsed since he set off.

“[It] was a very long time ago … I think they’re a long way from land. I think we need a rescue aircraft to go find them,” he reports.

Authorities have made public the emergency phone call made previously after the teen departed from his loved ones floating at sea off the Western Australian coast to fetch help.

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

“I am unsure of what their status is right now, and I’m terrified,” he informs the person on the line.

“Mum said go get help … We were in serious danger.”

The Harrowing Ordeal

The mother and children had been carried 4km out to sea in rough conditions while kayaking and paddleboarding.

His mother instructed him to take his kayak and locate rescue, so the teenager set off, discarding first his sinking craft then his unwieldy PFD to swim the distance.

After getting to the beach – four hours later – he raced for two kilometres to access a phone.

“Hello, my name is Austin … I have two siblings, Beau and Grace. Beau is 12 and Grace is eight,” he tells the emergency services.

“I’m positioned on the beach right now, and I have to also add – 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 pass out.”

A Getaway in Peril

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

The mother later described that they were having fun when the kids “drifted further than intended”. The breeze strengthened, they lost their oars, and started floating away.

“It kind of all became dangerous very, very quickly,” she said.

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

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

The Rescue Effort

The youth explained being “extremely winded”.

“I just continued swimming, I do the breaststroke, I do front crawl, I do a floating stroke,” he recalled.

The emergency call was made at around 6pm.

At roughly 8.30pm, many hours after they first began, the family were located and saved. They had been carried about 14km out to sea.

The emergency call was released with the mother’s permission.

A police sergeant who coordinated the rescue mission said the family was in an “incredibly perilous state”.

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

“What the boy did was incredibly brave. His fortitude and resolve in those conditions were remarkable, and his actions were pivotal in bringing about a rescue.”

The sergeant also praised how the boy effectively communicated vital details.

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

“And I’m not sure if it’s there, but they had this rod, and there was a catch on the line. Because we caught one.”