‘We Need a Chopper to Locate Them’: 13-Year-Old’s Distress Call to Rescue Family Stranded Off Down Under Coast Disclosed

“We got lost out there,” a 13-year-old boy explains to the emergency operator, after swimming 2.5 miles in rough, open ocean and running 2km to secure help for his family.

The operator asks how much time has passed since he started out.

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

Authorities have disclosed the emergency phone call made in recent weeks after the youth left his loved ones floating at sea off the Western Australian coast to seek assistance.

His voice remains steady and composed, even as he expresses his worry for his kin.

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

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

The Perilous Situation

The mother and children had been swept 2.5 miles out to sea in treacherous conditions while enjoying water sports.

His mum instructed him to use his craft and locate rescue, so the boy began, ditching first his sinking craft then his unwieldy PFD to cover the remaining stretch.

After making it to shore – following a four-hour swim – he sprinted for 2km to retrieve a cell 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 located on the beach right now, and I have to also mention – I think I need an ambulance because I think I have a dangerously low body temperature … I’m really, I’m utterly fatigued. I have sunstroke, and I feel like I’m about to faint.”

A Getaway in Peril

The family was on vacation in Quindalup, 125 miles south of Perth. They began their trip from Geographe Bay around 10am on a Friday in late January.

The woman later explained that they were enjoying themselves when the young ones “went out a bit too far”. The wind picked up, they lost their oars, and started drifting.

“It sort of all turned bad very, very quickly,” she remarked.

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 was able to manage it,” she said.

The Successful Mission

The youth explained being “completely out of breath”.

“I just keep swimming, I do the breaststroke, I do freestyle, I do survival backstroke,” he explained.

The distress call was made at about 6pm.

At roughly 8.30pm, a full ten hours after they first set out, the family were spotted and rescued. They had been carried about 9 miles out to sea.

The audio was shared with the family’s permission.

A forward commander who managed the operation said the family was in an “incredibly perilous state”.

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

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

The officer also praised how the boy clearly relayed vital details.

When asked to detail the paddleboards for the rescue team, the boy responded: “They were green and white.”

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