Australia AUSTRALIA - 4YO AUGUST (GUS) Missing from rural family home in Outback, Yunta, South Australia, 27th Sept 2025

[Lady-J]

Dbm

 

[Lady-J]

Directly south of Oak Park is a conservation park called Pualco Range, containing numerous large hills with rocky peaks. Visitation of this conservation park is very low. There are no facilities there. In fact, most maps do not actually tell you how to get there as the required roads are not marked or signposted. When I visit, there are sometimes fallen branches and growth over the tracks and little or no signs that the tracks have been used in some time. If you climb the tallest peak on the northern edge of the park, near a copper mine ruin called Wheal Motley, you get an excellent view of the surrounding area. From here, you can see multiple station homesteads in the distance - including Oak Park some 7km away, and others. In fact, you can see so far that even Tattawuppa Hill is clearly visible on the horizon, which is beyond Yunta, from that point. Surprisingly, at the top of this peak, you can also pick up 5G Telstra phone reception (from the Yunta tower). Parts of this conservation park have been searched in the efforts to locate Gus.

On the northern edge of Pualco Range Conservation Park is a chained and padlocked gate. The track beyond this gate leads to the Oak Park homestead. I don't recall if this gate has always been locked or if the chain is a new addition.

Interesting !
Oak Park can be seen from nearby Pualco Range Conservation Park and there’s a track from there to the homestead.

I wonder if Jess and Josie’s location could have been seen from there at the time Gus went missing. And if Gus regularly played in the sandpit at 5:00 pm.
Maybe someone who had recently worked on the property decided to take a drive to Pualco Range and realised they hadn’t been seen , saw Gus playing alone through binoculars and that Jess and Josie were miles away.
IMO

 

[Mauig’ma]

Interesting !
Oak Park can be seen from nearby Pualco Range Conservation Park and there’s a track from there to the homestead.

I wonder if Jess and Josie’s location could have been seen from there at the time Gus went missing. And if Gus regularly played in the sandpit at 5:00 pm.
Maybe someone who had recently worked on the property decided to take a drive to Pualco Range and realised they hadn’t been seen , saw Gus playing alone through binoculars and that Jess and Josie were miles away.
IMO

Interesting theory. I can see that happening. Especially if it was normal for Gus to be outside playing in the sandpit while grand parent was fixing dinner. Moo

 

[RedHaus]

The way I have followed this is that JL is not currently living at his Belalie North property.

RSBM
Welcome to Websleuths, @_sleuthdog_.

 

[Lady-J]

We'd probably need to know more information ... like how long the shearing took. I see information about how many sheep an experienced shearer can shear in one day.
If we knew how long the shearing took, we might be able to gauge how many shearers were there.
I imagine there may be a lot of demand for shearers during Spring.

I would think the police are right on top of this. When investigating who may have accessed the property, or been on the property, at the time that Gus disappeared.

imo

Eg:
This clip suggests some of the pressures that shearers experience in a job that continues to be physically demanding, requires great skill, and pays only for the number of sheep shorn.
The narrator states that, on average, shearers processed 130 sheep per day.
Today [2010], shearers typically shear about 100 sheep per day. A ‘gun shearer’ or 'ringer' (the fastest shearer in the shed) can shear 200–300 or more sheep per day.

https://www.naa.gov.au/students-and-teachers/learning-resources/learning-resource-themes/environment-and-nature/animals/excerpt-documentary-film-shearers-typical-sheep-station#:

I would think the police are right on top of this. When investigating who may have accessed the property, or been on the property, at the time that Gus disappeared.

I’m trying to have faith in the police but I’m scared that this case will be bungled up and an important file will not be passed on as has happened many times.

 

[BreakingNews]

I am now thinking that maybe the DM took photos of Josh leaving the in-laws Adelaide property on Tuesday, and he "reacted" angrily (maybe flipped them an unpublished bird).

"When briefly approached for comment by Daily Mail, the devastated father reacted angrily."

And went to Samuel's place to see if he was ready to be interviewed, and he yelled at them to get off his property now (maybe didn't even open the door to them?)

" .... but when asked again on Tuesday if there had been any change, Samuel loudly shouted to 'get off the property, now'."

Maybe two different property visits on Tuesday.

imo

Yes, that makes sense. I was thinking Samuel must have lived in the grandparents house. I wasn't thinking of 2 different houses.

 

[BreakingNews]

Interesting theory. I can see that happening. Especially if it was normal for Gus to be outside playing in the sandpit while grand parent was fixing dinner. Moo

I still think there would have been noise that would have alerted dogs or Grandma Shannon

 

[Lady-J]

I still think there would have been noise that would have alerted dogs or Grandma Shannon

Good point - I hadn’t thought about the dogs before. Wonder if they all went with Josie and Jess , what Shannon’s hearing is like, whether the radio was on and if it’s hard to hear what’s going on outside .

 

[katydid23]

I still think there would have been noise that would have alerted dogs or Grandma Shannon

If the dogs were right there, wouldn't they have followed Gus if he started walking afar? I've always wondered where the dogs were at that time. I assumed they were with Jess and Jo and the sheep.

 

[TMich6811]

Feels like there are so many kids that just vanished right now

 

[wallyworld]

It was reported by Daily Mail which has been working overtime in this case, to create sensation and drama where there is none. Take the info about Josh being banned from the house with a grain of salt (wait, it's DM, so make it a boatload of salt).

The Daily Mail has about as much credibility as TikTok

 

[Bigditch]

Walking fast with a 4 year old in the arms, entering the hover craft leaving a footprint from exertion

communicating thumbs up, no one around
Small lightweight hellipocter
Artificial eagle

Heck ya!

 

[RedHaus]

Feels like there are so many kids that just vanished right now

Human T***ficking is real, folks.

 

[LifeIsAMystery]

I thought Josh had bought the rundown home he was renovating and living in at the time Gus disappeared. When Gus went missing, Josh moved in with his brother Samuel in Adelaide. I'm guessing Samuel usually lives in this home. Is that the home believed to be owned by Gus grandparents? MOO.

No, a 3rd house.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

I’ve repeatedly written about the ‘importance’ of the timing of the shearing & when the last of the staff associated with that left Oak Park, but no one has commented.

I did query it early on in this discussion, specifically in terms of when shearing season was and whether any of the contract shearing crew would still have been on the station. Another poster reported that the season ended in September, though not when in September that was likely to be.

Since it was the end of the season by the end of September, I would imagine (but someone please correct me if I'm wrong) that the shearing crew would not be moving on to another job but returning to their usual homes after completing work on this property. How large would a crew be for shearing 3000 sheep, which is the reported stock level? In any event, the police will have spoken to them all by now. (The crew, not the sheep.)

We heard they were tending sheep 10 k away from the homestead when Gus disappeared, but we have no idea when they left to do that . … perhaps they only left at 4pm after the afternoon cuppa.

I had assumed they would have been gone all day. Would it have made sense to go out at 4pm with barely a couple of hours of daylight left, to do jobs 10km or half an hour's drive away?

 

[MelmothTheLost]

I agree about the odour. There sure are lots of buildings near the homestead. Gus could be in a sealed space.

What sort of sealed space are you thinking of? The days of fridges and freezers not being openable from inside are long gone.

 

[kurtneverdied]

I'd be curious as to the phone towers in the area and the data they may reveal. Can't be too many within time frame. Could police talk to everyone that registered on the one closest to homestead? I'm not sure on legalities of that. That's assuming any perpetrator even carried a mobile. Not sure how satellite phones work in same regards.

 

[Deleted member 372361]

I'd be curious as to the phone towers in the area and the data they may reveal. Can't be too many within time frame. Could police talk to everyone that registered on the one closest to homestead? I'm not sure on legalities of that. That's assuming any perpetrator even carried a mobile. Not sure how satellite phones work in same regards.

Cell towers collect data from users, including their location, signal strength and network activity. A cell phone is always communicating with the network, even when not on a call.
Location tracking is done by measuring the signal strength and the phones approximate location in a process called Cell Tower TRIANGULATION.
Data examined by law enforcement of cell data may require a warrant in some cases.

 

[Lady-J]

What sort of sealed space are you thinking of? The days of fridges and freezers not being openable from inside are long gone.

I’m not sure exactly but wasn’t thinking the fridge or freezer. Somewhere unexpected like a silo, tank, chimney or maybe under a building perhaps

 

[Deleted member 372361]

Cell towers collect data from users, including their location, signal strength and network activity. A cell phone is always communicating with the network, even when not on a call.
Location tracking is done by measuring the signal strength and the phones approximate location in a process called Cell Tower TRIANGULATION.
Data examined by law enforcement of cell data may require a warrant in some cases.

One method for tracking satellite phones which law enforcement use is by
RF tracking, intercepts signals and identity phones location by phones carrier via satellite thru radio frequency emissions.
But I think this has to be at the actual time the phone was used or live.