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

[Deleted member 371138]

@MelmothTheLost as you are a volunteer investigator with Locate International, I would be very interested in your thoughts about how you think the investigation into finding Gus has gone so far and would you have done anything differently.

With your Locate experience and being on here for 9 years I thought you may have some useful insight, experience or knowledge of carrying out a search to find a missing 4 year old such as Gus. Only if you want to, of course

 

[Longtimelurker1]

They reportedly searched for about 3 hours before calling the police. The article mentions that Gus’s parents are still a couple, just living apart. It’s strange the mum didn’t reach out to the dad during those 3 hours..

Do we know that the property has good phone coverage?

Or that the father’s property has coverage?

 

[drsleuth]

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It's also mentioned in the article that "locals " not the grand parents , told the Daily Mail that the parents also have a 1yr old , who lives at the property.

Missing boy Gus' grandparents break their silence: 'Clashes'

The little boy vanished almost two weeks ago after playing in the yard of remote Oak Park homestead in the harsh South Australian outback, 300km north of Adelaide.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[MelmothTheLost]

@MelmothTheLost as you are a volunteer investigator with Locate International, I would be very interested in your thoughts about how you think the investigation into finding Gus has gone so far and would you have done anything differently.

With your Locate experience and being on here for 9 years I thought you may have some useful insight, experience or knowledge of carrying out a search to find a missing 4 year old such as Gus. Only if you want to, of course

I am a civilian volunteer and have no LE background or experience and have so far only worked on UID cases rather than missing persons. My comments are also made in a personal capacity as I do not speak for Locate.

However, from what I have noticed from watching missing persons cases from afar is that LE do have experience and do know what they are doing, even if the general public find that hard to believe. There will always be other lines of enquiry going on in the background which LE do not necessarily make known, and just because LE don't say that X is being looked into it should not be assumed that X is not being looked into. Some lines of enquiry will be exhausted and ruled out, others may be downgraded temporarily and revived later on if circumstances change.

Statistically, there is a high correlation between the death and disappearance of young children and the home/family environment.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

Where is Gus Lamont? Former William Tyrrell investigator shares his theory

As the search for Gus Lamont is scaled back, police reveal they're looking into every possible scenario on how the missing boy disappeared.

www.nowtolove.com.au

Where is Gus Lamont? Former William Tyrrell investigator shares his theory​

While police, SES volunteers and First Nations trackers desperately searched the 24,000 hectare sheep station near Yunta, SA Police Deputy Commissioner Linda Williams shared that further lines of inquiry are being investigated – which Gary Jubelin, says is a lesson learned from the mistakes of that case of William Tyrrell’s disappearance.

“Children disappearing at that age is a rare event,” the former homicide detective who worked on the Tyrrell investigation from 2014 to 2019, told the Today Show.

“What police would be looking for is has the disappearance been a result of wandering off and getting lost, or is there some form of intervention involved in his disappearance.”

 

[SMA]

You’d also likely see the red dust cloud if there was a vehicle. The outback is something you have to experience to understand what it’s really like.

From the outback, can confirm

 

[SMA]

We were always taught to be aware of snakes, bush pigs, buffalo and big roos.

 

[Hexe]

I agree with this (if this is in fact what actually happened and nothing more sinister happened). I personally also don't think leaving a 4 year old out where he was for half an hour is that bad. It's a very very rural property and he was right outside the house.

Stranger danger is not the only thing that should be taken in consideration for safety of a child. There are many places and things on the farm a kid should be kept away from.

 

[drsleuth]

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‘Still looking’: Missing 4yo Gus’ shattered family speak out

The family of August ‘Gus’ Lamont has spoken publicly for the first time since police called off a massive search for the missing four-year-old.

7news.com.au

J M reportedly lives on the station with Gus’ grandmother S M. Gus’ mother Jess is also believed to live there with the missing boy’s one-year-old brother, R.

Gus’ father J L lives at a property about 100km away in Belalia North.

( I changed the names to initials )

 

[drsleuth]

I can't shake the feeling that he is still on the property & has been missed in searches.

I assume things like Wombat holes etc have been checked?

 

[Leafy]

I can't shake the feeling that he is still on the property & has been missed in searches.

I assume things like Wombat holes etc have been checked?

Same. I still think he likely wandered.
Though, I remember feeling at the time they scaled back the Samantha Murphy search early too but in hindsight they had another line of investigation so the scaling back makes me nervous it could be something else.

 

[spiritualdreaming]

Since 5 generations have owned that property (as was stated earlier) can we assume Jess and her mother are part of that family? Did Josh come from a non outback background, and felt uncomfortable about the isolation and lifestyle perhaps? Did the couple live elsewhere before and then moved to that property? Maybe that's why he felt it was dangerous for children.

Oak Park Station belonged to Shannon's family. There is a little bit of history about for that property if you know where to look.

Josh is an outback boy as well and also lives on a property at Belalia North.

Gus’ father Joshua Lamont lives at a property about 100km away in Belalia North.

‘Still looking’: Missing 4yo Gus’ shattered family speak out

The family of August ‘Gus’ Lamont has spoken publicly for the first time since police called off a massive search for the missing four-year-old.

thenightly.com.au

Ms Thomas, who had grown up at Parnaroo Station nearby the Lamonts

Redirect Notice

www.google.com

I'm really not sure what different dangers there would be compared to Jess's and Josh's property. As most outback properties within that area are the same. Given they mentioned clashes specifically with Josie, maybe Josh thought that was a danger psychologically wise to his children. Unfortunately not all people have the same views towards LGBTQ. JMO

 

[Bahshudc]

Sorry I'm new to this case and trying to catch up through this thread - has anyone discussed the possibility of an animal attack?

I visit Australia a lot but tend to stay in Sydney or the 'burbs. Haven't been to the outback. Are there any wild animals in this area? Anything aggressive or harmful to a four year old? MOO

 

[Ellery84]

Sorry I'm new to this case and trying to catch up through this thread - has anyone discussed the possibility of an animal attack?

I visit Australia a lot but tend to stay in Sydney or the 'burbs. Haven't been to the outback. Are there any wild animals in this area? Anything aggressive or harmful to a four year old? MOO

My first thought was a dingo.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

@MelmothTheLost as you are a volunteer investigator with Locate International, I would be very interested in your thoughts about how you think the investigation into finding Gus has gone so far and would you have done anything differently.

With your Locate experience and being on here for 9 years I thought you may have some useful insight, experience or knowledge of carrying out a search to find a missing 4 year old such as Gus. Only if you want to, of course

I realise I didn't address all of your questions.

From my (arm's length) experience, LE would have initially taken the family's report at face value on the basis that a young child was missing and therefore presumed to be in danger. The immediate focus would therefore be on the search that we have all been following for the past couple of weeks. I would expect them to ask about such things as mine shafts and abandoned wells and any other hazards where a child could get trapped, and for the family, having owned the property for well over 100 years, to know about many, if not all, of them and that known shafts and wells etc would be included in searches.

In the background, they would want to rule out parental abduction, especially in view of Josh's poor relationship with Josie and his apparent disagreement with some aspect of how or where Gus was being raised. There would therefore be enquiries into Josh's whereabouts at the time Gus was reported to have gone missing. He may or may not have been definitively ruled out on the basis of those enquiries.

I would expect there to be repeated interviews with the other adults at the property, with the focus possibly changing as the days pass and no sign is found of Gus. We know there were three adults at the property - Gus's mother, his grandmother and Josie. Do their accounts remain unchanged or do details change as time passes? And yes - there would be background checks on all adults on the property for any criminal records or other reports of interest.

There would also be questions about the nearby properties, who owned them, who was living in them and whether they were occupied at the time Gus went missing. I don't recall reading whether these were independently owned or part of the station, eg accommodation for station hands.

And visitors to the property, including (especially?) the ones who become invisible because of their familiarity, such as the postman or Amazon delivery person who visits several times a week.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

My first thought was a dingo.

Could a lone dingo make a 4 year old disappear? How far could an adult dingo drag a 30-40lb child?

 

[spiritualdreaming]

I can't shake the feeling that he is still on the property & has been missed in searches.

I assume things like Wombat holes etc have been checked?

No wombats in that area.

But a mound of rabbit warrens all linked together on soft ground could collapse in and cover Gus up. Searches would've seen that if they've searched every bit of that property.

When I was younger and went out rabbit shooting with my father he didn't see a pile of warrens due to salt bushes covering then up. Safe to say we sunk the car many kms away from anyone and my brother had to walk to the closest help so we could get towed out. It was a very long long night stuck out bush that's for sure.

 

[Dotta]

Could a lone dingo make a 4 year old disappear? How far could an adult dingo drag a 30-40lb child?

Besides,
wouldn't a child scream when attacked by a dingo?

IMO
the child is stuck somewhere inside

JMO

 

[charliethecat]

From what I've seen is that working dogs are kept tied up at a kennel unless with the owner. If a car stopped on Oak Park Road and they had dogs at the homestead I think they would have barked.

From what I know there is no other property perhaps in the world where you have to open and close 5 gates to get to the house and that includes the massive Anna Creek station also in South Australia that's about 15,000sqkm in size (give or take 5000sqkm).

Does anyone know of a public road that has gates across it?

There are many large farm properties in NZ where you'd have to open & close five sets of gates. My BiL's smallish rural sheep property (500 acres) has at least four: a cattlestop, then a gate close to the cattlestop, one where the house property turns off the drive, a cattle stop where the house half moon access rejoins the drive, and two on the drive as it approaches and leaves the woolshed area (this part of the drive circles around the house/woolshed area ). The cattlestops have replaced gates over the years
Depending on the time of year the woolshed approach ones will both be open or both closed. As well, there are gates on the cattle stop into the house property that are used when new sheep arrive, they are some times volatile escape artists hyped up from travel. These ones are an absolute pain to open and shut as opening them to go out out means tippy toes across the cattle stop to push it open. Cattle stop | Farm fencing | Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Also in NZ there are many public roads in the 'wops' that have gates on them. When going to farm accessed from these roads, you have the gates across the public road and then gates within the property like at my brother in law's place.

 

[Ellery84]

It is possible a lone dingo could have been involved in Gus Lamont’s disappearance, but given the exhaustive, multi-agency search over a large area with almost no trace found, one single footprint, no clothing, or other evidence, it seems unlikely that a child could completely vanish without any sign. Such a total absence of physical evidence is very unusual in these cases, making it hard to confirm this scenario with certainty at this stage.

Thanks for your insight.

Would you expect to see drag marks in the dirt or blood with a dingo?

It's weird that no clothes, shoes or hat have been found.