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

[iamshadow21]

Agreed. City folk would also be horrified to learn that kids in outback mining towns play in the mullock heaps around mine shafts.

City kid who regularly holidayed and played in a historic gold mining town... Stories of what we did around open derelict shafts would make your hair stand on end. And I was nowhere near a risk taker, nothing like my brother. We all survived, somehow.

MOO

 

[tedtink]

Gus is described as an adventurous boy and this makes me wonder if he'd strayed a little too far before? I could be reading too much into that though. At 4, a child is getting a little more adventurous and is testing boundaries away from their primary care giver.
If so, the footprint, could have been from before and not necessarily from the time after he disappeared.

JMO

 

[CredibleSauce]

Yes, it is a pretty big station. 3,000 sheep and a large area. I think they would have station hands, too.

Probably had a good handful of people searching prior to the police arriving at 9:30pm.

To me, that is pretty quick actioning - for a remote outback situation.

imo

There could be station hands, but not necessarily - for example, I know many properties running more than 3000 head and often a single person, couple (or family) is more than adequate tending to that amount of sheep on a day to day basis.
Yunta has been in a rough period of drought too so they’re likely stocked with less sheep than usual - paid employees are often some of the only costs that can be cut in these circumstances.
Many (if not most) stations only employ additional staff when required for more labor intensive animal husbandry tasks like lamb marking, shearing, crutching and mustering for those tasks. If it’s a family owned and operated business, often you’ll find a parent/brother/sister/in law/cousin will just travel across from their property and help during these times.

 

[Marg944]

Taken from the reporter on this news video…. she said that Major Crime Police were back at the property today, despite denials of any foul play.

384K views · 2.3K reactions | The family of little Gus Lamont has been told to prepare for the worst as a massive search near Yunta for the four-year-old enters a fifth day. Police have discovered a breakthrough clue – a child's footprint in the dir

The family of little Gus Lamont has been told to prepare for the worst as a massive search near Yunta for the four-year-old enters a fifth day. Police have discovered a breakthrough clue – a child's...

www.facebook.com

 

[bleuuu_]

*message deleted*

 

[CredibleSauce]

I wonder in what capacity the tracker worked there previously?


“Police then called in a local tracker, who they said had "deep knowledge of the terrain" to help identify the path Gus may have taken, and had worked on the property previously.”

What we know about search for missing boy on sheep station

Authorities are searching for a missing four-year-old boy on a sheep grazing station in the mid-north of South Australia. Here's what we know about the search so far.

www.abc.net.au

I might be wrong, but I’ve never heard of anyone being a “tracker” as a full time job. It’s likely he’s worked on the property, or neighbouring properties mustering, perhaps fencing or similar contract work.

After my husband, father in law and neighbours, if one of my kids were to go missing on our property, the first person I’d call is our dog trapper who has worked on our place south of the dog fence many times trapping problem dingoes that we’ve not been able to control ourselves.
There’s quite an art to it, dingoes are incredibly smart and the trappers have to disguise the traps so well that it appears they were never there, down to disguising their own scent.
They need to be skilled in tracking to know where the dingo is likely to stop or investigate, what the dog is likely to avoid and obviously the general area the dog is frequenting.
The second person I’d call is our helicopter pilot who assists a few times a year mustering, given he knows our property and has an eye for what is “usual” so in turn would be helpful identifying anything that might appear out of place.

This entire situation is my worst nightmare.

 

[TardisGirl]

I’ve been following this and hoping that Gus has managed to survive out there. I’m in the UK so don’t know a great deal about the Australian outback so I have a few questions if ok?

1: what wildlife is out there? I guess snakes and spiders but they wouldn’t remove/hide a body. Is there dangerous animals that would attack and eat a child without leaving anything? Any crocodiles in water sources?
2: what kind of temperatures are we looking at day and night?
3: I read there any many mines and some are unknown, is this correct?

I do wonder if he’s fell into a mine or hole of some sort as I would presume the heat sensor helicopter would pick him up relatively easily otherwise.

It reminds me a bit of the kids in Nova Scotia who just wandered off with no trace.

IMO the family are keeping a low profile as the public will pull apart every word and every expression.

The longer he goes unfound unfortunately it does make my thoughts wander to someone closer to home. I hope that I’ll be proved wrong on that!

 

[Sueco]

He's so cute which makes it so sad that he's missing. May he be found soon

When you write it like that it sounds like it wouldnt be so sad if he was ugly.....

 

[CredibleSauce]

I’ve been following this and hoping that Gus has managed to survive out there. I’m in the UK so don’t know a great deal about the Australian outback so I have a few questions if ok?

1: what wildlife is out there? I guess snakes and spiders but they wouldn’t remove/hide a body. Is there dangerous animals that would attack and eat a child without leaving anything? Any crocodiles in water sources?
2: what kind of temperatures are we looking at day and night?
3: I read there any many mines and some are unknown, is this correct?

I do wonder if he’s fell into a mine or hole of some sort as I would presume the heat sensor helicopter would pick him up relatively easily otherwise.

It reminds me a bit of the kids in Nova Scotia who just wandered off with no trace.

IMO the family are keeping a low profile as the public will pull apart every word and every expression.

The longer he goes unfound unfortunately it does make my thoughts wander to someone closer to home. I hope that I’ll be proved wrong on that!

To answer your questions,
1. Yes snakes, spiders. Yunta is “inside” the dog fence, so dingoes sightings are fairly unusual, though not unheard of. Nothing that would eat a child without leaving a trace - closest you’d get is feral pigs (they’ll eat entire lambs, young goats etc) which are also unusual for the area but leave a lot of damage to the landscape so if they’ve been spending time anywhere on the station it’d be pretty evident.
The maps I’ve attached below are from the official reporting mechanism landholders must use to report feral animals, so you can see in the last 12 months there have been sightings near-ish to Yunta, looks like within a couple hundred kms, but not a huge amount.
Dingoes in pastoral areas are generally pretty wary of humans in my experience - but I’m not a lone 4 year old either.
No crocs etc this far south, looks like they’ve searched the dams very thoroughly regardless, and I’d expect tracks or signs of struggle around the dam if he did enter one and get stuck or slip under the water.
Kangaroos are surprisingly vicious if caught at the wrong moment, their claws will tear through skin, ligaments and veins like a knife, but again they don’t really attack unless disturbed or under perceived threat, so I wouldn’t say it’s likely option and would be quite surprised. Kangaroos are herbivores so they definitely don’t attack for a feed.
2. Mild spring temperatures at the moment, so 6°-12° degrees over night and up to 30° during the day, mostly around the mid 20°s though. Very blustery & windy during September, so the wind can make things quite chilly if you’re not out in the sun. Still quite a risk of dehydration regardless.
3. Yep, that’s correct.

 

[ScottToorak]

Thinking there is more to this than meets the eye. One footprint. Where are the others?. Looks fairly sparce and visible so something is not making sense in my opinion. Where is the mother and father?

 

[tedtink]

To answer your questions,
1. Yes snakes, spiders. Yunta is “inside” the dog fence, so dingoes sightings are fairly unusual, though not unheard of. Nothing that would eat a child without leaving a trace - closest you’d get is feral pigs (they’ll eat entire lambs, young goats etc) which are also unusual for the area but leave a lot of damage to the landscape so if they’ve been spending time anywhere on the station it’d be pretty evident.
The maps I’ve attached below are from the official reporting mechanism landholders must use to report feral animals, so you can see in the last 12 months there have been sightings near-ish to Yunta, looks like within a couple hundred kms, but not a huge amount.
Dingoes in pastoral areas are generally pretty wary of humans in my experience - but I’m not a lone 4 year old either.
No crocs etc this far south, looks like they’ve searched the dams very thoroughly regardless, and I’d expect tracks or signs of struggle around the dam if he did enter one and get stuck or slip under the water.
Kangaroos are surprisingly vicious if caught at the wrong moment, their claws will tear through skin, ligaments and veins like a knife, but again they don’t really attack unless disturbed or under perceived threat, so I wouldn’t say it’s likely option and would be quite surprised. Kangaroos are herbivores so they definitely don’t attack for a feed.
2. Mild spring temperatures at the moment, so 6°-12° degrees over night and up to 30° during the day, mostly around the mid 20°s though. Very blustery & windy during September, so the wind can make things quite chilly if you’re not out in the sun. Still quite a risk of dehydration regardless.
3. Yep, that’s correct.
View attachment 617796View attachment 617797

Thank you.
What types of birds of prey in the area?
Not suggesting GL was taken by one but the other reason of course.

 

[Itz_CrimsonYT]

Do we know if police have released details about who was at the homestead on the day of his disappearance? We know his grandmother was there at the time.

Sure he might be adventurous, but it'd make more sense for a boy of that age to wander off for a reason, which i had stated earlier could be due to family affairs depending on who was there that day.

It just feels like we have very little to go off of at the time. All police have released is that he was last seen at 5:00 PM with a sun hat, blue shirt with a minion on it, and jeans. That he was playing in a sand pit at the time, which as someone who has had a sand pit before, I doubt it'd be deep enough for the boy to dig himself into. As well as a single footprint that might not even be his.

I'm hoping that the police have already tried looking into the parents and grandparents. specifically what they were doing that day, and if they had any previous affairs regarding their son. As it could rule out the chance of an unlikely family kidnapping or the more likely runaway due to loud noises and arguments.

This article states the footprint was found about 500 metres (1640 feet) from the home, and that it was near a road. No mention of this being an internal road/track, but the Superintendent in charge says it's "highly unlikely" anyone else was involved in Gus' disappearance.

If that is the case, assuming that footprint is in fact Gus's, he could've been found wandering the road and was picked up by a passerby, while unlikely, it is certainly a possibility.

There are a few roads around the property.

If this is the property, I presume the family has looked around and inside the many buildings/garages on the premises? The boy could very well be hiding in one of them like a game of hide and seek.


These are all just speculations, I'm trying to make sure we look over all possibilities and rule out what it can't be based on the information released by police.

 

[TMich6811]

I’m glad major crimes has been there even if foul play isn’t suspected. He’s been gone a long time and it’s only fair for him to investigate every possibility

 

[CredibleSauce]

Thank you.
What types of birds of prey in the area?
Not suggesting GL was taken by one but the other reason of course.

Wedge tailed eagles are really the only bird of prey, you’ll find crows and other birds picking at animal remains though for example.

Edited to add, birds circling overhead was likely one of the signs searchers are/were looking for from the start, you’d also expect to find clothing etc so I’d be surprised if they find him out in the open somewhere at this stage.

 

[kurtneverdied]

I've been thinking about what most likely has happened.
It's getting to the point where I don't believe out there, anymore. I still hold out hope of course that he will be found.
However there are a number of growing reasons to look at alternatives to him wandering off.
The land is not hard to search. No or few big trees to hide. It's pretty flat and easily searched. He wandered off supposedly close to sunset. If he was list he most likely was still close enough to see the lights if the homestead. If it wasn't windy he would of heard the yells for his name also. I feel pretty certain once the sun went down he would be scared and want home. In the country it gets completely dark without the light pollution.
I think it's a chance he did wander, but would of walked along a road if he could, if dark. Anyone driving along that road would not be expecting him there and likely complacent behind the wheel. There would be the odd kangaroo or wallaby to watch out for and rabbits likely running around everywhere. There concerns on hitting anything big perhaps not big as non country people because they likely to have a 4WD with a huge bullbar.
So perhaps tragically hit and killed and the person who did it had a choice to own up or to try and save themselves.
There seems to be a time period where this could of happened and to me it's becoming, sadly, the likely scenario.

 

[CredibleSauce]

I've been thinking about what most likely has happened.
It's getting to the point where I don't believe out there, anymore. I still hold out hope of course that he will be found.
However there are a number of growing reasons to look at alternatives to him wandering off.
The land is not hard to search. No or few big trees to hide. It's pretty flat and easily searched. He wandered off supposedly close to sunset. If he was list he most likely was still close enough to see the lights if the homestead. If it wasn't windy he would of heard the yells for his name also. I feel pretty certain once the sun went down he would be scared and want home. In the country it gets completely dark without the light pollution.
I think it's a chance he did wander, but would of walked along a road if he could, if dark. Anyone driving along that road would not be expecting him there and likely complacent behind the wheel. There would be the odd kangaroo or wallaby to watch out for and rabbits likely running around everywhere. There concerns on hitting anything big perhaps not big as non country people because they likely to have a 4WD with a huge bullbar.
So perhaps tragically hit and killed and the person who did it had a choice to own up or to try and save themselves.
There seems to be a time period where this could have happened and to me it's becoming, sadly, the likely scenario.

Have you been there? It might look flat from satellite images etc but it’s not that straightforward on the ground by any means. The landscape undulates, there are dry creeks, rises, caves & vegetation. It’s not like looking out at a flat ocean horizon or paddock used for cropping.

 

[kurtneverdied]

Thinking there is more to this than meets the eye. One footprint. Where are the others?. Looks fairly sparce and visible so something is not making sense in my opinion. Where is the mother and father?

I think it's an old footprint that's lasted really well in whatever substance he stepped in. I think that's more likely than being recent and no other footprints survived.

 

[HoneyBunOne]

Sadly, I think it will be somewhat like the case of Dr. Michael Mosley on the Greek island of Symi. He went for a walk, took a wrong turn, and eventually succumbed to the heat, just out of sight and so very close to help.

 

[sunspun]

Wonder if there's any way to tell if any vehicles left the property at or near the time he seemingly disappeared. Maybe sensors on those gates mentioned or cameras or anything. Or are there even vehicles that come and go to and from the property regularly?

Are there employees or other family members living there? Are there employees who leave the property at the end of the workday, go home and come back to work the next day? Or would they live on-site?

How often does anyone from the property go into town? Do they have to go to town for supplies often, or are things delivered or what? If delivered, were there deliveries that day?

Are there a lot of sheep? Are they kept near the residence? Does Gus show interest in them? Like does he ever want to go see them or watch them?

 

[HoneyBunOne]

Wonder if there's any way to tell if any vehicles left the property at or near the time he seemingly disappeared. Maybe sensors on those gates mentioned or cameras or anything. Or are there even vehicles that come and go to and from the property regularly?

Are there employees or other family members living there? Are there employees who leave the property at the end of the workday, go home and come back to work the next day? Or would they live on-site?

How often does anyone from the property go into town? Do they have to go to town for supplies often, or are things delivered or what? If delivered, were there deliveries that day?

Are there a lot of sheep? Are they kept near the residence? Does Gus show interest in them? Like does he ever want to go see them or watch them?

All good questions. I wish we knew the answers to them.