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

[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

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

 

[HoneyBunOne]

We don't know which parenting style was utilised.

Kids can and are raised differently in the country. They have to be. You need different skills as a kid on a property than you would as a child in the suburbs or city.

I know a little country kid who is 4 and is super into everything about bull riding. I know another who helps his grandma collect the chicken's eggs for their family.

It's a nice way to grow up. A bit different to a child who is for example glued to a cell phone device from a young age.



Gender and sexuality are two different things.

Imagine if Gus grew up to be tolerant of others and see people as people.

Wouldn't it be great if he had the chance to grow up? Instead he's presumably lost in the bush or somewhere else.

Yes it looks like the grandparent relationship continued post transition.

I understand that we have no clue how Gus and his brother were raised, I was throwing out an idea only which may or may not be true.

I also understand the difference between gender and sexuality, that's why I put a comma between them. I understand your thoughts and questions are likely rhetorical, but they somehow seem aimed at me. I merely pointed out a suggestion as to a potential reason why Gus' father wasn't living at the property with his partner and 2 children, especially as he had clashed with Josie, and perhaps didn't agree with her transition, or romantic relationship with a same sex partner.

 

[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]

I understand that we have no clue how Gus and his brother were raised, I was throwing out an idea only which may or may not be true.

I also understand the difference between gender and sexuality, that's why I put a comma between them. I understand your thoughts and questions are likely rhetorical, but they somehow seem aimed at me. I merely pointed out a suggestion as to a potential reason why Gus' father wasn't living at the property with his partner and 2 children, especially as he had clashed with Josie.

Definitely rhetorical and definitely not aimed at you. I apologise if my tone is off.

 

[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.

 

[HoneyBunOne]

Definitely rhetorical and definitely not aimed at you. I apologise if my tone is off.

Thanks, I appreciate you clarifying that.

 

[tedtink]

I don't understand why DM is attacked
The way I see it
the grandparents were not forced to talk to the reporters
and my opinion is they also didn't hide the trans matter.

JMO

It was locals who gave the trans information (gossip) and information about the Father, there are no direct quotes from the family except this one from JM.......

'We're still looking for him,' she insisted, while declining any offers of assistance in the search effort.

'You can't help. We are still dealing with this.'

The DM knows exactly what they're doing by publishing this and it wasn't intended to help the search for Gus IMO.

 

[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]

I don't understand why DM is attacked
The way I see it
the grandparents were not forced to talk to the reporters
and my opinion is they also didn't hide the trans matter.

JMO

There's something of a love/hate attitude to the DM here - posters are often very quick to disparage its reporting but equally quick to post links to that reporting because of the rag's extensive photography and interest in crime and similar cases.

 

[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

 

[UnDiluted7]

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

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.

 

[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.

 

[tedtink]

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

The station is inside the dog fence. Thank you @CredibleSauce

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

Saturday at 8:24 AM

is the third picture real? the first kangeroo is only half there - is it AI? or is the shot panned while the kangeroo is jumping?



what do you mean by 'dog fence'? are you referring to dingos as dogs? (I think an Australian dog fence is different than a Canadian one is why I'm asking)

The South Australian Dog Fence was established under the Dog Fence Act 1946 to protect the sheep industry from the severe impact of wild dogs and dingoes. The Dog Fence stretches across South Australia for 2,110 km from the Great Australian Bight near Fowlers Bay to the New South Wales border.

• CredibleSauce

• 

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

Oct 2, 2025

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...

• CredibleSauce

• 
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• 

 

[Ellery84]

I thought that to, until I just looked at The Daily Mail article on FB

This article is better

‘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 )

(IBM). That's a very respectful and victim-friendly thing to do.

I'll check out the article. Thanks for the info.

 

[charliethecat]

You're not going to own a station without having working dogs.

There will be dogs on that property. I'm not sure what kind, there are a number of breeds of dog that would be on a station, but there will be dogs, I would say at least 2 or more that live permanently on that station.

Imo

At least two working dogs and usually more on a property of that size. As well, many farmers have a pet dog that lives inside or on the verandah of the homestead. One of my uncles had five working dogs (huntaways) and a golden cocker spaniel called Goldie.

Huntaway - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[UnDiluted7]

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.

In a dingo attack, it is reasonable to expect drag marks in dirt or sand if the animal dragged a child away, as seen in historical cases like the Chamberlain case where drag marks and blood were found near the scene.

Blood is often present but can be limited depending on the injury and terrain. The complete absence of the child's clothes, shoes, or hat is unusual because dingoes typically do not remove and carry off clothing separately.