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

[seasideForest]

And if they were familiar with the outback, they would know that there are a number of very old graves at various isolated properties

As there are in other places too, not just in the outback or indeed Australia but that doesn't interest the daily fail IMO, they just want to make more money on non-news, even if their photos are often good and some information good and reliable. You just need to be able to sift through their writing for relevant facts, and discarding click-bait. MOO

 

[Lady-J]

If someone arrived at the property, they would have had business at the property and likely were expected. I don't see a person drive all that distance from elsewhere and through 6 gates to abduct a boy playing outside. An abductor would have no idea if Gus was even playing outside or being watched by one of the adults. This imo is not an opportunistic nor premeditated crime on the part of a stranger or worker. If some such person was expected, the investigators would surely know about it.

I still believe he is on that property, hidden and undiscovered , or curled up under a salt bush if he did wander. As for that second sand pile that was pointed out only yesterday, and does not look flattened out....seems to me they ought to have dug that up on the first day. But given the intensity of the search, maybe that red sand pile is compacted and hard like the first one, and was dismissed.

Could someone have possibly been driving past for whatever reason and seen Gus from the road, grabbed him and continued on without anyone noticing ?

 

[jessicalouise]

Could someone have possibly been driving past for whatever reason and seen Gus from the road, grabbed him and continued on without anyone noticing ?

No, there's 6 gates you need to go through to get to the homestead.

 

[wallyworld]

Daily Fail has just sensationalized that grave. I also researched the grave and found a death notice on Trove and yes the dates seem a bit off. The Smallacombes was linked to Paratoo. Under the photo of the grave it says "on a property near to where Gus went missing".

I think you'll find that some of Paratoo's boundary is shared with the junk yard boundary that's now owned by the Murray's. Year's ago the junk yard by have been Paratoo property and sold off. But there is quite a few entries regarding "Smallacombe" on Trove.

But totally agree that Smallacombe family name is definitely not linked with Gus’s Ancestry.

Trove

Australia’s free online research portal. Trove is a collaboration between the National Library of Australia and hundreds of Partner organisations around Australia.

trove.nla.gov.au

Agree. Daily Fail provided clickbait. "Eerie discovery". Not really. Just grave of long-deceased child on family's private land, no connection to this case at all.

And the Daily Mail clickbait continues!

They report that there is a possible link between missing Gus and "wild-eyed man" who vanished close to the same spot at the exact same time ??????
This man was last seen in Glendambo, a that it is "roughly two hour drive from Gus's home".

FACT CHECK = Glendambo is a 5 hour drive from Yunta!

daily mail article

 

[spiritualdreaming]

If someone arrived at the property, they would have had business at the property and likely were expected. I don't see a person drive all that distance from elsewhere and through 6 gates to abduct a boy playing outside. An abductor would have no idea if Gus was even playing outside or being watched by one of the adults. This imo is not an opportunistic nor premeditated crime on the part of a stranger or worker. If some such person was expected, the investigators would surely know about it.

I still believe he is on that property, hidden and undiscovered , or curled up under a salt bush if he did wander. As for that second sand pile that was pointed out only yesterday, and does not look flattened out....seems to me they ought to have dug that up on the first day. But given the intensity of the search, maybe that red sand pile is compacted and hard like the first one, and was dismissed.

What about an unemployed rouseabout looking for work?? What about someone that was looking for directions to another property??

2 scenario's there that would make it an opportunistic kidnapping

 

[Thoughtful123]

No, there's 6 gates you need to go through to get to the homestead.

In addition to this it is usually very noticeable when a vehicle arrives in this kind of environment. I have lived in extremely remote arid places in the outback and you learn to recognise vehicle noises from a great distance. When the wind is calm the fine dust particles thrown up will also hang in the air for a very very long time after the vehicle has passed through.

 

[spiritualdreaming]

And the Daily Mail clickbait continues!

They report that there is a possible link between missing Gus and "wild-eyed man" who vanished close to the same spot at the exact same time ??????
This man was last seen in Glendambo, a that it is "roughly two hour drive from Gus's home".

FACT CHECK = Glendambo is a 5 hour drive from Yunta!

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View attachment 620091
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daily mail article

Yeah that just takes the cake now. Absolutely absurd

 

[Dotta]

What about an unemployed rouseabout looking for work?? What about someone that was looking for directions to another property??

2 scenario's there that would make it an opportunistic kidnapping

I honestly doubt it.

There is no need for a stranger here,
looking at this property/yard
and the time a 4-year -old was allowed to spend unsupervised.

I also suspect it didn't happen for the first time,
judging by father's anger/arguments with in-laws.

So far so good...
Until
it wasn't

JMrealisticOpinion

 

[jessicalouise]

What about an unemployed rouseabout looking for work?? What about someone that was looking for directions to another property??

2 scenario's there that would make it an opportunistic kidnapping

I feel like if it was going to be anyone (realistically) it would have to be someone who knew the property. For a variety of reasons.

 

[spiritualdreaming]

No, there's 6 gates you need to go through to get to the homestead.

IMO I don't believe that is true.

I feel that 6 gates mean. 6 gates to go through from Yunta, along Sturt Vale Road, onto Oak Park Road and then into the homestead.

It's only a 40km drive to Yunta, the area is all sheep grazing. Can you imagine if a boundary fence broke on a property and say 6000 or more head of sheep got out and headed towards the Barrier Highway.

Sturt Vale Road and some of Oak Park Road is fully maintained by the SA Government so extra gates along those 2 roads have probably been put in place as an extra precaution to stop the sheep from getting too far if they happen to escape.

This is all JMO

 

[jessicalouise]

IMO I don't believe that is true.

I feel that 6 gates mean. 6 gates to go through from Yunta, along Sturt Vale Road, onto Oak Park Road and then into the homestead.

It's only a 40km drive to Yunta, the area is all sheep grazing. Can you imagine if a boundary fence broke on a property and say 6000 or more head of sheep got out and headed towards the Barrier Highway.

Sturt Vale Road and some of Oak Park Road is fully maintained by the SA Government so extra gates along those 2 roads have probably been put in place as an extra precaution to stop the sheep from getting too far if they happen to escape.

This is all JMO

No one's been able to tell definitively from photographs/imagery of the property, have they? It's just what's been reported right?

 

[seasideForest]

and the time a 4-year -old was allowed to spend unsupervised.

How much time was he allowed to spend unsupervised? The approx half hour we know about the evening he went missing? Or is there something else?

See my post further up on life on a farm. It's just different from in town!! The parents have an ear out but they're not helicopter parents who micromanage their children every step of the way. Nor do they use the TV as a babysitter. It's just different. IMO

 

[Juzlooking]

First of all
the duty of care lies with parents.
Gus has 2 parents.

A grandparent, being older,
can get overwhelmed while minding 2 young children.
It takes a lot of effort, energy and constant attention.

I'm talking in general sense.

Some older folks have problems with agility and concentration/focus.

Every stage of life
has its own rules and rights.

JMO

They’re lifelong farmers - not couch potatoes

 

[teeby]

Not all grandparents are elderly and frail. My mother had me at 26 and I had my first child at 23. She was a grandmother at 49. Some women are still raising their own four year olds at that age!

 

[Juzlooking]

I have to wonder how the Daily Mail happened upon the grave site of that little one ( who has nothing to do with this situation) Whoever suffered that loss, my heart p

<modsnip: Sleuthing family background is not allowed>

I’d hazard a guess that Shannon & R / Josie are well into their 70s. .. and certainly would find it difficult to run a place with the suggested 3000 head of sheep on their own.

It’s my thought that where once it was a ‘sheep station’, the property no longer carries stock.

I have no idea how many children Shannon & her partner have, but it’s been publicised that their daughter Jess ( mother of Gus + his 1 yr old brother Ronnie ) also lives on the place - which given the number of buildings seems quite feasible. And just a thought - perhaps grandparents do the childcare while Jess is at work .

However, none of those ramblings have found Gus. . It’s just not fathomable to me that a child disappears from what should be a safe environ, free from human predators etc. Sadly it has such vibes of little William Tyrrell’s disappearance. And similarly, the longer this goes on, the slimmer are the chances of him being recovered.

All just my opinion .

Not sure I’d agree they’re in their 70’s.
My parents are in their 70’s and my oldest is 30.

 

[spiritualdreaming]

No one's been able to tell definitively from photographs/imagery of the property, have they? It's just what's been reported right?

Yeah only reported about 6 gates

 

[Zedx]

BBM, and I agree.

I’ve suggested a few times here that imo there had to be a reason why (I think but I can’t substantiate) a recently turned 4 year would head off in a different direction to his food, pretty much on the time he would normally come inside to eat.

Little kids get hungry, . and in my experience their tummies are pretty good ‘clocks’.

If he’s genuinely the bush kid that he’s reported to be, I can’t see him going for a walk or following off after some animal / lizard / whatever - and then getting lost. It’s salt bush plains, not a jungle, it’s not scrub country, it’s not rugged & dangerous terrain. The house lights were on, people were calling, I’d suggest maybe they were even eventually out in vehicle searching.

And if he’s not a bush kid, even more reason I think he’d get scared and come back.

What I can envisage is him going in search of ‘something’, a tool etc, to aid the project he’s working on, and perhaps succumbing to an accident.

Having a pretty good knowledge of country properties & their residential surroundings, I’d suggest any number of potential hazards, particularly for one so young. … but then I get caught up in the fact that surely Police & family will have been immediately on to that & thoroughly checked every centimetre.

The logical thing is human intervention (in whatever form) but police seem adamant that isn’t the case.

I just hope & pray that answers come very soon. I can’t imagine the toll on his family

If he has wandered off, I dont think there needs to be a specific reason. Kids are curious things, he may have got bored at the sand pit and just began to wander, until he was so far away he didnt know which way was back home. Im not even sure a 4 year old would connect lights in the distance with home, once it was dark. i also cant see how a 4 yo could possibly know the property like the back of his hand. Once it got dark he would have become scared and anxious and would have probably lost his bearings any way.
Unfortunately, now he has been gone for so long, if he is on the property, cadaver dogs need to brought in. Thats if some one else does not pick up an odor. If this doesnt happen soon I think we can assume something more nefarious has happened.