Australia news LIVE: Hanson booted from senate over burqa stunt; Renewed search for missing SA boy Gus Lamont; Rewrite begins on US peace plan; Sea World inquest opens with horror footage
South Australia: A new search for a missing four-year-old boy is about to ramp up, almost two months after he vanished from his family’s remote outback farmhouse.
Augustus “Gus” Lamont was last seen by his grandmother in the late afternoon of September 27, playing on a mound of dirt outside a sprawling sheep station in South Australia’s mid-north. He has not been seen since.
August “Gus” Lamont was last seen about 5pm on September 27.Credit: SA Police
Intensive searches comprising hundreds of team members, spanning 470 square kilometres and involving aerial support as well as mounted units, have all failed to find the young boy.
Police drained and searched a dam at the remote outback farmhouse and sheep station.
A renewed search will begin on Tuesday, focusing on six mine shafts near the Oak Park Station area.
The search is expected to last up to three days and will involve officers from STAR Group and Task Force Horizon, who will use specialised equipment to search the mines, police said in a statement on Monday.
Loading
The uncovered and unfenced shafts are located between 5.5 and 12 kilometres from the Oak Park homestead in areas not searched on foot by police.
Police said they were not previously aware of the location of the sites.
Deputy Police Commissioner Linda Williams said the force would not stop searching until every avenue had been explored.
“These searches will either locate evidence or eliminate these locations from further investigation by the task force,” she said.
Police drained and searched a dam in late October, ruling out the possibility Gus drowned on the property.
The initial 10-day air and ground search was one of the largest SA Police has undertaken.
Loading
It took SA Police about 3½ hours to drain 3.2 million litres of water from the 4.5 metre-deep dam, which is 600 metres from the homestead.
“Police divers have thoroughly searched the main dam and the holding dam, including clearing of weed beds, however, there was nothing of significance found,” police said in a statement.
The water was then pumped back into the dam.
The initial 10-day air and ground search at the property, about 40 kilometres south of Yunta, was one of the largest undertaken by SA Police.
A four-day search within a 5.5-kilometre radius of the homestead in October concluded without any evidence being found.
Police said further aerial imaging within a 10-kilometre radius of the homestead would take several weeks to complete.
Gus’ family members have “continued to co-operate fully with police and are being supported by a victim contact officer”, police said.
