Yunta: Search for four-year-old August ‘Gus’ missing from outback homestead enters third day

The desperate search for a four-year-old missing from his family’s Outback homestead in South Australia has entered its third day, with water police expected to begin searching dams and waterways.

August, who is known as Gus, disappeared south of Yunta, 275kms northeast of Adelaide, at 5pm on Saturday.

He is described as Caucasian with long blond curly hair.

Gus was last seen wearing a grey sun hat, a cobalt blue t-shirt with a yellow minion on the front, light grey long pants and boots.

His family have declined to release an image of him.

SA Police Senior Constable Matt Hale said it was a really challenging time for the family.

“Police have tried, and we will continue to try, to find little Gus,” he said on ABC Radio Adelaide.

He said they were still “hopeful for a good outcome” but that “time is of the essence”.

“At the end of the day, being out in the open is not good and exposure, whether it’s in the summer or in the winter can be very, very dangerous, especially for young ones.”

Yorke Mid North Police began searching for the boy on Saturday night with the assistance of PolAir and the infra-red camera but were not able to locate him.

An extensive ground search within a 2.5km radius of where he went missing was carried out on Sunday. Again, it failed to turn up any sign of Gus.

SES volunteers, trailbikes, ATV’s and a drone have all joined the search.

PolAir continued the aerial search throughout Sunday night.

Water operations police are expected to arrive at the scene on Monday morning to conduct a search of dams and tanks on the property while the mounted operations unit will assist in the ground search.

Anyone with information that may assist police is asked to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.