QLD family’s warning to Aussies this Easter as Boating trip nearly turns into a disaster

A Queensland family has issued a warning after a boating trip nearly ended in disaster for a young son and his mates, when their boat broke down 25km offshore and drifted another 20km out to sea. Here’s how they were saved.

A mother has relived the moment she thought her 20-year-old son could have died while on a fishing trip with his two mates in the Whitsundays in January.

Riley Hinds, 20, Lachlan Rose, 21 and Sterling Green, 19, were on a boating trip near Bowen when the engine broke down about 25 kilometres from shore.

With no other fisherman around and no mobile phone reception, Mr Hinds decided to activate the GME Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) on-board.

Rescue authorities were notified of the alert and Mr Hind’s exact location and reached out to the emergency contact, Mr Hinds’ mum, Mardi Noonan, whose heart immediately dropped.

A local marine rescue vessel and helicopter were tasked to Mr Hinds’ location which was being shared in real-time via the EPIRB’s GPS.

“It was a Monday morning early January … my husband rang and said ‘you might want to wake up, Peter is going to ring you from maritime safety’,” she said.

“(Peter) said ‘the EPIRB on your husbands boat has been activated’ … and I said ‘no our son and his mates are on it … they were going out this morning to a reef they, they rang the night before to tell us and my husband Hindsy had said make sure you have got plenty of fuel lads and the EPIRB on the boat’.”

Riley Hinds with his mother, Mardi Noonan.

But after she had tried to contact Mr Hinds and both his friends for an hour, Ms Noonan started to think of the “worst case scenario”.

“I didn’t know if our EPIRB needed to be manually activated or was activated when submerged in water … I started to overthink what had happened to the boys and the boat,” she said.

Mr Hinds said by the time rescue crews arrived they had drifted a further 20 kilometres out to sea.

Ms Noonan said she “broke down” when she received the call that her son and his two friends had been located.

“(Peter) called me back and said ‘we’ve found the boat there’s three heads sitting in it and they are waving at the helicopter’ … I just broke down and started crying,” she said.

“I don’t want to think about how I would have reacted if it had gone on longer than that … because we are at least a nine hour drive from Bowen.

“I knew they were all strong swimmers … Riley swam competitively in his school years … but I was more concerned about the other two boys and how to tell their parents – I had guilt that I already knew and these parents didn’t.

“I think they over-estimated how far the reef was out when they looked at the map … it was 80 km but they only made it 30 … they pulled up to do a spot of fishing but then couldn’t get the motor restarted”

Mr Hinds’ location was being shared in real-time via the EPIRB’s GPS.

The rescue chopper arrives.

According to research from the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience, an average of 2,000 Australians are rescued from seas, bushland, mountains, and deserts each year.

In 2022, only 323 Aussies were rescued using lifesaving technology devices that help rescue authorities respond to an emergency situation efficiently.

GME’s product and safety expert Tony Crooke warned anyone heading out to the bush or on the water to carry an emergency beacon.

“Our key message for Aussies these Easter school holidays is to not rely on your phone when travelling in remote areas or heading out on the water. With only 14 per cent of Australia’s land mass being covered by mobile phone reception, carrying an emergency beacon and a UHF radio with you is vital to ensure you return home safely.”

Originally published as QLD family’s warning to Aussies this Easter as Boating trip nearly turns into a disaster