Six months, 60k hectares, and no trace: Outback search for missing South Australian boy Gus Lamont reaches grim milestone

September 27, 2025, will forever be a date painstakingly etched in the memories of Josh Lamont and Jess Murray. It is the date their beloved son Gus was last seen – on the family’s remote Oak Park station in the South Australian outback. Six months on from that fateful day and investigators are still no closer to knowing just what happened to the fair-haired four-year-old, or where he is now. Gus Lamont was last seen at the family property near Yunta around 5pm that Saturday evening, playing on a mound of dirt on the site. Around 5.30pm his grandmother went to call him inside, to no sign of him. After approximately three hours searching the property, the family alerted the police. This call sparked huge, widespread searches of the 60,000 hectare site, which included officers on food, Aboriginal trackers and drones – but no evidence could be found. In the coming weeks and months, police returned to the site on several separate occasions – draining a damn, combing through mine shafts and searching further afield. But still, answers have not been found. The police probe has seen officers follow several lines of inquiry and, in February, detectives said they no longer believed little Gus had “wandered off” or “been abducted”. In the same month, SAPOL declared his disappearance as a major crime – stating that a resident of the sheep station known to Gus had been identified as a suspect. His parents, however, were ruled out as suspects. Midway through the month, Josie Murray, Gus’s maternal grandmother, was arrested and charged with a firearms offence, unrelated to her grandson’s disappearance. Another bombshell that followed in March, was claims from South Australia police commissioner, Grant Stevens, that members of the boy’s family were no longer assisting the investigation. He said: “We are still working with Gus’s mum and dad and there are other members of the family who are no longer co-operating.” This month, police returned to the remote property and searched several more locations – with the hope that above-average rainfall could present new opportunities. However, officials said that the new searches “sadly did not locate any evidence”. With the six month milestone now upon us, police have not ruled out carrying out further searches of the site and surrounding area, as they strive to answer the questions of his desperate parents. But at the very heart of this tragedy, is two parents, “united in grief” and plagued by the thought they may never see their little boy again. In a heartbreaking joint statement issued in February, the pair said: “Our lives have been shattered, and every moment without him is unbearable. “We know someone out there may have information. If someone knows what happened, we are pleading with that person – or anyone who may have seen or heard anything – to please come forward. “All we want is to bring Gus home and understand what happened to our beautiful boy.”