Work to drain a dam on the South Australian outback property where missing boy Gus disappeared almost five weeks ago will be carried out on Friday, police have said.
The dam, which is about four-and-a-half metres deep, has already been inspected by divers, but police said draining it would allow a “comprehensive visual search” to be conducted, particularly in areas with submerged vegetation.
The development is the latest move by authorities endeavouring to solve the more than month-long mystery of the four-year-old’s disappearance, which has rocked the state and been described by its premier as “one of the more heartbreaking cases I can recall”.
Police have said Gus was last seen playing at his family’s vast and isolated sheep station, about 40 kilometres south of Yunta, about 5pm on Saturday, September 27.
Water operations police during the search on September 30. (ABC News: Daniel Taylor)
The dam that will be drained is 600m from the station’s homestead, police said.
In the week following Gus’s disappearance, extensive aerial and ground sweeps were conducted, and the initial phase of the search was estimated by police to have covered an area of 470 square kilometres.
As part of that effort, SA Police’s water operations unit was called in to assist, and photos released by police at the time show searchers entering water on the property.
This photo of one of several dams on the property was released by police earlier in the search. (Supplied: SA Police)
“Fortunately a lot of the dams are dry,” Superintendent Mark Syrus, officer in charge of the Yorke and Mid North region, said on Monday, September 29.
“But the ones that have got some water in — we’ve brought up the water police just to go and actually search those dams and just discount them.
“Our understanding [is] he’s not gravitated to water, but just for completeness sake, that’s the only reason we’re searching the dams and the rainwater tanks.”
Supertintendent Mark Syrus during the first week of the search. (ABC News: Daniel Taylor)
Days later, Superintendent Syrus provided an update on that part of the investigation.
“We have searched a number of water areas and the water police are still here, and they will be deployed if needed,” he said on October 1.
Friday’s renewed focus on what police described as the “large dam” near the homestead is being carried out “to rule out the possibility Gus may have drowned”.
“The draining of the dam will enable a comprehensive visual search to be completed, particularly areas with underwater vegetation,” police said in a statement.
During the first few days of the search, police said there were several dams on the property. (Supplied: SA Police)
Police have not elaborated on how that work will be done, nor on how long it is expected to take, but said that “further aerial imaging” of an area up to 10 kilometres out from the homestead was still being conducted.
“This is being done in stages and will take several weeks to complete,” police said.
Analysis of drone imagery and data that was collected several weeks ago during flyovers of the property has now been completed without identifying “any object of significance”, police have said.
Police said Gus’s family were being “supported by a victim contact officer”.
The total search operation so far has comprised several phases, including what police described as an “initial 10-day search” that involved Australian Defence Force members, State Emergency Service volunteers, local property owners and trackers.
SA Police’s water operations unit was involved in the initial phase of the search. (Supplied: SA Police)
About a week later, they launched another ground search that focused on a zone within 5.5km of the homestead.
That second effort, conducted over four days, ended a fortnight ago without answers.
Earlier this month, SA Police Commissioner Grant Stevens announced the creation of Task Force Horizon to continue to “investigate all of the circumstances” surrounding Gus’s disappearance.