The search for four-year-old Gus, who went missing on a remote South Australian sheep station a month ago, is resuming with a dam at the property to be drained.<\/p>\n
Police will return to the property near Yunta in the state’s mid-north on Friday to drain the dam, which is about 600 metres from the station’s homestead.<\/p>\n
It has already been searched by divers, but police said draining the four-and-a-half metre deep dam will enable a “comprehensive visual search”, particularly in areas with underwater vegetation.<\/p>\n
“The renewed search of the dam is being undertaken to rule out the possibility Gus may have drowned,” SA Police said in a statement.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
About 80 Australian Defence Force Personnel were involved with a previous search earlier this month.\u00a0 (ABC News: Isabella Carbone)<\/p>\n
Police also said that investigators have concluded assessing data and imagery of the terrain surrounding the homestead that was taken using a drone, but no “object of significance” was identified.<\/p>\n
“Further aerial imaging of an area out to 10 kilometres from the homestead is still being conducted. This is being done in stages and will take several weeks to complete,” the statement said.<\/p>\n
The isolated homestead, which is located about 350 kilometres north of Adelaide, spans about 6,000 hectares and is a complex mix of terrain.<\/p>\n
Gus was last seen at the property on September 27<\/a>.<\/p>\n Hundreds of people including police officers, defence force members, SES volunteers, trackers and local property owners have been involved in two previous searches<\/a>.<\/p>\n The initial search, which police announced would be scaled back a week after Gus went missing, covered more than 470 square kilometres. (Supplied: SA Police)<\/p>\n The first search covered more than 470 square kilometres, part of which was searched from the air, while the second search extended to a 5.5 kilometre radius from the homestead \u2014 equating to 95 square kilometres searched by foot.<\/p>\n “Police had been hopeful the extensive ground searches would locate Gus or provide evidence of the direction in which Gus may have walked, but this has not been the case,” police said in their statement.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n