Fifty-nine days have elapsed since four-year-old Gus was reported missing from his family’s property in South Australia’s outback.<\/p>\n
The boy’s disappearance on September 27, 2025, has not only caused widespread anguish \u2014 it has mystified authorities, who have vowed to “explore every avenue” in their effort to find him.<\/p>\n
“Every avenue” has so far extended to surrounding scrub and dams \u2014 but the search is about to enter a new phase, with police returning to the property today.<\/p>\n
Here’s a look at what we know.<\/p>\n
What’s being searched?<\/p>\n
Six mine shafts in the area will be the sites of the renewed police attention.<\/p>\n
Police say the shafts are between 5.5 kilometres and 12km from the remote property’s homestead, which is in turn about 40km south of Yunta on the Barrier Highway.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
An overhead view of the outback during a previous search. (ABC News: Daniel Taylor)<\/p>\n
The shafts have been described as “uncovered and unfenced” and are “in areas not searched on foot by police”.<\/p>\n
STAR (Special Tasks and Rescue) Group officers and members of Task Force Horizon \u2014 the group established to manage the ongoing investigation \u2014 will use specialised equipment to conduct the new searches.<\/p>\n
“These searches will either locate evidence or eliminate these locations from further investigation by the taskforce,” Deputy Commissioner Linda Williams said.<\/p>\n
Police have reiterated that they have not uncovered any evidence of foul play.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
There have been various phases of the overall search. (ABC News: Daniel Taylor)<\/p>\n
What do we know about the mine shafts?<\/p>\n
Beyond the details above, police have not elaborated on the nature, extent, location or depth of the shafts.<\/p>\n
But the broader region around Yunta has a history of mining and prospecting that continues to this day, and the area is dotted with diggings.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A police vehicle in the search area on October 17. (ABC News: Isabella Carbone)<\/p>\n
In 1887, a gold discovery north-east of Yunta caused what was known as the “King’s Bluff rush”.<\/p>\n
“Numbers of miners left the rush yesterday and this morning, but there are 200 still on the ground,” a correspondent wrote from Yunta.<\/p>\n
“Many are prospecting in the vicinity of the township.”<\/p>\n
But mineral deposits were also identified in other directions.<\/p>\n
Documents published on an SA government mining database refer to early copper mining about “four miles south” of what appears to be the homestead on the station where Gus went missing.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Searchers during the early days of the operation. (Supplied: SA Police)<\/p>\n
An 1888 article from a local newspaper, uploaded to Trove, corroborates the presence of early copper mining in the area \u2014 including a start-up venture called Wheal Motley.<\/p>\n
“Tenders are invited for sinking a shaft 100 feet deep, which will be commenced at once,” it states.<\/p>\n
But the lifespan of the mine does not appear to have been long \u2014 according to one of the database documents, the deposit was “worked from 1888-1890 when apparently all the oxidized material was removed”.<\/p>\n
Why are they being searched now?<\/p>\n
Police said they were not “previously aware of the location of these sites”, which go beyond the 5.5-kilometre radius around the homestead, which was used to guide a four-day search in mid-October.<\/p>\n
That search in turn followed a 10-day effort covering an estimated area of 470 square kilometres in the immediate aftermath of Gus’s disappearance, during which aerial and ground sweeps were conducted.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A lizard in the landscape south of Yunta. (ABC News: Isabella Carbone)<\/p>\n
Mounted police, the Australian Defence Force, a helicopter, the State Emergency Service, trackers, SA Police’s water operations unit and drones have at various times been involved.<\/p>\n
Police returned on October 31 to drain a large dam 600 metres from the station’s homestead, but “nothing of significance” was found.<\/p>\n
The search of the mine shafts is expected to last “up to three days”, police have said.<\/p>\n
Police said they “were not previously aware of the location of these sites”.<\/p>\n
“We are determined to explore every avenue in an effort to locate Gus and provide some closure for his family,” Deputy Commissioner Williams said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The terrain around the search area. (Supplied: SA Police)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fifty-nine days have elapsed since four-year-old Gus was reported missing from his family’s property in South Australia’s outback.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,17405,115293,62900,45318,44,7452,174578,118098],"class_list":["post-306498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boy","tag-gus","tag-mine","tag-missing","tag-news","tag-search","tag-shafts","tag-yunta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}