{"id":440063,"date":"2026-01-27T05:51:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T05:51:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/440063\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T05:51:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T05:51:18","slug":"melbourne-boy-danny-12-missing-from-venus-bay-beach-presumed-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/440063\/","title":{"rendered":"Melbourne boy Danny, 12, missing from Venus Bay beach presumed dead"},"content":{"rendered":"

Victoria Police is working to recover the body of a 12-year-old boy who went missing at a beach in Victoria’s south-east over the Australia Day long weekend.<\/p>\n

Danny, from Taylors Hill in Melbourne\u2019s north-west, was last seen in the water by his family at No.4 Beach in Venus Bay, South Gippsland, just before noon on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\"Danny<\/p>\n

Police and the community are searching for Danny, a 12-year-old boy from Melbourne. (Supplied: Victoria Police)<\/p>\n

Police say the search is now being treated as a recovery operation due to the length of time the youngster has been missing.<\/p>\n

Family members were seen comforting each other at the beach on Monday as the search continued.<\/p>\n

The search for the young boy has included local uniformed police, the Air Wing, Water Police Squad and members of the public.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

VICSES set up their tent at the search site at a Venus Bay beach where Danny went missing off shore. (ABC Gippsland: Jack Colantuono)<\/p>\n

Search efforts ongoing<\/p>\n

Acting Senior Sergeant Matthew Wade said the search had been extensive, along the beach and in the water.<\/p>\n

“We’re continually getting drones up in the air,” he said.<\/p>\n

“There were a number of passers-by at the time that were helping with the search and assisting the family in trying to find Danny in the immediate time after he was last seen.<\/p>\n

“Searching efforts will continue. We have the assets and the resources that we require to get the search done, but if you do see anything, please contact Wonthaggi police.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Acting Senior Sergeant Matthew Wade says the search for Danny is extensive. (ABC Gippsland: Jack Colantuono)<\/p>\n

Acting Senior Sergeant Wade said a trained rescue coordination team had been overseeing the search and determining the distance offshore crews would need to cover.<\/p>\n

“[They have] a wide variety of assets that help predict swell and tide information and we’re being guided by them,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Everyone is putting in as much effort as they can.<\/p>\n

“The family are obviously very distraught as any parent would be in a situation like this,” he said.\"An<\/p>\n

Authorities remain at the scene of the beach in South Gippsland. (ABC Gippsland: Jack Colantuono)<\/p>\n

Strong currents<\/p>\n

Wildlife carer Sue Moore said there was strong undercurrent at Venus Bay beaches, making them unsafe for swimmers.<\/p>\n

“It’s Bass Strait; it’s the ocean, it’s a huge difference instead of Port Phillip Bay, that’s a bay,” Ms Moore said.<\/p>\n

“[Beach Four] is a completely different beach to other beaches.”<\/p>\n

Ms Moore said the only patrolled beach in Venus Bay was No.1 Beach, near the Venus Bay Surf Life Saving Club.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Beach No.4 in Venus Bay, South Gippsland, is known to be one of the unpatrolled beaches in the area. (ABC Gippsland: Jack Colantuono)<\/p>\n

“The lifesaving club don’t have the capacity to police every beach; beach two, three, four and five \u2026 they all are dangerous,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It’s a sad case, we don’t know where he [Danny] is.<\/p>\n

“It’s terrible; it could happen to anyone, it’s not very nice at all.\u00a0The current is so big, it could take you anywhere really.<\/p>\n

“They even searched all the bush area as well just in case he did go to the bush, but I think he was only paddling in waist-deep, so it just shows how strong that current is.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Victoria Police is working to recover the body of a 12-year-old boy who went missing at a beach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[40366,64,63,17713,17724,57480,229002,177797,44,1158,1157,148042,208728,227762],"class_list":["post-440063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-ambulance-victoria","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-beach","tag-emergency-services","tag-gippsland","tag-lifesaving-victoria","tag-missing-teenager","tag-news","tag-police","tag-rescue","tag-search-operation","tag-south-gippsland","tag-venus-bay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440063","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=440063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}