Four teens who went missing in the waters off Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula have been found alive, in what police have dubbed a “Christmas miracle.”
About nine in the morning on Tuesday, two men, both age 18, and two women, both age 18, were discovered on Swan Island, off the coast of the Bellarine Peninsula.
According to Ambulance Victoria, they were transported to Geelong Hospital in stable condition with no evident wounds.
On Monday, the gang was located utilizing two inflatable paddle boards off Rosebud Beach, which is around 30 kilometers distant.
According to Victoria Police Acting Superintendent Terence Rowlands, they were carried by the tide, wind, and current from Rosebud straight across Port Phillip Bay to the Queenscliff region.
Police were eventually notified of the group’s discovery after island security and military officials discovered them on a Swan Island beach.
Supt. Rowlands told reporters, “You can see the smile on my face – (it’s) simply amazing that they’ve been discovered safe and healthy.
“Luck has played a major role in it.”
When they were discovered, the adolescents were shivering but extremely grateful to be on dry land.
Acting Inspector Ian Pregnell told Melbourne radio station 3AW that tragedies are a common outcome of these situations.
One could claim that this is a Christmas miracle.
When relatives learned that the teenagers had been found, he said, it was a difficult time.
The parents were happy their children were safe, Father Jack Shi told Nine News.
“That makes us very, very happy. The relief is immense. We were in great need,” he remarked.
On one side of Swan Island, a military training facility, sits the Queenscliff Golf Club.
It has a long history of military use, and in the 1870s a fort was initially built there to guard the Port Phillip Bay entrance against a potential Russian invasion.
Before becoming a training facility during World War II, it served as a naval mine depot during World War I.
A beachgoer discovered the group’s belongings, including phones and IDs, at around 8 p.m. on Monday, which started the search.
Due to hazardous conditions, the search for the teenagers was suspended around 4 am on Tuesday. It was then resumed at sunrise.
Earlier on Tuesday, a man claiming to be the father of one of the lads told Seven’s Sunrise show that the teenagers had just finished their final examinations and were on their way to Rosebud for an end-of-year celebration.
After their car became stuck, a couple was found on Monday in Victoria’s west in good condition.
