Children survive six days after boat capsizes

Three children survived six days on a tiny island off the northern coast of Australia living on coconuts, oysters and native fruit after swimming two miles to safety when their boat capsized.

Their ordeal ended when they were picked up by boat from tiny Matu Island in the Torres Strait, but their parents and three-year-old brother remain missing.

The castaways, aged 10 to 15, were rescued just hours after the family was reported missing following their departure from Badu Island in a 16-foot dinghy on July 6.

Australian Maritime Safety Authority spokesman Ben Mitchell said an air and sea search was continuing for the missing family members.

“We have considerable concerns for their welfare. We are hoping they have made it to a rocky outcrop or island,” he said.

Missing are Badu’s Assembly of God pastor Haley Tamwoy, also known as Naseli Nona, his wife Lisa and their son Clarence.

Mr Tamwoy’s sister-in-law, Wendy Phineasa, said the family left the island last Tuesday to attend a 21st birthday party on Thursday Island, where relatives were expecting them.

She said Mr Tamwoy was in his 50s, an experienced boatman and a diabetic.

The three castaways – Ellis, 15, Norita, 10, and their 12-year-old brother Stephen (also known as Bala) – told police the dinghy’s engine cut out in choppy seas before the boat capsized.

They said their father told them to swim to a small island while he and their mother stayed with their young son.

“They kept looking back and they could see their mum and dad in the water until a good distance away and then when they looked back they couldn’t see them anymore,” Mrs Phineasa said.

“Thank God the three of them are very good swimmers.”

After hours in the water, the children reached rocky outcrops where they stayed until last Friday.

Badu nurse Vickie Tamwoy, also a sister-in-law of Mr Tamwoy, said: “They swam there with the tide and there they found dried coconuts which they proceeded to husk with their teeth and they ate wongai fruit, also known as the Torres Strait plum.”

The children also ate oysters and then saw their uncle approaching the island in a boat.

“They started waving and shouting with all their might and heart and they were seen,” said Mrs Phineasa.

“They were all shivering and really weak, and they just ran to him and hugged him and started crying.”

Ms Tamwoy said the children had bounced back after their ordeal.

They were a bit dehydrated and sunburnt and the eldest girl had coral cuts on her feet.