A man and a young boy have been rescued from a remote beach on the New South Wales South Coast after a drone operator spotted their "help" message written in the sand.
NSW Ambulance confirmed the man, aged in his 30s, and the boy, younger than 10, were injured when their boat overturned in rough seas at the river mouth of Tuross Head, south of Moruya, on Wednesday morning.
Onlookers became concerned when they spotted the boat floating upside down and rang triple-0 at about 8am.
When locals were unable to see people in the water near the overturned boat they called nearby resident and drone operator Maree Jackson to the beach.
"I put the drone up and located the boat in the water, upside down," she said.
"When I flew the drone over the beach I located a person.
"The man had written 'help' in the sand."
The Toll Ambulance Rescue Helicopter retrieved the pair just after 10am.
The man was airlifted to Canberra Hospital in a serious but stable condition.
The boy was taken to Moruya District Hospital in a stable condition.
Long wait for help
Ms Jackson said emergency services were contacted a second time after paramedics had not shown up at the scene more than an hour after the first triple-0 call.
In the interim, a caravan park manager walked to the pair with blankets and water.
The beach where the man and boy were stranded is extremely remote and only accessible by foot or air.
When paramedics eventually arrived at about 9:45am, they had to walk the length of the beach – about a kilometre – to get to the pair.
NSW Ambulance has not commented on the time it took for paramedics to get to the beach.
Ms Jackson said she was pleased to have helped.
"I'm glad I was able to spot these two people as soon as we could," she said.
"Even though it took a while to get to them, it was good to get the help, because we don't know what would have happened or how long they would have laid there.
"I just hope that they're all fine."
