'Living in limbo': One year on from Gus Lamont's disappearance - ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation

There is a grey, liminal space where loved ones of missing people often find themselves in the aftermath of disappearance.

Social workers describe it as a feeling of ambiguous loss.

A teetering between hope and heartache.

The area where Gus Lamont was reported missing is remote and difficult to access. (ABC News: Genevieve Blandin de Chalain)

Missing persons researcher Professor Sarah Wayland knows the space well.

She has spent the past 25 years supporting families of missing people, including, most recently, a member of Gus Lamont's family.

"The family did reach out to me because of the significant challenges in Australia in that there are very limited support services for people who are left behind when someone's missing," she says.

Sarah Wayland has been working with those experiencing trauma and loss for more than two decades. (ABC News: Monish Nand)

Professor Wayland sought permission from the family member before being interviewed by the ABC.

So much has already been written, said and speculated about what may or may not have happened to Gus Lamont.

The four-year-old was reportedly last seen playing in sand at his family's remote, outback South Australian sheep station one year ago today.

Until earlier this week, Gus's parents, Jess and Josh, largely avoided public attention.

But in the lead up to the first anniversary of his disappearance, they made what the chief detective tasked with finding their son described as a "brave" decision to front the camera.

Sitting side-by-side on a grey, two-seater sofa, in an otherwise nondescript room, they spoke for just over two minutes about their "beautiful, sweet and unique little boy", who "loved music, listening to stories and playing in the natural world".

Their words were laced with anguish and ambiguous loss.

"We believe that someone knows something," Josh said, leaning forward with his hands clasped, staring down the barrel of the camera.

"Someone knows what happened to Gus and may even know where he is."

Suzie Ratcliffe has replayed the video of Josh and Jess several times.

Suzie Ratcliffe is director of missing persons awareness group Leave A Light On.  (ABC News: Rohan Leonard)

She is one of only a few people in Australia to have a true understanding of what the parents are living through.

"Until you actually walk the path of a missing person's family, you don't really understand the depth of ambiguous loss," she says.

"It's something you never escape from.

"It's like living in limbo or never waking up from a continuous nightmare."

Fourteen months before Ms Ratcliffe was born, her 11-year-old sister, Joanne, along with four-year-old Kirste Gordon, went missing during a football game at Adelaide Oval in 1973.

Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon went missing from Adelaide Oval in 1973. (SA Police)

Along with the disappearance of Gus and the Beaumont children, their suspected abduction remains one of South Australia's most notorious unsolved missing children's cases.

"Because I've grown up with the loss, I've known no other way," Ms Ratcliffe says.

"At the end of the day, it's still extremely painful."

Ms Ratcliffe is today the director of missing persons awareness organisation Leave a Light On.

She says she can understand why Gus's parents would be reticent to be in the public eye.

"My dad was very vocal with the media after Jo disappeared and then after he passed away in 1981, my mum and my brother both took a step back because they couldn't handle the feelings and emotions that came with having to be in the public face of the media all the time," she says.

"Watching Gus's family the other day, I completely understand and really empathise with how much emotional trauma they've been going through every day since Gus disappeared."

Suzie Ratcliffe says anniversaries can be particularly difficult for families of missing persons.  (ABC News: Rohan Leonard)

Ms Ratcliffe says anniversaries are particularly hard for families of missing people.

"It's an impact and clarification that, oh my gosh, they're really missing," she says.

"Up until that first year there's always hope that it was just a mistake and they're going to come running through the door any moment.

"After that first year, you've still got hope, but that feeling of dread, it starts to settle."

The small town of Yunta — the closest locality to the family's Oak Park Station where Gus went missing — is now indelibly linked to the boy's disappearance.

Yunta is the closest township to the spot where Gus was reported missing. (ABC News: Daniel Taylor)

Many in the town know Gus's family and have become accustomed to the media swarm that has descended upon the area when police have conducted their 11 past ground searches of the station.

Further south-west along the Barrier Highway, at another nearby outback town, the case has also been keenly felt.

"A child that has been lost, it just grabs at your heart whether you know the people or whether you don't," Peterborough Mayor Ruth Whittle says.

"A child will go past and somebody will say: 'Gus Lamont was that age', or 'Gus Lamont had hair like that'.

"We all feel deeply for the family."

Mayor Ruth Whittle says the case of Gus's disappearance "just grabs at your heart". (ABC News: Daniel Taylor)

As well as being mayor of the local district, Ms Whittle is also a member of the Peterborough Miniature Railway Association.

She says the weekend before Gus went missing, the four-year-old rode on one of the association's miniature trains.

"We remember him and his lovely hair," she says.

"We'll think about him in one way, shape or form forever."

South-west of Yunta is the town of Peterborough. (ABC News: Daniel Taylor)

Yunta local Keith Noble says Gus's disappearance is "on everybody's mind", and finding him would "mean a lot" to the community.

He is hopeful for a resolution after the SA government earlier this week announced a $1 million reward for anyone who comes forward with information that leads to a conviction or discovery of Gus's whereabouts.

"It's [the reward's] the only way you're going to get anywhere because money makes people crack."

Yunta local Keith Noble believes the reward offer is the right move. (ABC News: Daniel Taylor)

Perhaps it is not just Gus's family and the local community feeling ambiguous loss, but the country in some way too.

Those with no direct connection to the four-year-old or his family are seemingly desperate for updates — no matter how small — as police continue to investigate his disappearance.

This week, Gus's disappearance prompted a press conference attended by senior SA Police as well as the police minister and the premier. (ABC News: Che Chorley)

Professor Wayland believes there are two reasons why, of the almost 50,000 missing persons reports filed in Australia last year, Gus's disappearance has sparked so much attention.

"A beautiful little boy, curly blond hair, a sense that he's not involved in his own disappearance … he's the 'perfect victim', for want of a better term," she says.

"I think alongside that, is that we have started to view trauma as entertainment.

"True crime podcasts, documentaries, the ways in which we tell stories in really simplistic ways of thinking something terrible has happened … really do a disservice because it dehumanises stories.

"It doesn't give us insight into who Gus was and what he might have been, what he meant to his family."

There have been multiple searches for Gus around his family's property. (Supplied/ABC News: Stephan Hammat)

With Gus's name once again making national and international headlines on the first anniversary of his disappearance, Professor Wayland has urged kindness.

"It's [the anniversary's] an important reflection of time that's gone past, but it's also important on all of the other days that aren't anniversaries that we still send love and support and compassion out to all families of missing people," she says.

"Their trauma happens every minute of every day, not just when the community has decided to shine a spotlight on them."

Ms Ratcliffe says her thoughts are with Gus's family today.

"It's incredibly difficult and my heart goes out to you… going through this period of time," she says, addressing the family.

"I sincerely hope there are answers soon so you can bring your beautiful little boy home."