A $1 million reward is being offered for information that helps locate Gus Lamont, nearly a year after the four-year-old disappeared.
Gus was last seen playing near a remote homestead about 40km south of Yunta on September 27.
The extensive search that followed, involving both ground teams and aircraft, has failed to find any trace of the boy.
Police said in February they believed someone known to Gus may have killed him—either deliberately or accidentally—before he was reported missing.
Investigators said the suspected person lived at Oak Park Station, about 300km north of Adelaide, and was known to Gus.
Police have stressed that the person was neither Gus’s mother, Jessica Murray, nor his father, Joshua Lamont, who lived at Belalie North, roughly two hours away.
South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas said on Wednesday that Gus’s disappearance had “shocked our nation”.
“If you know something, you’ve got to speak,” he said. “You’ve got to let South Australian Police know what you know so they can do justice in the name of Gus.”
A $1 million reward has been announced for information that leads to Gus Lamont being found nearly a year after his disappearance
The four-year-old was last seen playing near the remote homestead, 40km south of Yunta, on September 27 (pictured, search crews looking for the missing boy last year)
Detective Superintendent Darren Fielke, of the Major Crime Investigation Branch, said the reward was consistent with amounts offered in other missing-child investigations.
“A reward of up to $1 million is now available for anyone whose information leads to the conviction of the person or persons responsible for Gus’s disappearance and/or the location of his remains,” he said.
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“One million dollars is a life-changing amount of money for someone. Now is the time to come forward.”
He thanked the government for its support and said police would continue doing everything possible to find Gus and reunite him with his family.
With the first anniversary of Gus’s disappearance approaching, his grandmother, Josie Murray, said the family planned to search eagle nests across the remote property.
“The eagle aspect should be looked at,” she told 7News. “It’s highly unlikely, but it’s not impossible.”
Ms Murray also said she believed Gus had been abducted from the homestead because, in her view, “nothing else makes sense”.
“It brings me to tears that he’s not here,” she said, pointing television cameras towards the area where Gus had been playing on the afternoon he vanished. “He was just down here, and then that was the last time he was seen. After that, he just disappeared.”
Despite wide-ranging searches by land and air, there has been no confirmed sighting of Gus since he disappeared
She also appealed to police not to regard her as a suspect in the case.
‘For me to know they are wasting their time, and their time would be better spent trying to find out what did happen to him, is enormously frustrating,’ she said.
Gus’s grandparents both live at and own the station.
Josie later confirmed that police had told her she was the main suspect in the case. She has consistently maintained her innocence.
No charges have been laid and no arrests have been made.