Police searching for a missing four-year-old boy in Australia say they have not given up hope, even as the huge operation to find him has been scaled back after nearly a week of fruitless searching.

August ‘Gus’ Lamont vanished from his grandparents’ remote Outback homestead, about 25 miles south of Yunta, north-east of Adelaide, on Saturday afternoon.

While the chances of survival are slim after six freezing nights, officers admit Gus may still be alive in one of the region’s countless unmarked wells or mine shafts.

Despite this, conspiracy theories have flooded social media, with some users suggesting the four-year-old was abducted. Police say there is no evidence to support this.

Locals and police believe the most likely explanation is that Gus simply wandered off from Oak Park homestead and slipped into an unseen shaft.

The boy was last spotted by his grandmother at around 5pm on Saturday. He had been playing on a mound of dirt near the front yard of the property, which is reached by travelling through six gates across rough country.

When she went back out to call him in just 30 minutes later, he was gone.

A frantic search by family and neighbours quickly escalated into one of the biggest operations in South Australia’s history, with hundreds of volunteers, police officers, trackers and even Australian Defence Force personnel scouring the region.

Only one possible clue has been found – a single footprint, about 500 metres from the house. Yorke Mid North superintendent Mark Syrus admitted that was unusual.

With no clear sign of him after days of searching, theories continue to swirl online.

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A picture of August ‘Gus’ Lamont. He went missing from his grandparents’ remote homestead, nearly 25 miles south of Yunta, north of Adelaide on Saturday afternoon

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A picture exclusively obtained by the Daily Mail shows one of the wells that authorities and locals believe Gus may have fallen in

Some have suggested he could have made it as far as the Barrier Highway, a desolate 621 mile stretch of bitumen running between New South Wales and South Australia, used mainly by long-distance truck drivers.

A local landowner, whose family has farmed the area for generations, told the Daily Mail that seemed highly unlikely.

‘If he made the highway, I’d hate to think who picked him up,’ the source said. He said residents of nearby Yunta, a settlement with just 60 people, believe there is another, more likely explanation.

‘I would be more worried about the unmarked wells and mines he may have fallen into,’ the source added. ‘That’s the talk [among locals].’

The north-east pastoral district is scattered with relics from another age – mine shafts and wells dug more than a century ago by fortune seekers and graziers.

Some are easy to spot, surrounded by piles of rock. But others lie flush with the ground, covered by weeds, and invisible even to an adult walking past.

‘Most aren’t on any maps,’ the local said. ‘If [Gus’ grandparents] have owned that property for a while, they should know where they are – although I’m still finding new spots on my property.’

He shared a picture of one shaft recently discovered on his land, showing how easy it would be for someone to fall in. ‘Some are easy to see, some definitely not… but hopefully [Gus] is just lost… and not perished.’

Although online speculation has suggested Gus may have been abducted, police say there is no indication anyone else was involved.

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The search has yielded just one clue – a single footprint that detectives have described as unusual

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The search party seen on September 30. The search quickly escalated into one of the biggest operations in South Australia’s history

‘The property is very isolated. You have to go through six gates to actually get to the station,’ Supt Syrus explained. ‘We’re focusing our efforts that he’s wandered off from the front yard.’

Detectives believe the nearby road sees little traffic other than other station owners. No reports of strangers or vehicles have been made.

Supt Syrus added: ‘We understand he’s a pretty quiet sort of lad but he is, as you know, a country lad and he’s pretty adventurous as well. But him moving out of the area is a little bit unusual.’

It is also unlikely that Gus may have been taken by a wild animal like a dingo. Unlike the infamous case of Azaria Chamberlain, who was killed by a dingo in the Northern Territory in 1980, the animals do not roam this part of South Australia.

The land around Yunta is sheep country, not dingo territory. There is also a dog fence that stretches over 1,200 miles over the area to protect livestock against such predators.

Additionally, there is little chance that he could have been snatched by a crocodile as there is no water source large enough to support them in the semi-arid outback where Gus went missing, unlike the northern part of the country which has a large population of the reptiles.

By Wednesday, with Gus missing for more than 80 hours in freezing night temperatures, police warned his family that the operation may need to shift from a rescue to a recovery mission.

‘Gus has been now missing for now into the fifth day, 84 hours, and a young boy without food, water, shelter for that period of time – it’s going to be pretty tough on that little lad,’ Supt Syrus said.

‘We’re preparing the family that we may be moving from a search effort to a recovery’.

The next day, Assistant Commissioner Ian Parrott confirmed the investigation would now be handed to the Missing Persons Unit.

‘While we’ve all been hoping for a miracle, that miracle was not eventuated,’ he said.

‘We’re confident that we’ve done absolutely everything we can to locate Gus within the search area, but despite our best efforts, we have not been able to locate him, and unfortunately, we are now having to scale back this search for Gus.’

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Gus was last seen in a blue Minions T-shirt and a grey broad-brimmed hat

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Police have continued to comb through surrounding areas, hoping for a miracle

On Friday afternoon, Australian Defence Force personnel were stood down, and the number of police vehicles at the property was reduced.

Commissioner Parrott said the decision was based on expert advice about how long a child of Gus’s age could survive without shelter. Temperatures in the area dropped close to freezing overnight during the search.

The family has been told the chances of finding him alive are ‘diminishing as days go by.’

Even so, Commissioner Parrott said investigators would not stop looking for answers.

‘We will now continue to pursue ongoing lines of inquiry, and we will not rest until we can try and find the answer to why Gus has gone missing, and hopefully, for the family, return him to them.’

As the official search winds down, faint hope remains that Gus may yet be found alive. His family have been left clinging to the smallest chance that the boy in the Minions shirt will be found safe.