Emergency services took almost an hour to respond to a distress call from the father of a teen who died from severe heat stroke while on a remote walking trail - partly because they couldn't understand his Scottish accent.
Ewan Louis Williamson, 14, of Largs died from heat stroke and exhaustion after becoming disorientated with his father on the Badjirrajirra Walk in the North West Cape in Western Australia in December, 2012.
His condition was complicated by a recent viral illness, which caused inflammation of heart muscle.
His father Gordon Williamson told the WA Coroner's Court on Tuesday he phoned 000 at around 2pm and asked for police help when his son became ill and could not walk back to the car, but the request wasn't logged as an incident needing immediate attendance.
Mr Williamson said it was a long phone call because the operator couldn't understand his accent and wasn't a local, so didn't understand where the pair were until he gave the GPS co-ordinates.
"It all seemed to take so long," he said.
The court heard Mr Williamson and his son were regular hikers and had in previous years walked for hours at a time in New Zealand.
Ewan, however, had become faint shortly after they began their trip in the national park, so his father found him a cave to rest in as the hottest part of the day approached.
It had already reached 36 degrees around 10am when they arrived.
After Ewan regained his strength and they resumed their trek, it became apparent they had walked in the wrong direction and a despondent Ewan lost the will to continue, resting in a shaded culvert while his father went back to the car to get water and call for help.
Mr Williamson didn't initially think it was a life-threatening situation, but when he returned, his son was semi-conscious and having small seizures, so he called for an ambulance, suggesting a helicopter evacuation.
When police arrived at 2.58pm, they took a long time to carry his 13 and a half stone son a distance of 400m to safety as they didn't bring a stretcher.
Paramedics followed and tried to resuscitate the teenager but he died in hospital that evening.
The inquest continues.