Jessie Lee James and Timothy Kratzke were reported missing in Queensland, Australia, without making any contact to friends in the last 48 hours

An entire family has vanished - including children aged nine, eight and five - with police and loved ones describing it as "totally out of character".

Parents Jessie Lee James and Timothy Kratzke were reported missing in Queensland, Australia.

They had been travelling with their three children having left home at around 11:30am on October 16, but have not made contact with anyone since.

Officers said: "Police and family hold concerns for their welfare as their behaviour is out of character".

It's thought they were travelling through the Miriam Vale and broader Gladstone region in a blue truck with the registration 416DA4.

Mum Jessie, 37, is described as Caucasian in appearance, approximately 5ft 8ins tall with brown hair and hazel eyes.

Dad Timothy is approximately 5ft 9ins tall, with light brown hair and blue eyes, reports news.com.au.

The three children are described as having fair complexions. The nine-year-old girl has brown hair. The eight-year-old girl has auburn hair and wears pink eyeglasses. The five-year-old boy also has auburn hair.

In a separate case, a family of four have been spotted and rescued in the Australian outback after they went missing for 48 hours.

On Tuesday a multi-agency search was launched and a four-wheel-drive was spotted by helicopter, when the Queensland family did not return to their destination - the small town of Packsaddle in NSW.

Darian Aspinall, 27, along with her two children Winter Bellamy, two, and Koda Bellamy, four, and their grandmother, 50-year-old Leah Gooding, left the Noccundra Hotel on Warry Gate Road in South West Queensland between 12.30pm and 3pm on Sunday.

But a police investigation was launched after the family of four were reported missing in the desert and were uncontactable.

The family had run out of food and water when a helicopter spotted their car off-track 50 kilometres south east of Tibooburra, in the far north-west of NSW, late on Tuesday afternoon.

Photos show the family using their clothes to wave at the helicopter to get the pilot's attention.

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