‘We Need a Helicopter to Search For Them’: 13-Year-Old’s Distress Call to Save Family Adrift Off Australian Coast Revealed

“We ended up adrift out there,” young Austin Appelbee explains to the emergency operator, following a swim four kilometres in choppy, open ocean and running two kilometres to get assistance for his kin.

The dispatcher questions how long has elapsed since he set off.

“[It] was a very long time ago … I think they’re kilometres out to sea. I think we require a helicopter to search for them,” he reports.

Police have disclosed the emergency phone call made previously after the boy departed from his loved ones drifting at sea off the Western Australian coast to seek assistance.

His demeanour remains steady and composed, even as he expresses his fear for his family.

“I don’t know what their state is right now, and I’m extremely frightened,” he confides in the operator.

“Mum said to find rescue … We were in serious danger.”

The Dangerous Incident

The family group had been pulled 2.5 miles out to sea in stormy conditions while using kayaks and paddleboards.

His mum asked him to set out and locate rescue, so the teenager began, discarding first his waterlogged vessel then his cumbersome lifejacket to swim the distance.

After getting to the beach – following a four-hour swim – he ran for two kilometres to get to a phone.

“Hello, my name is Austin … I have younger siblings, Beau and Grace. Beau is 12 and Grace is eight,” he tells the operator.

“I’m located on the beach right now, and I have to also explain – I think I need an medical help because I think I have hypothermia … I’m really, I’m extremely tired. I have heatstroke, and I feel like I’m about to faint.”

A Getaway in Peril

The family was on vacation in Quindalup, 125 miles south of Perth. They set off from Geographe Bay some time after 10am on a Friday in late January.

The parent later recalled that they were playing around when the children “drifted further than intended”. The wind picked up, they lost their oars, and started drifting.

“It sort of all became dangerous very, very quickly,” she noted.

The parent also spoke of having to make “a terribly difficult call” to ask her son to swim to land.

“I knew he was the strongest and he had the ability to succeed,” she said.

The Successful Mission

The teenager described being “completely out of breath”.

“I just pressed on, I do breaststroke, I do front crawl, I do elementary backstroke,” he recalled.

The call for help was made at around 6pm.

At roughly 8.30pm, many hours after they first began, the group were found and brought to safety. They had floated about fourteen kilometres out to sea.

The audio was made public with the family’s permission.

A senior officer who managed the operation said the family was in an “extremely dire situation”.

“They were in serious jeopardy, and time was extremely pressing given how long they had been in the water and with night approaching.

“What Austin did was truly remarkable. His heroic actions in those conditions were exceptional, and his actions were pivotal in bringing about a successful outcome.”

The officer also praised how the boy clearly relayed key facts.

When asked to detail the boards for the search crew, the youth responded: “They were a green and white colour.”

“And I’m not sure if it’s still on, but they had this fishing line, and there was a fish on there. Because we caught one.”