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A 13-year-old Australian boy swam for hours through the sea to get help when his mother and two younger siblings were swept out to sea off the coast of Western Australia.Austin Appelbee was kayaking and paddleboarding with his family near Quindalup in Geographe Bay on Friday morning when strong winds began dragging them further offshore.
As the situation worsened, his mother made the difficult decision to send him back to shore for help.“One of the hardest decisions I ever had to make was to say to Austin: ‘Try and get to shore and get some help. This could get really serious really quickly,’” Joanne Appelbee told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.Austin first attempted to return in an inflatable kayak while wearing a life jacket, but abandoned both when the kayak began taking on water and the life jacket slowed him down.
He then swam about four kilometres to shore in cold, rough conditions.“The waves are massive and I have no life jacket on. … I just kept thinking ‘just keep swimming, just keep swimming,’” Austin said. He added: “And then I finally I made it to shore and I hit the bottom of the beach and I just collapsed.”In an interview with 7News, Austin said that even after reaching land, getting help was not a good idea. “When I got to the phone there were a lot of foreign people on the beach so I couldn’t really get much help,” he said.
Eventually, Austin was able to call for help at around 6 pm, and emergency services started searching for his family. A helicopter located Austin's mother, Joanne Appelbee, his 12-year-old brother Beau and his eight-year-old sister Grace at about 8.30 pm. The three had drifted around 14 kilometres from shore and spent nearly 10 hours in the water, clinging to a paddleboard.“We kept positive, we were singing and we were joking and … we were treating it as a bit of a game until the sun started to go down and that’s when it was getting very choppy.
Very big waves,” Joanne Appelbee said.By the time they were rescued, all three were shivering, and Beau had lost sensation in his legs due to the cold. “I have three babies. All three made it. That was all that mattered,” Joanne said.Police inspector James Bradley praised Austin’s efforts, saying: “The actions of the 13-year-old boy cannot be praised highly enough – his determination and courage ultimately saved the lives of his mother and siblings.”The family were taken to Busselton Health Campus for checks and later discharged.
