Perth boy’s incredible tale of grit and survival goes global

Perth teenager Austin Appelbee has become the “heart of the country” after the remarkable story of how he swam four kilometres in rough seas to save his stranded family emerged this week.

The 13-year-old year 9 student’s first week back at school has come with national and international attention for his tale of survival, with he and his family making headlines across the globe, featuring on the BBC, CNN and The Washington Post.

The student ambassador, who described himself as a “good swimmer”, grinned shyly when he was called remarkable by Today presenter Sarah Abo during an interview on Wednesday.

The compliment came shortly after he had praised his mother, Joanne, and siblings, Beau, 12, and Grace, 8, for managing to cling to a paddleboard for eight hours as they were swept 14 kilometres out to sea.

“Mum is really strong, Beau’s extremely tough and Grace loves the waves, so I was sure she’d be fine,” he said.

The eight-hour ocean ordeal began as the “last paddle” of the school holidays for the family, who set out from Geographe Bay in Quindalup – a popular holiday spot in Western Australia’s South West – about midday on Friday with two hired paddleboards and a kayak.

After noticing Austin had paddled a bit far out, Joanne went to bring him back in when the weather took a turn and the winds began dragging the family out to sea.

“I just said, ‘All right, not today, not today, not today.’ I had to keep on going.”

Austin Appelbee

As conditions worsened, Joanne made the gut-wrenching decision to send Austin off in the kayak to get help.

Austin said he paddled for about two kilometres with the kayak “dumping him a million times” before it capsized, forcing him to abandon it, take off his lifejacket, and swim the remaining two kilometres.

“I was just thinking in my head that I was going to make it through, but I was also thinking about all my friends at school and members of my Christian youth and I just said, ‘All right, not today, not today, not today.’ I had to keep on going,” he told media on Tuesday.

“I was very puffed out, but I couldn’t feel how tired I was … I just keep swimming, I do breaststroke, I do freestyle, I do survival backstroke.”

When Austin arrived at the shore about 6pm, he ran another two kilometres to the beach where his family’s belongings were and called Triple Zero on his mother’s mobile phone.

“I got to shore and I thought, ‘Nup, I haven’t made it in time, the sun’s about to go down, I’ve failed my family,’ ” he said.

“So all those thoughts were running through my mind when I was lying down at the beach because my legs collapsed. And then I thought, ‘Look, there’s a chance, I’ve seen all of these stories, it’s happened before.’ ”

After telling the Triple Zero operator he “needed helicopters, planes and boats” to find his family, he was cared for by some “nice ladies” on the beach who gave him food for the first time that day before he passed out from exhaustion.

Austin was taken to hospital and given fluids as the search for his family began.

At 8.30pm that night, they were spotted by a helicopter.

Joanne said the rescue boat arrived about five minutes after she and her two children had become separated in the dark by a big wave.

“It was pretty terrifying for a while,” she said.

“I knew we were extremely far out, it was hard to even make out lights on the shore.”

When news of the rescue made it back to the hospital, Austin said everybody was cheering.

“Mum was very happy to see me,” he said.

The ordeal has gone global, with headlines in major US outlets including The Washington Post, CNN and Fox News, as well as the UK Times and Canada’s Toronto Sun telling the story of the hero Australian teenager’s “superhuman” swim that saved his family.

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