‘We Need a Chopper to Go Find Them’: Teenager’s Distress Call to Rescue Family Adrift Off Down Under Coast Disclosed

“We became disoriented out there,” young Austin Appelbee explains to the triple-zero dispatcher, after swimming 2.5 miles in choppy, open water and jogging 2km to secure help for his family.

The operator questions how much time has passed since he began.

“[It] was quite some time back … I think they’re a long way from land. I think we must get a rescue aircraft to search for them,” he reports.

Police have made public the recorded plea made in recent weeks after the boy left his loved ones floating at sea off the WA coast to fetch help.

His tone remains lucid and collected, even as he details his worry for his kin.

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

“Mum said to find rescue … We were in grave peril.”

The Dangerous Incident

The family group had been carried four kilometres out to sea in rough conditions while kayaking and paddleboarding.

His parent asked him to set out and locate rescue, so the teenager set off, discarding first his waterlogged vessel then his bulky flotation device to cover the remaining stretch.

After making it to shore – after an extensive period – he ran for 1.25 miles to get to a cell phone.

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

“I’m positioned on the beach right now, and I have to also mention – I think I need an medical help because I think I have exposure … I’m really, I’m extremely tired. I have heatstroke, and I feel like I’m about to collapse.”

A Holiday Turned Crisis

The holidaymakers was on holiday in Quindalup, 200km south of Perth. They set off from Geographe Bay around 10am on a Friday in late January.

The woman later recalled that they were enjoying themselves when the kids “drifted further than intended”. The wind picked up, they dropped their paddles, and started being carried out.

“It kind of all went wrong very, very quickly,” she said.

The parent also referenced having to make “a terribly difficult call” to send her son to swim to land.

“I knew he was the most capable and he had the ability to succeed,” she commented.

The Rescue Effort

The youth described being “completely out of breath”.

“I just continued swimming, I do the breaststroke, I do front crawl, I do survival backstroke,” he recalled.

The call for help was made at about 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 released with the family’s permission.

A forward commander who managed the rescue mission said the family was in an “extremely dire situation”.

“They were in real trouble, and time was of the essence given how much time they had been in the water and with light running out.

“What the teenager did was nothing short of extraordinary. His fortitude and resolve in those conditions were remarkable, and his actions were pivotal in bringing about a successful outcome.”

The sergeant also praised how the teenager calmly conveyed critical information.

When asked to describe the equipment for the search crew, the youth replied: “They were green and white.”

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