We Must Have a Helicopter to Search For Them’: Adolescent’s Urgent Plea to Save Loved Ones Stranded Off Aussie Coast Revealed

“We ended up adrift out there,” young Austin Appelbee tells the 000 call handler, having swum four kilometres in treacherous, open ocean and running two kilometres to get assistance for his kin.

The dispatcher asks how long has passed since he began.

“[It] was ages past … I think they’re kilometres out to sea. I think we must get a chopper to go find them,” he reports.

Emergency services have made public the emergency phone call made last month after the boy departed from his family drifting at sea off the Western Australian coast to seek assistance.

His demeanour remains steady and composed, even as he details his concern for his family.

“I have no idea about what their condition is right now, and I’m terrified,” he confides in the operator.

“Mum said to seek assistance … We were in grave peril.”

The Perilous Situation

The mother and children had been pulled 2.5 miles out to sea in rough conditions while kayaking and paddleboarding.

His mum asked him to use his craft and find help, so the teenager commenced, discarding first his waterlogged vessel then his bulky flotation device to make the journey by swimming.

After reaching land – after an extensive period – he raced for two kilometres 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 states the emergency services.

“I’m positioned on the beach right now, and I have to also mention – I think I need an ambulance because I think I have exposure … I’m really, I’m completely exhausted. I have heatstroke, and I feel like I’m about to faint.”

A Holiday Turned Crisis

The group was on holiday in Quindalup, 125 miles south of Perth. They departed from Geographe Bay following 10am on a Friday in late January.

The woman later explained that they were playing around when the kids “ventured out too far”. The conditions worsened, they dropped their paddles, and started floating away.

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

The mother also spoke of having to make “an incredibly tough choice” to instruct 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 boy recalled being “completely out of breath”.

“I just pressed on, I do the breaststroke, I do front crawl, I do a floating stroke,” he recalled.

The call for help was made at about 6pm.

At around 8.30pm, ten hours after they first set out, the group were spotted and rescued. They had floated about 9 miles out to sea.

The audio was released with the family’s permission.

A forward commander who managed the operation said the family was in an “desperately dangerous position”.

“They were in genuine danger, and time was of the essence given how much time they had been in the water and with daylight fading.

“What the boy did was nothing short of extraordinary. His fortitude and resolve in those conditions were exceptional, and his actions were instrumental in bringing about a positive result.”

The sergeant also praised how the boy calmly conveyed key facts.

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

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