‘We Need a Chopper to Go Find Them’: Adolescent’s Distress Call to Aid Relatives Lost Off Down Under Coast Unveiled

“We became disoriented out there,” young Austin Appelbee informs the emergency operator, after swimming four kilometres in choppy, open ocean and jogging two kilometres to summon rescue for his family.

The call taker inquires how long has gone by since he began.

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

Authorities have released the emergency phone call made last month after the boy departed from his relatives adrift at sea off the WA coast to find rescuers.

His tone remains steady and composed, even as he voices his worry for his family.

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

“Mum said to find rescue … We were in massive trouble.”

The Harrowing Ordeal

The mother and children had been swept 4km out to sea in stormy conditions while enjoying water sports.

His mother urged him to take his kayak and locate rescue, so the youth set off, abandoning first his waterlogged vessel then his bulky flotation device to swim the distance.

After getting to the beach – four hours later – he raced for 1.25 miles to get to a mobile phone.

“Hello, my name is Austin … I have a brother and sister, Beau and Grace. Beau is 12 and Grace is eight,” he explains the operator.

“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 a dangerously low body temperature … I’m really, I’m utterly fatigued. I have heatstroke, and I feel like I’m about to pass out.”

A Holiday Turned Crisis

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

The woman later recalled that they were playing around when the children “went out a bit too far”. The conditions worsened, they dropped their paddles, and started drifting.

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

The mother also described having to make “an incredibly tough choice” to send her son to make the swim for help.

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

The Successful Mission

The teenager explained being “completely out of breath”.

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

The emergency call was made at approximately 6pm.

At roughly 8.30pm, many hours after they first began, the stranded individuals were located and saved. They had drifted about 14km out to sea.

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

A senior officer who oversaw the operation said the group was in an “incredibly perilous state”.

“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 Austin did was nothing short of extraordinary. His bravery and courage in those conditions were exceptional, and his actions were instrumental in bringing about a rescue.”

The sergeant also praised how the youth effectively communicated critical information.

When asked to describe the boards for the search crew, the teenager said: “They were green and white.”

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