Austin Appelbee: Teen's anguish when he thought lifesaving four-hour swim was for nothing and family were dead

He had swum an incredible 4km to shore then sprinted 2km for help but was in tears when he called his dad to tell him that he had taken too long and the rest of the family were dead.

It had taken brave 13-year-old Austin Appelbee four hours to swim to the beach after he, his mum, brother and sister were dragged out into the ocean off Quindalup Beach near Dunsborough.

“I called Dad and was bawling, I finally realised that they were gone. I thought they were dead,” he said.

“I didn’t know where they were and how they were, and I thought they were dead.

“I had a lot of guilt in my heart because I thought I wasn’t fast enough.”

Exhausted, emotional and grieving, Austin then got the biggest rush of his life when told his courageous effort had brought the ultimate reward — mum Joanne, 12-year-old Beau and Grace, 8, had miraculously been found alive.

By now it was 8.30pm at the end of the school holidays and darkness had, until then, extinguished any hope Austin had left of rescuers finding his family alive.

They had all gone in the water about 11am, looking to spend about an hour splashing around before winding up their holiday and heading home to Gidgegannup.

They had been staying at Club Wyndham, from where they hired a kayak and two paddle boards. Thankfully they also put on life jackets.

While conditions were calm to begin with, they gradually deteriorated until the family found themselves struggling to get back to shore.

As they battled the worsening weather and a strong current, they flipped a paddle board, lost two paddles and the kayak started taking on water.

Despite paddling furiously for a couple of hours, the four family members were no match for the unrelenting current and swell and were being swept further out to sea.

It was then that Joanne made the tormenting decision to ask Austin to get back to shore for help.

“One of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make was to say to Austin, ‘Try and get to shore to get some help’, because it was getting serious really quickly,” the 47-year-old said.

It was early to mid-afternoon and Austin took the kayak, leaving his mum, brother and sister clinging to the plastic paddle boards.

However, the kayak kept taking on water and flipping over.

“I knew it would be a long way but the kayak kept taking on water,” Austin said.

“I was fighting rough seas, the kayak dumped me a million times, I thought I saw something in the water and I was really scared but I was just thinking I was going to make it.”

After about two hours, he decided to discard the kayak and shortly after, took the life jacket off too.

Austin rotated between survival backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle for the next two hours, and did what he could to occupy his mind with happy thoughts.

“I was thinking about all my friends at school and friends of my Christian Youth, and I just said, ‘Not today’,” he said.

“At one point I was thinking about Thomas the Tank Engine, just trying to get the happiest things in my head.

“I’ve got a girlfriend and I was thinking about her the whole time. She gave me her hair lackeys and I was just looking at that the whole time.”

Eventually, Austin made it to shore near Toby’s Inlet, 2km up from where they had set off.

His legs “collapsed” once he touched solid ground but he quickly sprung into action again, sprinting back to the hotel where, at about 6pm, he used his mum’s phone to call triple-0.

“I said, ‘I need helicopters, I need planes, I need boats. My family’s out at sea’. I think it was just a lot of shock,” Austin, who had not eaten at all that day, said.

By now Joanne, Beau and Grace had drifted 14km out to sea.

Joanne admits that she had all but given up hope.

“As it got darker I thought, ‘There’s no one coming to save us’,” she said.

“We were cold, we were shaking and it was pretty terrifying for a while, then I lost my glasses so I couldn’t see.”

She had kept her younger two entertained by singing and making jokes but now morale was sinking.

Then Joanne spotted a rescue boat and despite a giant wave separating them briefly, they got safely aboard.

Joanne, Beau and Grace were then even more ecstatic to find that Austin had also survived.

“We were extremely proud,” Joanne said. “I’m speechless ... to keep going for so long, he’s absolutely amazing.”

A cheeky but proud Beau was also happy to chime in.

“I’m proud of him. He normally struggles doing 350m, so about 4km is impressive and I can’t be more proud of him as a younger brother,” he said.

For his part, Austin was in shock at the news of their rescue — which came about five minutes after his tearful call to Dad.

“I thought it was fake. I didn’t believe it. I was really happy but I couldn’t process it,” the brave teenager said.

Aside from blistering, swelling and muscle pain, the family managed to avoid injuries.

And Austin was the toast of the school on Monday when he turned up sore in a wheelchair and on crutches to share his amazing story of survival.

Incredibly, his father revealed that Austin had failed swimming lessons over the holidays.