We Require a Aircraft to Locate Them’: Teenager’s Emergency Call to Aid Loved Ones Lost Off Australian Coast Disclosed

“We got lost out there,” young Austin Appelbee tells the triple-zero dispatcher, after swimming 2.5 miles in choppy, the sea and running 1.25 miles to get assistance for his kin.

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

“[It] was ages past … I think they’re far offshore. I think we must get a helicopter to go find them,” he states.

Emergency services have made public the recorded plea made in recent weeks after the teen departed from his relatives floating at sea off the WA coast to seek assistance.

His voice remains clear and calm, even as he details his fear for his kin.

“I don’t know what their condition is right now, and I’m terrified,” he informs the person on the line.

“Mum said to seek assistance … We were in serious danger.”

The Harrowing Ordeal

The holidaymakers had been pulled four kilometres out to sea in rough conditions while enjoying water sports.

His mum urged him to set out and get assistance, so the boy began, abandoning first his sinking craft then his unwieldy PFD to cover the remaining stretch.

After getting to the beach – following a four-hour swim – he sprinted for 2km to get to a cell phone.

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

“I’m sitting 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 completely exhausted. I have sunstroke, and I feel like I’m about to pass out.”

A Vacation Gone Wrong

The group was on vacation in Quindalup, two hundred kilometres south of Perth. They began their trip from Geographe Bay some time after 10am on a Friday in late January.

The woman later explained that they were enjoying themselves when the kids “went out a bit too far”. The wind picked up, they were separated from their equipment, and started being carried out.

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

The mother also spoke of having to make “an incredibly tough choice” to ask her son to swim ashore.

“I knew he was the strongest and he was able to manage it,” she commented.

The Rescue Effort

The youth described being “extremely winded”.

“I just keep swimming, I do breaststroke, I do front crawl, I do survival backstroke,” he said.

The call for help was made at approximately 6pm.

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

The audio was shared with the parents' permission.

A police sergeant who coordinated the operation said the family was in an “extremely dire situation”.

“They were in serious jeopardy, and time was absolutely critical given how long they had been in the water and with daylight fading.

“What the boy did was incredibly brave. His fortitude and resolve in those conditions were astonishing, and his actions were instrumental in bringing about a rescue.”

The commander also highlighted how the teenager calmly conveyed key facts.

When asked to describe the equipment for the rescue team, the teenager said: “They were coloured green and white.”

“And I’m not sure if it’s there, but they had this rod, and there was a fish on there. As we caught one.”