A teenage boy who launched a heroic rescue bid to save his family was unable to get help on a Western Australia beach after approaching people who could not speak English.
Austin Appelbee, 13, swam four kilometres through treacherous waters after his family was swept out to sea, embarking on a life-threatening mission to raise the alarm.
After reaching shore, the teenager struggled to get help, saying many of the beachgoers he approached could not speak English.
“There was a lot of foreign people on the beach, so I couldn’t really get much help,” he told reporters.
Joanne Appelbee and her three children had been enjoying a holiday at a beach near Quindalup, around 250 kilometres south of Perth.
On Friday, the family hired a kayak and two inflatable paddleboards for what appeared to be a calm final outing of their trip.
However, conditions quickly worsened while they were on the water.
As the waves intensified, the family found themselves being pushed steadily further away from shore.
Austin Appelbee, 13, swam four kilometres through treacherous waters after his family was swept out to sea
|ABC NEWS
At least one paddleboard capsized in the chaos, with two oars lost as conditions worsened.
Confronted with an increasingly desperate situation, Ms Appelbee was forced to make a devastating decision.
“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,” she recalled.
The Year Nine student set off alone towards land in his kayak, but around two hours into the ordeal, powerful waves began flooding the vessel.
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Two hours into the ordeal, powerful waves began flooding the 13-year-old's vessel
| GETTYRealising he could not continue, the teenager made the agonising decision to abandon both the kayak and his lifejacket, which were slowing him down as he battled through the water.
Austin alternated between survival backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle as he battled through the gruelling swim.
His younger brother later revealed the teenager had previously struggled to swim just 350 metres, underlining the scale of the challenge he faced.
To stay focused, Austin kept his spirits up by thinking about his girlfriend, his friends and Thomas the Tank Engine.
After eventually reaching the sand near Toby’s Inlet, his legs collapsed beneath him from exhaustion.
Despite barely being able to stand, Austin then ran two kilometres to the family’s hotel to call emergency services.
“I said, ‘I need helicopters, I need planes, I need boats, my family’s out at sea’,” Austin told 7News.
Emergency services launched a major search operation involving water police, marine rescue volunteers and a helicopter.
Ms Appelbee and her two younger children were left stranded in the water for between eight and 10 hours, relying on life jackets to stay afloat.
As night fell, the mother feared her eldest son had not survived his perilous swim to shore.
A rescue boat eventually located the family just five minutes after a wave separated them.
Premier of Western Australia Roger Cook hailed the teenager as a 'true hero'
|GETTY
All four were taken to Busselton Health Campus, where Austin collapsed from exhaustion after raising the alarm.
Premier of Western Australia Roger Cook hailed the teenager as a “true hero”.
Austin's comment on the number of foreign people on the beach sparked a hostile backlash on social media, with some users calling for mass deportations.
Others noted that Western Australia’s southwest coast attracts large numbers of international tourists during the summer months.
Several commenters urged critics to focus instead on the boy’s extraordinary bravery and life-saving actions.
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