‘I’m extremely tired’: Austin Appelbee’s triple zero call released

The triple zero call made by Perth teenager Austin Appelbee to save his family stranded out at sea has been released more than a week after his heroic efforts first made headlines.

Austin, 13, kayaked and swam four kilometres in rough conditions, and then ran two kilometres, determined to make it to a phone and rescue his mother, Joanne, and siblings, Beau, 12, and Grace, 8, who he had hours earlier left clinging to a paddleboard.

During the 6pm call, Austin can be heard asking for a helicopter to come and rescue his family, who had set out from Geographe Bay in Quindalup, a popular holiday spot in Western Australia, around 11am that day with two hired paddleboards and a kayak, before being caught in rough seas.

“We got swept out to sea and we got lost out there,” Austin said.

“We got lost around about, I don’t know what time it was, but it was a very long time ago, we couldn’t get back to shore and mum told me to go back to get help … we’re in massive trouble.

“I haven’t seen them since, I think they’re kilometres out in sea, I think we need helicopters to go find them.

“I don’t know what their condition is right now, and I’m really scared.”

Austin also asks for an ambulance, stating he was worried he had hypothermia.

He also told the operator about his efforts to get help, detailing how his kayak had taken on water and started to sink as he began paddling back to shore.

“I had to take off my life jacket, and I had to swim around about four kilometres, facing the current and I’m extremely tired, I have heat stroke and I feel like I’m about to pass out, very dizzy,” he said.

Shortly after making the lifesaving call, Austin was cared for by some “nice ladies” on the beach who gave him food for the first time that day before he passed out from exhaustion.

He was taken to hospital and given fluids as the search for his family began.

Around 2½ hours later, at 8.30pm that night, his family members were spotted by a helicopter 14 kilometres out at sea.

Joanne said the rescue boat arrived about five minutes after she and her two children had become separated in the dark by a big wave.

“It was pretty terrifying for a while,” she said.

“I knew we were extremely far out, it was hard to even make out lights on the shore.”

In the days since the rescue on January 30, Austin’s name has become recognisable across the country and around the world.

He told 9News Perth he had been stopped for photographs.

“It was Spudshed, 10pm at night and on a Friday evening and people wanted photos,” he said.

His heroic actions have also led to the chance to meet his own heroes – members of the Wallabies – and an invitation to watch the Rugby Sevens.

He was also invited for a test drive in his dream car, stating: “I hopped in the driver’s seat and I revved it up a little bit – very loud.”

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