The miraculous feat of 13-year-old Austin Appelbee sped around the world when it broke. He swam 4km (2.49 miles) in the ocean that sees its fair share of sharks, for a period of four hours, and then ran 2 km to get help for his mother and two younger siblings who had been swept out to sea. The story resonated from London to New York, possibly because good news stories are so rare these days.
A time at the beach
It all started on the final morning of their holidays. This was Friday January 30, 2026, when Joanne Appelbee, her son Austin 13, other son Beau 12, and daughter Grace 8 went to enjoy a day at Quindalup Beach in Geographe Bay, Western Australia. Joan hired a blow-up kayak and two plastic paddle boards from the hotel. They booked a two-hour session from 10am to 12pm and, after covering themselves in sunscreen and putting on life jackets, they headed into the water at about 11am.
The danger
While the water “seemed nice and calm to begin with,” conditions gradually deteriorated. A strong wind arose and pushed the family out to sea. Before long, they realised that they were lost in a large ocean and drifting further out.
Image courtesy of RNZ News.
At first, it was Austin who struggled against the strengthening current on a paddle board, and as Joanne tried to guide him back to the beach, her board flipped and she lost a paddle. Beau then tried to tow them both in with the kayak, but in the chaos the second paddle became lost, and the kayak began taking on water.
As the wind drove them further from the shore, Austin traded his paddle board with Beau’s kayak and attempted to paddle them to safety but was no match for the unrelenting conditions. Despite their desperate attempts of paddling, they continued to be pushed further out.
A mother’s hard decision
As she clung to her blow-up paddleboard with her two terrified youngest children, she yelled out to her oldest boy Austin, who was battling the elements next to them on a plastic kayak. Joanne realised if the four of them had any chance of survival, Austin was their only hope. It was then she made that heart-wrenching decision to ask him to try and make his way back to shore to sound the alarm.
“It was one of the hardest decisions I have 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.
Austin’s obedience and courage
And so, he did what his mother asked. He turned his kayak for the shore, which, at this stage was about 4 km away leaving his mother, brother Beau, and little sister Grace clinging to their plastic paddleboards as the offshore wind took them further towards the horizon.
After two hours of paddling, Austin’s kayak took on more water, and it became too hard for him to continue with it. So, he abandoned it and started to swim but his lifejacket made swimming difficult. In an act of great courage, he took off his lifejacket let it float away and began to swim the remaining two kilometres. Remember, Austin is only thirteen years old. He rotated between survival backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle, for the next two hours. Eventually he made it to the shore near Toby’s Inlet, two kilometres along from where they had set off.
He has now revealed that prayer, singing Christian songs, and happy thoughts kept him going. Speaking to 7News Australia, he said: “I don’t think it was me who did it. It was God the whole time. “I kept praying and praying, and I said to God, ‘I’ll get baptised, I’ll get baptised.’”
ABC News reported, He acknowledged prayer, faith and belief in God all played a role in keeping him positive as he battled exhaustion and overcame fear on his mission to save his family. He told their reporter, “And at this time, you know, the waves are massive, and I have no life jacket on … I just kept thinking, ‘Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.’ He prayed as he battled through the waves. “I just said ‘not today, not today, I have to keep on going’.”
Austin’s call for help
Austin said his legs “collapsed” once he touched solid ground, but he quickly sprang into action again, sprinting as best he could. He ran the 2 km from the beach where he came ashore to his family’s picnic rug, and using his mum’s phone to call Triple Zero. It was now about 6pm.
The police released the recording of Austin’s triple zero call, and it is here below courtesy of Guardian Australia.
Joanne’s fear
Out in the ocean Joanne had been trying to keep Beau and Grace entertained by singing and making jokes, but morale began to slip as night started to fall.
“As it got darker, I thought, there’s no one coming to save us,” she recalled. “We were cold, we were shaking, and it was pretty terrifying for a while, then I lost my glasses, so I couldn’t see.”
Back on shore, as the rescue efforts got underway and time passed with no news, Austin began to fear the worst. “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.”
The rescue operation
Following Austin’s Triple Zero call, the Naturaliste Volunteer Marine Rescue commanded by Paul Bresland and skipper Dan Crosbie headed the multi-agency rescue mission involving the Water Police Coordination Centre in North Fremantle, South West Police, local marine rescue groups and the RAC rescue helicopter.
The picture below, was taken from the rescue helicopter. It shows the rescue boat approaching Joanne and her two children, now 14 Km from the shore.
Aout five minutes later, Austin received a call saying his mum and siblings had been found. “I thought it was fake. I didn’t believe it. I was really happy, but I couldn’t process it,” he said.
Joanne was equally ecstatic to learn Austin had made it to shore safely, having earlier been unsure if it was him or the hotel that alerted authorities. Details of how and when she learned he was safe were blurry for the mum, who said she couldn’t be more proud of Austin.
“We were extremely proud,” she said. “I’m speechless . . . to keep going for so long, he’s absolutely amazing,” she beamed.
The teenager had also earned high praise from his little brother.
“I’m proud of him. He normally struggles doing 350 metres, so about four kilometres is impressive, and I can’t be prouder of him as a younger brother,” Beau said.
The police praised the teenager for his “clear,” “articulate,” and “calm” demeanour in relaying necessary information during his emergency call.
As the remarkable details of the Appelbee family’s experience came to light, it triggered a significant emotional response from readers, viewers and listeners.
“I had goosebumps,” media researcher and lecturer Glynn Greensmith told ABC Regional Drive. As an academic specialising in how the media covers and influences mass shootings, Dr Greensmith said the spread of comparatively good news was unsurprising. “The news cycle is a never-ending sewer of terrible, and we risk becoming subsumed by that,” he said. “Something genuinely miraculous has happened. That’s not to be sniffed at; we all need that.”
All Safe
Image courtesy of the ABC
Conclusion
It is interesting to ponder on the character traits that Austin had developed by the tender age of thirteen that caused him to be obedient to his mother’s request to leave the relative safety and security of his family and start the epic and extremely dangerous journey back to the shore to get help. These character traits would have been formed by his parents and by his attendance at Mundaring Christian College (MCC) where he is in year 9.
His strong faith caused him to believe that God would protect him and enable him to get his family rescued. Psalm 46:1 states; God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
Kurt Mahlburg of The Daily Decoration writes. Courage, responsibility and self-sacrifice don’t appear out of nowhere. They are formed quietly over the years through family expectations, moral teaching, faith and example. Austin is living proof that the adults in his world got it right. Though he’s only just entered adolescence, Austin displayed the kind of masculinity the world sorely needs: one that protects rather than dominates, uses strength for others, shows courage without bravado, and endures without complaint. Austin didn’t swim to shore to prove anything; he did it because his family needed him. The instinct to put yourself between danger and loved ones is hard-wired into every man — and it’s something to nurture, not apologise for. And if we want our boys to grow into men of character, this is exactly the kind of masculinity we need to praise, defend and hand on to the next generation.
Austin believed that God saved the family that day. Dear reader, if you have any doubts about the hand of God’s protection being on this family, consider this: Joanne and her two youngest children were blown out into the ocean where they remained for seven hours on plastic blowup paddle boards, and when they were found, they were 14 km from land. Thirteen-year-old Austin spent 4 hours trying to get back to shore so that he could raise the alarm. After paddling for two hours his kayak had to be discarded when it filled with water. He discarded his lifejacket as well, because it made swimming difficult. He then swam for two hours during which, he covered the remaining two kms to reach shore. Austin failed his swimming test that very morning because he could not swim 350 metres.
