A Western Australian hotel is under investigation after a family who borrowed recreational watersports equipment went missing at sea for hours, with a teenage boy's heroic four-kilometre swim ultimately triggering the rescue operation.
Teen's Exhausting Swim to Shore
Thirteen-year-old Austin Appelbee bravely swam through four kilometres of rough surf to alert authorities that his mother and two younger siblings were stranded, clinging to paddleboards, off the coast of Western Australia's South West region on Friday.
The alarm was only raised hours later when Austin, who had recently failed the state-run swimming program VacSwim, made the exhausting journey back to shore and sprinted to alert police around 6pm.
"I said, 'I need helicopters, I need planes, I need boats. My family's out at sea'," Austin recalled. "I was very calm about it. I think it was just a lot of shock."
Family Overcome by Changing Conditions
Mother Joanne Appelbee explained that the family had signed out two paddleboards and a kayak from Club Wyndham in Dunsborough for a scheduled 10am to 12pm block but did not actually get out onto the water until just after 11am.
She described how the family were overcome by the conditions and could not return to the beach as planned, despite initially calm waters that changed "in the blink of an eye."
Joanne, son Beau (12), and daughter Grace (8) were eventually found by a rescue helicopter approximately 14 kilometres off the coast around 8.30pm, having spent more than eight hours in the water.
Multiple Investigations Underway
WorkSafe has confirmed it is aware of the incident and is currently making preliminary inquiries with Club Wyndham, located approximately 2.5 hours south of Perth.
Western Australia Police have also referred the matter to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority for further examination.
The hotel has launched its own internal safety review, telling media: "Our guests are free to use resort equipment on a complimentary basis until late in the day."
"Our staff had no reason to be alarmed. Guests are aware that the beach is outside the resort grounds, is unpatrolled, and that there is no direct view of the beach from the resort," the statement continued. "However as a matter of course the resort is conducting a safety review to minimise the risk of any similar incident occurring in the future."
Safety Lessons from the Ordeal
Joanne Appelbee emphasised that swimming lessons were vital and credited life jackets with saving the family "many times over" as they were knocked about by waves during their ordeal.
The mother suggested practical improvements hotels could implement, including supplying dry bags for mobile phones "to take out with you or maybe have better policies and procedures to follow up on people."
The incident has highlighted important questions about recreational equipment policies, beach safety awareness, and emergency response protocols for coastal tourism operators.
