Joanne Appelbee, originally from Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, had been holidaying with her children when rough ocean and wind conditions dragged their kayaks and paddle boards far from shore shortly after noon on Friday.
“It was nothing short of a miracle that we made it,” she said.
The family, Ms Appelbee, her sons Austin (13) and Beau (12), and eight‑year‑old daughter Grace were carried kilometres out to sea as waves grew higher and conditions deteriorated.
She said the family “just went for a paddle close to shore” for about an hour before they were due to head home from the holiday.
“But one of the kids got a bit too far out, so I went out to call him back in. Then the winds picked up and the waves started, and we lost some oars, and it just escalated from there, basically,” said Ms Appelbee.
“We had no food, no water, we were in plenty of water but we couldn’t drink that,” she said. “We fell in [to the water] so many times, the waves were so high and those kids just kept holding on.
“We kept singing, we sang about Moana. We were looking for dolphins to see if that could help us back in. And when it got dark, that’s when it really hit home, we might not make it,” she told RTÉ.
Austin’s mother Joanne Appelbee with her children (l-r) 12-year-old Beau, daughter Grace (8) and hero Austin (13)
News in 90 seconds – Tuesday 3rd February
With the situation worsening, Ms Appelbee made the agonising decision to send her eldest child for help.
“Look, it was one of the hardest decisions I ever had to make. But with the four of us out there – my little daughter Grace, she was only eight, and Beau, and Austin being 13 – I couldn’t leave them to go back to shore. So I had to ask Austin if he could try and make his way back to raise the alarm.
“I didn’t expect it to turn out the way it did, or to be such a long, drawn‑out process, but at the end of the day we’re all here to tell the tale. That’s the main thing.
“It’s remarkable that he was able to go first with the kayak, with his life jacket on him, then decide to swim, and at the very end have to run to get help.
“What was going through my mind during that time was just hoping he would make it – hoping someone would find us – and trying to keep the other two calm.”
Austin initially set off on an inflatable kayak, but it began taking on water. He abandoned it, removed his life jacket because it slowed him down, and began swimming the 4km toward land.
“The waves are massive and I have no life jacket on. I just kept thinking, ‘Just keep swimming, just keep swimming,’” he said. “Then, I finally made it to shore and I hit the bottom of the beach and I just collapsed.”
He reached land around 6pm and raised the alarm.
A search helicopter located Ms Appelbee and her two younger children at 8.30pm, clinging to a paddle board and wearing life jackets. They had drifted 14km from Quindalup and had been in the water for up to 10 hours.
Ms Appelbee said that as the hours passed she began to dread that her son hadn’t made it to shore.
“As time went on I just wasn’t sure if Austin had actually made it, or if I’d made the right choice.
“All those things go through your head. I didn’t hear his story until it was recounted to me later that day, and I’m amazed at him, at his bravery for doing it, and at what must have been going through his head as he swam through those waters.
“But I knew he could do it. He is that sort of child, if he’s going to put his head to something, he’s going to get it done. It’s a good job he did.
“I think there were many people watching over us, to be honest with you, and it’s nothing short of a miracle that we made it.”
Ms Appelbee said the three of them were shivering when found, and Beau had lost sensation in his legs from the cold.
When the plane, helicopter and boat came into sight, she said she felt a surge of relief until a wave separated her from her children.
“It was the most fantastic feeling in the world to see the plane, then the helicopter, and eventually the boat coming for us. But at that stage we all got thrown off the paddle boards, and one of the waves took the kids away from me, so I couldn’t get to them.
“That was extremely frightening, because I could only hear one of them, and Beau, my 12‑year‑old, had told me not long before that he couldn’t feel his legs. Hypothermia was probably setting in. It was very, very frightening.”
Now home safe and dry she added that she hopes to see her family and friends in Carrickmacross “very soon”.
Local police inspector James Bradley said the actions of Austin “cannot be praised highly enough”.
“His determination and courage ultimately saved the lives of his mother and siblings,” he said.