Club Wyndham: WorkSafe to investigate hotel at centre of teen Austin Appelbee’s heroic swim to rescue family

WorkSafe is investigating the South-West hotel that hired water sports equipment to a family which was subsequently washed out to sea and spent over nine hours in the ocean near Dunsborough. On Wednesday, WorkSafe WA Commissioner Sally North confirmed Club Wyndham — which hired paddleboards and a kayak to Joanne Appelbee and her three children Austin, 13, Beau, 12, and Grace, eight — was being investigated in connection to the dramatic ordeal. “WorkSafe has been made aware of the incident and is currently making preliminary enquiries,” the organisation said in a statement. Club Wyndham in Dunsborough has denied any wrongdoing. The Appelbee family was only rescued after 13-year-old son, Austin, swam 4km to shore to raise the alarm last Friday evening. The Appelbees got the sports equipment in the morning on Friday but were dragged out to sea in gradually deteriorating conditions. Despite several hours of paddling, were no match for the wild wind and unrelenting swell. After almost three hours, Joanne asked her eldest son, Austin, to try and get back to shore on a plastic kayak. “I knew it would be a long way, but the kayak kept taking on water,” Austin said. After about two hours, Austin decided to discard the kayak and shortly after, also took his life jacket and swam. “I was fighting rough seas, the kayak dumped me a million times, I thought I saw something in the water and I was really scared but I was just thinking I was going to make it.” Austin rotated between survival backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle for the next two hours before making it back to shore near Toby’s Inlet, 2km up the beach from where they had set off. But his ordeal wasn’t over. He sprinted back to the hotel where, at about 6pm, he used his mum’s phone to call triple-0. A search was launched but it wasn’t until about 8.40pm that a rescue the helicopter spotted the family. By then they had drifted approximately 14km out to sea. The family received first aid onboard before being transferred to ambulances and later Busselton Health Campus for medical assessment. Joanne said that while out in the ocean, she had tried to keep Beau and Grace entertained by singing and making jokes, however morale dipped as day turned into night. Joanne was equally ecstatic to learn Austin had made it to shore safely, having been unsure if it was him or the hotel that had alerted authorities. Naturaliste Volunteer Marine Rescue commander Paul Bresland and skipper Dan Crosbie were part of 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 family extended their immense gratitude to the multi-agency rescue mission and plans to meet and thank those responsible for saving them. The hotel finally broke its silence in a statement released late on Wednesday, saying its staff had no reason to be concerned when the family, from Gidgegannup, didn’t return the equipment that they set off with from the hotel at 11am. “Our team at Club Wyndham Dunsborough is thankful that a family who stayed at the resort is safe and recovering well after an emergency incident on Geographe Bay on Friday. We would like to acknowledge emergency services crews for their quick and professional action in this incident and commend the young guest for his heroic swim and for raising the alarm,” a spokesperson said. “As 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. 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.”