Trish Cook (Bullwinkel, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to pay tribute to a young man from my electorate of Bullwinkel who I describe as 'superhuman'. Recently, while on a holiday in our beautiful south-west, the Appleby family found themselves in a terrible oceanic nightmare. Pushed kilometres out to sea in a kayak and inflatable paddle board by fierce offshore winds, they drifted into the open ocean. As night approached, they were in a race against time, and it was in this moment of crisis that 13-year-old Austin Appleby showed his courage. At his own mother's request, a request she describes as the hardest decision of her life, Austin set out alone to save his family. He paddled and swam for four gruelling hours. When he finally hit the sand at Quindalup Beach, he didn't collapse; he ran. He ran two kilometres to find a phone, and, with maturity far beyond his years, he directed emergency services to his mother; his brother, Beau; and his sister, Grace. Because of Austin's grit and his refusal to give up, four lives were saved that night.

We often talk about the resilience of the next generation. Well, here we have it. Austin Appleby is the living embodiment of resilience. He is a hero in every sense of the word, and I know that the whole House joins me in commending him for his bravery and wishing the Appleby family a peaceful recovery.