The Irish mother of an Australian boy who swam for four hours through choppy waters off western Australia to get help for his family has said she is "amazed" at her son's bravery and added she "knew he could do it".
13-year-old Austin Appelbee made it across 4km of ocean to raise the alarm after his mother Joanne, who is originally from Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, and two younger siblings were swept out to sea.
Speaking to RTÉ’s Six One, Joanne Appelbee described the 10-hour ordeal and said they were "dragged out very quickly".
Ms Appelbee said it was "one of the hardest decisions" she ever had to make to ask Austin to swim towards shore to raise the alarm.
She said she did not expect it to be "such a long and drawn out process" but added "we are all back to tell the tale, so that is the main thing".
Ms Appelbee said her other two children, 12-year-old Beau, and eight-year-old Grace, were "little heroes" during the ordeal.
"It was nothing short of a miracle that we made it," she said.
"We had no food, no water, we were in plenty of water but we couldn’t drink that.
"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," Ms Appelbee said.
She said seeing the rescue team was the "most fantastic feeling".
Ms Appelbee added she hopes to see her family and friends in Carrickmacross "very soon".
