“COOL, CALM AND collected.”

That’s how the emergency call by 13-year-old Austin Appelbee has been described by the Western Australia Police Force, who have hailed Austin as a “little legend”.

Austin is credited with saving the lives of his mother and two younger siblings after he swam 4km in four hours to raise the alarm after his family were swept out to sea off the Australian coast.

His mother Joanne, originally from Co Monaghan but living in Perth in Australia, and his brother and sister remained in the water for up to 10 hours before their rescue.

The family were on holiday and using kayaks and paddle boards hired from their hotel at around noon when rough ocean and wind conditions started dragging them out to sea.

Joanne gave permission to Western Australian police to release Austin’s emergency call in the hope that it might educate on the “good things people can do in an emergency that might save other people’s lives”.

Police also noted that Joanne herself “did a great job”.

“She had two kids with her that she kept safe in the water, and she made a really difficult decision to get Austin to go for help, pretty amazing stuff,” said a host of Operation Podcast, a new podcast from the Western Australia Police Force which released the audio.

The podcast hosts described Austin’s call as a “textbook example of exactly what you should do in an emergency”.

“Honestly, this could save lives,” they added.

In the emergency call, Austin calmly explains how he and his family got lost at sea.

“We couldn’t get back to shore, and mum told me to go back to get help, and I haven’t seen them since, I think they’re kilometres out in sea,” Austin can be heard explaining.

“I think we need helicopters to go find them.

“I’m sitting on the beach right now, and I think I need an ambulance because I think I have hypothermia.

“I don’t know what their condition is right now, and I’m really scared.”

The podcast hosts praise Austin for communicating “so clearly”.

“So cool and calm and collected, when I would have been panicking, incredible stuff,” says one host.

Austin then goes on to explain that his kayak “had a bunch of water in it and started to sink”, at which point he decided to “ditch the kayak”.

He then took off his lifejacket and swam around four kilometres against the current.

“I feel like I’m about to pass out, I am dehydrated and I think I have heat stroke, and I’m really hungry,” he told the phone operator.

He added: “Mum said, ‘go get help’, because we’re in massive trouble.”

He also told the call operator that his mother and two siblings had a fishing rod and “there was a fish on there because we caught one”.

The host joked that he “loved the fact that Austin can’t help but put in that little bit bragging about the fact that he caught a fish”.

The family were on holiday in Quindalup, Western Australia.

They also praised Austin for overcoming so many hurdles.

“The sea conditions, and then his kayak sank, he had to ditch his life jacket and then swim the rest of the way. It’s absolutely inspiring.”

The hosts said the key points to take from the call is that the information was “delivered in a clear, calm and concise manner”.

“A lot of people that make calls are panicked, they’re screaming down the phones, “why aren’t you here?’

“The operator doesn’t know what’s going on and we need to establish exactly what happened so that we can send the right resources to the right location.

“He’s given times, conditions and all these important factors while under a lot of stress, in such a way that it’s allowed that call taker to easily coordinate and send help quickly.”

The hosts remarked that Austin is a “future police officer or even commissioner in the making”.

“We’re currently recruiting,” quipped one of the hosts.

“I know you’re not quite at the age just yet but start getting your application together, mate, because you’ve absolutely set the benchmark, and they’re the kind of people we want to be attracting for our future police force”.

The hosts also thanked the phone operator, Milly.

“I know she sounds very calm, but that’s part of the job, to keep everybody calm and keep that information flowing and to make sure that the best resources we have can get to where they need to be as quickly as possible.”