Work Safe WA is making ‘initial enquiries’ into the hotel that hired out a kayak and inflatable paddleboards to a family who was washed out to sea and later rescued. The Appelbee family was on holiday in Quindalup, 200km (125 miles) south of Perth, when strong winds pushed their vessels offshore from Geographe Bay on Friday afternoon. Joanne Appelbee, the children’s mother, made “one of the hardest decisions” to send her 13-year-old son, Austin, to swim four hours through tumultuous waters to raise the alarm. After the boy made it safely to shore and alerted emergency services, his mother, brother Beau, 12, and sister Grace, eight, were found at about 8.30pm, drifting in the ocean and clinging to a paddleboard about 14km (9 miles) offshore.