Tag: Australia

A 13-year-old boy swam for nearly four hours through cold, rough waters to save his mother and two younger siblings after they were swept out to sea off the coast of Western Australia, police said.

The family, from Perth, were kayaking and paddleboarding on Friday morning when strong winds and choppy ocean conditions began dragging them farther offshore.

The teenager, Austin Appelbee, swam about four kilometres to shore to raise the alarm.

“The waves are massive and I had no life jacket on. I just kept thinking… just keep swimming, just keep swimming”, Austin said.

“And then I finally I made it to shore and I hit the bottom of the beach and I just collapsed.”

Austin said he initially set off in an inflatable kayak while wearing a life jacket, but abandoned both after the kayak began taking on water and the jacket slowed his swimming. 

He said he focused on staying positive as he made his way to shore.

The family had entered the water before noon. Austin raised the alarm at around 6 pm, and a police helicopter located his mother, Joanne Appelbee, 47, his 12-year-old brother Beau and eight-year-old sister Grace at about 8:30 pm.

Authorities said the family had drifted around 14 kilometres from Quindalup and spent approximately 10 hours in the water.

“The actions of the 13-year-old boy cannot be praised highly enough, his determination and courage ultimately saved the lives of his mother and siblings,” Police Inspector James Bradley said.

Joanne Appelbee told reporters she made the decision to send Austin for help because she could not leave all her children stranded at sea.

“One of the hardest decisions I ever had to make was to say to Austin, ‘Try and get to shore and get some help. This could get really serious really quickly,’” she told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

She said she was initially confident he would reach land, but grew increasingly worried as night fell and no rescue arrived.

“We kept positive, we were singing and we were joking and we were treating it as a bit of a game until the sun started to go down and that’s when it was getting very choppy. Very big waves,” she said.

By the time they were rescued, all three were shivering, and Beau had lost sensation in his legs due to the cold, she added.

“I have three babies. All three made it. That was all that mattered,” she said.

Forum social media giant Reddit has challenged in the High Court of Australia the new regulation that prohibits children under the age of 16 from creating social media accounts.

The law, which took effect on Wednesday, affects ten platforms, including Reddit, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Threads, Twitch and Kik.

The Australian government and advocacy groups have supported the prohibition as a step towards protecting children from detrimental content and algorithms. However, Reddit said it would comply with the law but intends to contest it in court, arguing that it has considerable repercussions for privacy and political rights.

“Even with good intentions, this legislation is misguided,” Reddit said in an update on its site. “There are more effective methods for the Australian government to achieve our mutual goal of safeguarding youth.”

This marks the second legal challenge against the prohibition. Previously, a pair of 15-year-olds from New South Wales filed a lawsuit, asserting that the ban infringes upon the “implied freedom of communication regarding governmental and political issues.” 

The high court has consented to hear the case at a date yet to be determined next year. 

Meanwhile, Communications Minister Anika Wells said that the government would not be swayed by legal challenges. “We will not be daunted by big tech. On behalf of Australian parents, we will remain resolute,” she said while addressing the parliament.

Reddit, on the other hand, also pointed out possible concerns regarding the law’s verification methods. The platform noted that it necessitates “intrusive and potentially insecure verification processes for both adults and minors”, which separates teens from “age-appropriate community experiences”. 

It further mentioned that the law, which made Australia the first nation to impose a blanket prohibition – moving away from a consent-based approach – establishes “an illogical framework regarding which platforms are encompassed and which are not”.

The ban, which has garnered international attention, has other nations, including the European Union and the state of Florida in the US, also mulling measures to restrict children’s access to social media.

An Australian man has died from an “extremely rare” rabies-like infection transmitted by a bat bite, health officials said Thursday.

The man in his 50s was bitten by a bat carrying Australian bat lyssavirus several months ago, the health service in New South Wales said.

“We express our sincere condolences to the man’s family and friends for their tragic loss,” NSW Health said in a statement.

“While it is extremely rare to see a case of Australian bat lyssavirus, there is no effective treatment for it.”

The man from northern New South Wales, who has not been identified, was this week listed as being in a “critical condition” in hospital.

Officials said he was treated following the bite and they were investigating to see whether other exposures or factors played a role in his illness.

The virus — a close relative to rabies, which does not exist in Australia — is transmitted when bat saliva enters the human body through a bite or scratch.

First symptoms can take days or years to appear.

Early signs of the disease are flu-like — a headache, fever and fatigue, the health service said.

The victim’s condition rapidly deteriorates, leading to paralysis, delirium, convulsions and death.

There were only three previous cases of human infection by Australian bat lyssavirus since it was first identified in 1996 — all of them fatal.

People should avoid touching or handling bats, as any bat in Australia could carry lyssavirus, the New South Wales health service said.

Only wildlife handlers who are trained, protected, and vaccinated should interact with the flying mammals, it warned.

“If you or someone you know is bitten or scratched by a bat, you need to wash the wound thoroughly for 15 minutes right away with soap and water and apply an antiseptic with anti-virus action,” it said.

“Patients then require treatment with rabies immunoglobulin and rabies vaccine.”

The virus has been found in species of flying foxes and insect-eating microbats, NSW Health said.

The type of bat involved in the latest fatality has not been identified.

Australian bat lyssavirus was first identified in May 1996 by scientists at the national science agency CSIRO, who examined brain tissue from a flying fox that had been showing “nervous signs” in New South Wales.

Later that year, a bat handler in Queensland became ill.

“The initial numbness and weakness suffered in her arm progressed to coma and death,” the science agency said in an online document on the virus.

“Two further cases in Queensland — a woman in 1998 and an eight year old boy in 2013 — resulted in death after being bitten or scratched by a bat,” it said.

There are subtle differences between the lysssavirus in flying foxes and insectivorous bats, the science agency has found.

Infected bats can transmit the virus to people, other bats and other mammals.

An Australian couple have criticised Qatar Airways after a blanket-draped corpse was seated next to them during a long-haul flight on their way to Venice for a vacation.