Thirteen-year-old Austin Appelbee swam for four hours to reach the shore to raise the alarm and save his mother and two younger siblings, who had been left adrift at sea, out of at Geographe Bay in the south of Western Australia, at the mercy of the waves, while paddle surfing.
"I didn't think I was a hero - I just did what I did", Austin told the BBC.
Throughout the last two hours, "I was thinking about things that have happened in my life. At one point, I was thinking about Thomas the Tank Engine, I was trying to think about the happiest things. Not the bad things that would distract me and bring me out further."
"I just said, not today, not today, not today. I have to keep on going," Austin said to TV News' Australia partner Channel 7.
"I was thinking about mum, Beau and Grace. I was also thinking about my friends and my girlfriend - I have a really good bunch of friends," he said to BBC.
"When I hit the floor I thought, how am I on land right now - is this a dream? Then I had another thought: my family 'could still be alive out there - I have to go save them'."
"When I didn't know where they were, I thought they were dead. I had a lot of guilt in my heart; I thought I hadn't been fast enough," he added.
He certainly doesn't see himself as a hero, despite what people keep telling him. It was, he acknowledged, a "tough battle".
