The Australian Shark-Incident Database has recorded that between 1791 and April 2018 there were 1,068 shark attacks in Australia with 237 of them being fatal.[1]
In 2021 Australian authorities pushed to rebrand shark attacks as “negative encounters” or “interactions” to boost conservation efforts and alter perceptions of sharks as vicious.[2]
Since shark netting began in 1937, the number of deaths from sharks on beaches has been reduced in New South Wales, with only one fatal attack on a netted beach during that time. In Queensland there has not been a fatal attack on a netted beach since nets were introduced in the 1960s.[3]
Precautions against attacks
The Australian Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts states precautions which can be taken to reduce the risk of shark attacks.[4] These include avoiding swimming far from the shore, at the mouth of a river or on drop-offs to deeper water; avoiding swimming in dirty water, alone or with domestic animals, near people fishing, or at dusk or night; and to leave the water if schools of fish behave erratically or group in large numbers. The Australian Institute of Marine Science also states many of these and other precautions including not wearing jewelry or reflective clothing while swimming, and not swimming with any bleeding wounds.[5]
A surfer was mauled by a white shark while surfing at Crescent Head on the NSW Mid North Coast. He suffered severe injuries to his right arm but surgeons expected it would be saved.[6]
Unnamed, 25
23 June 2021
A surfer was attacked by an unidentified species off the coast of Leeman.[7]
Five km offshore from Stanley, Tasmania A ten year old boy was grabbed by a shark and pulled into the water from a 6m fishing boat. The boy’s father jumped into the water and retrieved the child, who suffered lacerations to his arm and cuts to his head and chest.[9][10] Appears the child’s lifejacket protected the boy, which was shredded.[11]
Wil Schroeter, 59
17 January 2020
Wil Schroeter, a 59-year-old father of 2, from Albion Park, bitten around the foot while surfing at Windang Beach.[12]
Blowes and friends were surfing at Fishery Bay, 35 km from Port Lincoln in South Australia when a 6m Great White attacked. Chris' life was saved when his friends wrapped a leg rope as a tourniquet until Blowes was air lifted to the Royal Adelaide Hospital. He lost his left leg and was clinically dead (his heart stopped for 90 minutes following the attack) but has made a remarkable recovery.
Paddy Trumbull, 60
13 February 2010
Trumbull, a 60-year-old grandmother from Sydney, survived a shark attack off northeastern Australia. She suffered severe lacerations to her buttocks and lost several pints of blood in the attack, which took place on the afternoon of Saturday, February 13, 2010, while she and her husband were snorkeling off Dent Island in Queensland.[13]
