Long before drones patrolled Australian beaches, sharks were etched into the nation's collective memory as a source of both dread and fascination. A wave of shark incidents in 2026, including a serious attack at Sydney's Coogee Beach, has reignited a debate that historian Anna Clark traces back tens of thousands of years — one that pits scientific understanding of sharks as vital ocean predators against the raw, primal fear they provoke in swimmers and surfers.
According to Clark, a professor of history at the University of Technology Sydney, statistics show that far more beach-goers drown or are injured in other ways than are killed by sharks, yet it is the shark that dominates public anxiety about the sea. Government data has recorded a rising number of dangerous shark interactions in recent years, and anecdotal reports suggest many minor encounters go unrecorded altogether, meaning the true scale of the phenomenon remains uncertain.
The 2026 Coogee attack, in which a 35-year-old woman was severely injured and airlifted to hospital, forced the temporary closure of several Sydney beaches. In the aftermath, NSW Premier Chris Minns weighed a cull of bull sharks while pledging to keep protections in place for great white sharks, and the state government committed AU$34m to deploying AI-powered shark-spotting drones year-round across 70 beaches, alongside new SharkSmart monitoring stations.
Why do sharks provoke such deep fear in Australia?
The unease long predates modern beach culture. Rock art in Western Australia, estimated to be tens of thousands of years old, includes depictions of hammerhead and tiger sharks, while engravings on the cliffs above a First Nations fishing site known as Marley, near Sydney's Bondi Beach, appear to show a shark encounter. One carving stretching eight metres across the sandstone appears to angle towards a human-like figure, which researchers believe may represent an attack.
European arrivals recorded similar apprehension. The explorer William Dampier named a stretch of Western Australia's coast Shark Bay in 1699 after being struck by what he described as their "abundance". When the First Fleet reached Sydney Harbour in 1788, officer Watkin Tench wrote of encountering what he called sharks of a monstrous size.
"sharks of a monstrous size"
Colonial newspapers went on to catalogue the fear these animals inspired. One account described a shark attacking a swimmer in Cockle Bay, seizing him by the arm before releasing its grip, and characterised the animal as voracious.
"voracious"
Another report told of a shark dissected to reveal an entire pelican inside its stomach, while the most notorious case involved a tiger shark caught alive off Coogee, which after several days in captivity regurgitated a tattooed human arm. The discovery caused public alarm until tests showed the limb belonged to a murder victim who had been dismembered and dumped at sea.
How did fear turn into government policy?
As surf-bathing grew popular at the turn of the 20th century, the responsibility for managing shark risk fell largely on swimmers themselves. Authorities recommended surf lifesaving clubs be equipped with first aid kits but otherwise advised the public to avoid bathing at dangerous hours, in isolated places, and going too far out.
"bathing at dangerous hours, in isolated places, and going too far out"
That approach shifted after a cluster of attacks in the 1920s. Sydney recorded two fatal shark attacks within a single month in 1922, followed by a further 13 attacks at beaches in Sydney and Newcastle between 1924 and 1934. The NSW Shark Menace Advisory Committee noted this amounted to an average of only one attack per year, but public alarm outpaced the statistics.
Local councils responded with their own measures. Coogee installed steel cables and nets across a large section of the bay, and similar swimming enclosures appeared at protected beaches in Sydney, Port Phillip Bay and Perth. More elaborate proposals — shark baiting, bombing, bubble curtains, concrete barriers and electric fences — were rejected as impractical or unproven. Following further attacks in Sydney, authorities eventually settled on what the era's officials called the systematic meshing of city beaches.
"systematic meshing"
These nets were designed not to enclose swimmers but to run parallel to the shoreline, catching and killing sharks that approached. With no attacks recorded in the following decades, the meshing program was extended to Newcastle, the Central Coast and Wollongong, and Queensland adopted a comparable system of beach nets and baited drum lines during the 1960s.
What changed the conversation from attacks to conservation?
For much of the 20th century, there was little organised resistance to lethal shark control, and prevailing sentiment held that a dead shark was a safe shark. Big-game fishers embraced the pursuit of large sharks as sport. Over time, however, scientists began documenting the ecological toll of mass shark removal, identifying several species as keystone predators essential to marine ecosystem health even as populations of some became critically endangered.
As research accumulated, official language shifted too, with authorities increasingly describing human-shark encounters as "incidents" rather than "attacks" — a change intended to reflect a more measured, less sensational understanding of the risk.
How has the recent spate of incidents reshaped the debate?
The tension between conservation science and public fear resurfaced sharply in 2026. According to , four shark attacks struck New South Wales within 48 hours in January 2026, three of them in Sydney, prompting officials to close numerous beaches, and bite-image analysis reported by the national broadcaster's news service identified bull sharks as responsible for those incidents.
The Coogee attack that followed in June left the victim with critical injuries to her left leg and arms, according to the national broadcaster's coverage, which noted Randwick City Council estimated the shark involved measured three to four metres. Randwick beaches were closed for 24 hours and reopened only once authorities judged conditions safe, with lifeguards and jet skis maintaining heavy patrols in the water, as reported by .
has also reported that Australia averages around 20 shark incidents a year with fewer than three fatalities, according to conservation data, while the national broadcaster's Shark-Incident Database recorded 559 bites in Australian waters between 2000 and 2025. Most incidents, noted, occur along the country's eastern and southeastern coastlines, and this year has seen a marked rise compared with previous ones.
Separately, a rise in social media-driven risk-taking has added a new dimension to the debate. Content creators seeking viral footage have increasingly staged close encounters with sharks, a trend documented after a Brazilian influencer was bitten while filming a shark-diving video, with scientists warning that such behaviour is contributing to rising incident numbers worldwide.
What happens next?
Western Australia has opened a review of restrictions on shark-spotting drones following its own attack in mid-2026, according to , signalling that policymakers are considering responses that go beyond temporary beach closures. A decision on whether to loosen those curbs is expected once the review concludes.
In New South Wales, the rollout of AI-powered drones across 70 beaches continues, alongside consideration by Premier Minns of a targeted cull of bull sharks, even as great white sharks remain a protected species. Clark's research suggests that, absent more robust long-term data on shark populations and behaviour, the underlying tension between public safety and conservation is unlikely to be resolved soon.
Key Facts
- Rock art in Western Australia depicting hammerhead and tiger sharks is estimated to be tens of thousands of years old.
- Sydney recorded two fatal shark attacks in one month in 1922 and 13 more between 1924 and 1934.
- A 35-year-old woman suffered critical leg and arm injuries in the June 2026 Coogee Beach attack, involving a shark estimated at three to four metres long.
- Australia averages around 20 shark incidents annually with fewer than three fatalities, and 559 bites were recorded nationwide between 2000 and 2025.
- NSW has committed AU$34m to year-round AI drone surveillance across 70 beaches, while Western Australia reviews its own drone restrictions.
