Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows an intertitle stating that thousands of pounds are spent each year to protect the public from shark attack even though the chances of an attack are ‘10,000,000 to 1’. A narration accompanies the footage, which shows Coogee Beach in New South Wales, its shark-proof enclosure, and fishermen on a fishing trawler. An 18-feet-long (5.5-m) shark is hauled onto the trawler and the clip ends with a fisherman placing his foot, arm and head into the mouth of the dead shark. The black-and-white clip is from an item in the newsreel series Australia Today.

Educational value points

• The shark-proof enclosure at Coogee Beach shown in this clip was officially opened in 1929 and cost £6,750 to construct. A net was stretched across the bay and attached to a pylon at the pier as a way of guarding the swimming public from the threat of shark attack. The enclosure was finally removed in 1945 when essential repairs were no longer viable. Many local councils have argued that the costs of maintaining the nets for such enclosures outweigh the benefits.

• The shark-proof enclosure at Coogee Beach remained the only one of its kind until October 1937 when a comprehensive shark-netting program was introduced off some Sydney beaches. In 2006, the shark-netting program, in which most nets are stretched across only one part of the beach, operated along 49 beaches in NSW, from Newcastle to Wollongong. The shark nets in NSW are removed during the shark migratory seasons and are fitted with sounding devices to warn off whales and dolphins.

• The Humane Society International (HSI) and other environmental groups are opposed to shark-netting or -meshing programs such as the one shown in the clip. They argue that although the nets kill some sharks that might attack humans they present a danger to marine life other than sharks, including threatened and endangered species. According to the HSI, dolphins, rare fish, turtles and endangered species of sharks are regularly trapped in these nets.

• The clip shows fishermen catching sharks. It is now thought that sharks are in danger of being over-fished as they have a low reproduction rate, live in small populations and mature late. According to the HSI the grey nurse shark is listed as being critically endangered, having had a population of fewer than 500 in the waters off the east coast of Australia in 2006. The great white shark is listed as a vulnerable species and is fully protected under the Environment and Biodiversity Act 1999.

• The clip’s intertitle states that ‘The chances of being taken by a Shark have been estimated to be about 10,000,000 to 1’ and the current director of the HSI, Michael Kennedy, says that people have ‘more chance of being squashed by a falling Coke machine’ than of being attacked by a shark. In 2006, an International Shark Attack File (ISAF) analysis of recorded fatalities due to shark attacks revealed that there are about 50–70 shark attacks worldwide each year, resulting in about 5–15 deaths.

• In describing the sharks the narrator employs a dramatic tone and uses emotive language such as ‘shark menace’, ‘formidable enemy’, ‘man-eating monster’, ‘the marauder’ and ‘monsters of the deep’. The narrator also makes a pretence of becoming personally involved in the drama in real time, with interjections such as ‘lend a hand here, this is no ordinary shark!’ This style of commentary provides a sense of immediacy and engagement with the action.

• This clip is taken from a newsreel made in 1939, when newsreels were a major source of information for Australians. Before the introduction of television in Australia in 1956, newsreels were the only audiovisual medium available to report on important sport and entertainment events, and major items of interest such as disasters and discoveries. Newsreels were usually shown in cinemas before the main feature but in some small cinemas newsreels ran exclusively.

• The newsreel from which this clip is taken was produced and directed by Rupert Kathner (1904–54). During his career Kathner completed five feature films, his most famous being The Glenrowan Affair (1951), and he made several short films and newsreels throughout the 1930s, 40s and 50s. He died in March 1954 and the movie Hunt Angels (2006) documents his life and adventures.