Incident Report
Swimmer Bitten at Wellington Point Beach
Moreton Bay, Queensland·Australia
A female swimmer suffered a moderate bite to her left leg while swimming at Wellington Point in Queensland's Coral Sea on April 1, 1972. She survived the unprovoked shark encounter and recovered from her injuries.
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Incident Profile
Environmental
Individual
Location
Description
On April 1, 1972, a female swimmer was injured in an unprovoked shark encounter at Wellington Point beach in Queensland, Australia. While swimming in the waters of the Coral Sea near Brisbane, the victim sustained a bite to her left leg. The injury was classified as moderate in severity. Despite the incident, the swimmer survived and made a recovery. The shark species involved in the attack was not identified or documented. This incident occurred during a period of heightened shark activity along Queensland's coastline in the early 1970s, when multiple encounters were recorded across various beach locations. The Wellington Point incident resulted in non-fatal injuries, distinguishing it from several other notable attacks during this era that resulted in fatalities. The circumstances of this encounter—an unprovoked attack on a beach swimmer—remain consistent with typical shark behavior patterns in subtropical Australian waters.