Sharks And Bushfires May Mar Australian Summer

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31152, 31 August 1966, Page 21

Sharks And Bushfires May Mar Australian Summer

Special Crspdt. N.Z PA.) I SYDNEY, August 30. As winter fades away millions of Australians have been told they face one of their worst summers from two deadly natural menaces—bushfires and sharks. Already firemen are tackling what is officially described as “an unusually high” number of calls to bushfires | around Sydney, and packs of savage man-eating sharks! have been reported close in to the New South Wales coast. i Fire precaution officials have predicted that after two| very dry winters. New South Wales and the Sydney area face their worst bushfire season for a decade. Shark experts have warned that the i shark menace is likely to be greater this rummer than ever before. Bushfires cost Australia up 1 to 10 million de liars a year, I but the danger period does!:

not usually begin until October 1. City and suburban fire brigades have already been at work in the Sydney area this month, and firemen have warned that the bush is tinder dry. Mr H. R. Barber, chief officer of the New South Wales Fire Brigade, said this week: “it would take only a I single spark to start a large bushfire with the dry state of the bush at present.” Mr Barber said only heavy, soaking rainfalls would ease the danger. He said special watches were already being kept on bush areas and hea-. vily timbered residential districts surrounding Sydney! which were considered “dan-; ger spots.” Some of these are less than ten miles from the | centre of the city. He has already warned the public against throwing! lighted cigarettes from cars, burning rubbish on windy days and failing to put out : picnic and camp fires.

Lightning strikes often cause up to 30 per cent of a year's outbreaks, but human carelessness remains the biggest single cause of bushfires. Carelessness can also be blamed for shark attacks, and

swimmers have already been warned to be on the alert this season, and to use

beaches which have shark nets.

The last fatal attack in Sydney waters was four years ago, but Mr E. Williams, records officer of the Shark Research Society, said this week. “The peril has been building up, and it looks as if it will reach its climax this year. “The numbers of really savage sharks about at the moment must be a record.”

Mr Williams said that packs of man-eating sharks had already been sighted only 400 yards off the coast, He said that among them was the

mako, one of the boldest and most ferocious types of shark, which is normally rarely seen off Australian beaches. The mako is the strongest and fastest member of the shark family, and a 10ft specimen weighs up to 10001 b. Mr Wiliams said the mako usually keeps well out to sea but has been known to charge and sink small fishing vessels. One did so in New South Wales waters in 1923, capsizing a rowing boat and killing three of the four occupants.