Graeme Cole
Tuesday, 25 November 2025
It began as a murmur: something was brewing on North Cronulla beach. As the hot north wind fanned the sands in Sydney’s south east on a pre-Christmas Sunday afternoon, word quickly spread of a brawl between off duty lifeguards and young men.
The only thing that flows faster than beer in my hometown is talk. And the chatter around the traps was not idle. It was 4 December 2005.
I heard a fight had occurred between off-duty volunteer lifesavers and some ‘Middle Eastern’ looking young men. There was an exchange of words, with the young men telling the non-uniformed lifesavers to get off the beach because they ‘owned it.’ The off-duty lifesavers told the lads, ‘You can’t swim.’ In the ensuing scuffle one lifesaver was knocked down and another was hospitalised.
The tension between a large group of Middle Eastern men and local lifesavers had been fermenting for some time. Efforts to move the group on when they played footy on a large section of the beach, endangering other beachgoers, proved fruitless. Young women walking from the pedestrian footpath down the beach access felt vulnerable and intimidated by the group, who made brash comments about their appearance.
As media reports emerged, a young man of ‘Middle Eastern background’ was charged by police. Another skirmish occurred outside Cronulla Surf Life Saving Club between a few local young people and six men of ‘Middle Eastern appearance’ on 7 December. A photographer from the local newspaper had his camera snatched by one of the men who immediately smashed it on the ground. The police took no action.
Text messages began circulating about a rally the following Sunday at North Cronulla to ‘reclaim the beach.’ Labor Premier Morris Iemma condemned a vigilante response.
Many who lived in the area were unaware of the text messages and where they originated. They reached further than the Sutherland Shire as evidenced by large numbers of Anglo-Saxon/Celtic young people from outside the area who attended the 11 December rally. Text messages also circulated among young Middle Eastern men urging them to meet at Maroubra.
In local churches the violence and threats of payback seemed culturally distant. It was essentially a youth matter. The divisions of culture and class were evident.
Radio 2GB broadcaster Alan Jones had his finger on the mic button reading out one of the obscene messages on air. News Ltd’s The Daily Telegraph published two text messages, including: ‘this Sunday every Aussie in the Shire get down to North Cronulla to help support Leb and wog bashing day’. Jones, 2GB and The Daily Telegraph were at it again. The discourse created fear and moral panic. It sold papers and drove listenership…
The full article can be found in Zadok Perspectives, Spring 2025.
Image Credit: John Veage
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