The Shirley Durdin Shark Attack is Beyond Terrifying

It was a clear, calm summer afternoon in Port Lincoln on Sunday, the 3rd of March, 1985. The water at Wiseman’s Beach looked peaceful. The sky was bright. The beach was filled with families enjoying the final days of the school holiday period. For Shirley Ann Durdin, it should have been a simple family outing.

>> Hit like and subscribe. This is Fierce. >> Shirley had come to the beach with her husband of 15 years, Barry, and their four children, Jason, Tanya, Carla, and Sonia, who were between 5 and 11 years old. They were joined by Barry’s friend, Keith Coventry, for an afternoon of swimming, snorkeling, and collecting scallops in the shallow waters of Peak Bay.

 Wiseman’s Beach was known for its white sand, clear water, and calm surroundings. It was the kind of place where families gathered, children played, and locals felt safe. That afternoon, several friends, neighbors, fishermen, and other beachgoers were also nearby. But just offshore, something was moving through the water. Something massive. Something no one on that beach was prepared for.

Shirley Durdin was remembered as a devoted wife and mother who loved the outdoors. She had recently completed a farm management course at TAFE in Port Lincoln and dreamed of one day working on a large countryside farm. The Durdin family had previously lived on a farmstead in Karkoo on the Eyre Peninsula before moving back to Port Lincoln after Barry developed severe allergies connected to farm animals and the dusty rural lifestyle.

Even after the move, Shirley’s love for the outdoors remained. On that day, the ocean seemed like the perfect place to spend time with family. Shortly after noon, Shirley, Barry, and Keith put on their wetsuits, masks, and swim fins. With collection bags in hand, they entered the shallow water to gather scallops from the sandy bottom.

The waters off South Australia were known for their abundance of seafood, and scalloping was a familiar activity in the area. For about 30 minutes, everything seemed normal. The three snorkelers worked around 150 yards from shore in water roughly 7 to 10 feet deep. After collecting enough scallops, they began making their way back toward the beach.

Barry and Keith were slightly ahead, pausing near a rocky outcrop to inspect their catch. Shirley was only about 30 feet behind them. For a brief moment, she was separated from the others. No one knew what she was thinking in those final seconds. Maybe she had noticed something on the seafloor. Maybe she was looking for one last scallop.

Maybe she was simply enjoying the calm water and the peaceful afternoon with her family nearby. Then, the water exploded. From the cliffside above the beach, long-time Port Lincoln resident Kevin Wiseman and his friend Robert Laurie witnessed the attack unfold. According to Wiseman, a huge dark shape shot through the water from behind and to Shirley’s right.

 It came in fast, like a torpedo. The shark struck Shirley with tremendous force. The impact sent water flying into the air. The front portion of the shark’s body rose out of the sea as it hit her from below and from the side. Shirley managed only one brief cry before Barry and Keith turned around. What they saw was unimaginable.

Shirley was being lifted vertically out of the water in the jaws of a massive great white shark. The shark’s body was visible above the surface, its head and upper section rising in a violent half-breach. Then, it crashed back down into the water with another heavy splash. Moments later, its head surfaced again, jaws locked around Shirley’s midsection.

The shark thrashed violently. From the beach, screams erupted. Barry panicked, desperate to reach his wife. Keith Coventry held him back, knowing the danger was still right in front of them. But then, in an extraordinary act of courage, Keith started swimming toward Shirley. He made it only a few strokes before he saw the shark’s dorsal fin cutting through the water just feet away.

Keith froze. In front of him, the shark lunged again and pulled what remained of Shirley beneath the surface. The water turned red. There was nothing Keith could do. He turned back toward shore, grabbing Barry as he went. When they reached the beach, Barry was hysterical. Friends had to restrain him as he cried out for his wife, repeating that she was gone.

The attack continued in full view of horrified witnesses. A local tuna fisherman, Kevin Hersehausen, had just returned from fishing with his young daughter when he realized what was happening. He’d headed toward the blood-stained water about 150 yd offshore. As Hersehausen approached the site, he saw the massive shark move beneath his boat.

 Then, just feet away, it surfaced again and took the remaining part of Shirley’s body. The shark was described as larger than the boat itself. Witnesses estimated it to be around 20 ft long. Within minutes, Shirley Ann Durdin had been completely taken in front of beachgoers, fishermen, friends, and family. Her four children were on the beach as bystanders desperately tried to shield them from the horror unfolding in the water.

Police were called immediately to search the sandy bottom. The search recovered only a single rubber swim fin, believed to have belonged to Shirley. No other remains were found. In the days that followed, several local fishermen came forward saying they had seen a very large great white in the area during the previous month.

Some even claimed it had been seen near Wiseman’s Beach shortly before the attack. There was also concern that local fishing activity may have attracted sharks closer to shore. Reports suggested that fish guts and offal were sometimes discarded into the shallows near the beach, creating a possible food source for large predators.

The tragedy shocked Port Lincoln and quickly drew national attention. By coincidence, famous shark divers and filmmakers Ron and Valerie Taylor were on their way to Port Lincoln to film great whites at Dangerous Reef when the attack happened. This was the same region where they, along with shark attack survivor Rodney Fox, had helped film live shark footage used in the movie Jaws more than a decade earlier.

When the Taylors arrived, they interviewed several witnesses, including Keith Coventry and Kevin Wiseman. Keith, still shaken by what he had seen, struggled to describe the speed and violence of the attack. He said the shark simply ate her, finished everything, and was gone. Fear spread quickly through the local community.

Some fishermen believed the shark would return. Others feared another attack was imminent. Although the idea of a rogue shark has never been proven for great whites, the mood at the time was heavily influenced by the terrifying image of sharks popularized by Jaws. Many people wanted the animal hunted down. A large shark hunt began.

Fishing crews went out with heavy hooks, wire traces, baited drums, tuna, blood, and whale oil. Chum slicks were laid in the water to attract the shark. Commercial shark fishermen set a gill net across Wiseman’s Beach, hoping to catch the animal if it returned. When they checked the net the next morning, they did not find the shark.

Queensland shark hunter Vic Hislop was later brought in to catch the animal believed responsible. He arrived in Port Lincoln and soon caught two great white sharks near Wiseman’s Beach, one around 12 ft long and another around 14 ft long. But based on witness descriptions, even Hislop admitted neither shark was large enough to be the one involved in Shirley’s death.

Over the following days, several more great whites were caught by Hislop and other fishermen. Some were recognizable individuals that had been filmed previously by the Taylors near Dangerous Reef. But none matched the estimated size of the shark that attacked Shirley Durdin. Eventually, the hunt ended without success.

The shark responsible was never found. The death of Shirley Ann Durdin remains one of the most disturbing and widely witnessed shark attacks in Australian history. It happened on a peaceful family beach in shallow water under a bright summer sky and in only a few minutes, an ordinary afternoon became a nightmare that would haunt Port Lincoln forever.