Arabic version: تتبّع أسطوانات كوجي الخرسانية إلى أبراج مراقبة القروش

According to ABC News, a dozen concrete cylinders exposed by rough surf at Sydney’s Coogee Beach in July 2022 were not remnants of an old pier, as long believed. Local historian Ashley Kingston says the supports formed part of shark observation towers and a tower supporting a shark net across the southern half of the beach.

Randwick City Council removed the columns in 2022 after they shifted in the sand and created a hazard for beachgoers. The cylinders, which had appeared after major tidal events, are now held at a council storage depot. Kingston, vice president of the Randwick & District Historical Society, said archival photographs showed cylindrical columns matching those recovered from the beach.

Kingston said the pier used cast-iron screw pylons rather than concrete supports. He said the first shark observation tower was a galvanised steel structure on a concrete base, built in 1922 after a series of shark attacks at Coogee, including two fatal encounters that year. The tower could be staffed by a lifeguard and had an electric bell for shark sightings.

A pier was later built to help construct a new shark net, while another tower stood behind the surf club on the southern headland. The pier was dismantled by 1934 after financial failure, but the shark net remained and was extended. A further shark tower erected on the beach in the 1940s was eventually removed, and the net collapsed in 1945 without being replaced.

Kingston said the towers did not prevent every incident. In 1925, a teenage lifesaver lost his leg to a shark in front of a tower after the animal had been spotted and the bell was sounding. He said the history echoed current debate over shark mitigation, including drone surveillance now covering 72 beaches along the NSW coast.