Historical reference record — not independently verified
1937 Kirra Beach, Coolangatta shark incidents
What happened
Multiple historical incidents share this year and location URL. Each supplied record is shown separately.
What is known
- Recorded classification: Multi-incident location/year archive
What remains uncertain
- Two victims are associated with the same beach/date event; sources differ on Brinkley's age.
- Historical source match supplied with the recovery material; not independently verified.
Fact panel
- Date
- Multiple dates — see individual records
- Date precision
- Year
- Location
- 1937 Kirra Beach, Coolangatta shark incidents, Queensland, AUSTRALIA
- Country
- AUSTRALIA
- Activity
- Unknown
- Incident classification
- Multi-incident location/year archive
- Area / state
- Queensland
- Outcome
- Unknown
- Species
- Unknown
- Species confidence
- Reported
- Coordinate precision
- Region
Individual historical records
This historical URL contains multiple incidents at the recorded locality. Each record is retained separately.
Two victims are associated with the same beach/date event; sources differ on Brinkley's age.
Norman Girvan — 1937-10-27
- date
- 1937-10-27
- person
- Norman Girvan
- age
- 18
- sex
- M
- activity
- Swimming
- outcome
- Fatal
- species
- Tiger shark reported
- injury
- Fatal; remains reportedly recovered from shark.
Jack Brinkley — 1937-10-27
- date
- 1937-10-27
- person
- Jack Brinkley
- age
- 23–25
- sex
- M
- activity
- Swimming
- outcome
- Fatal
- species
- Tiger shark reported
- injury
- Severely mauled; arm amputated; died.
Incident location
1937 Kirra Beach, Coolangatta shark incidents, Queensland, AUSTRALIA
Approximate area: Queensland
The marker represents the named area, not the exact incident site.
The interactive map loads when it comes into view. Incident details remain available as text.
Location precision: Approximate area
Representative map position for Queensland from Natural Earth. This marks the general area, not the exact incident site. This is historical location context, not live shark tracking or a measure of risk.
Sources and verification
- Australian historical fatality/GSAF-derived records — en.wikipedia.orgSupports: Historical incident fields; supplied source match, not independent verification
Shark incident records can change as investigations develop. This page shows the current verification status and was last restored from supplied historical reference material on 2026-09-25.
Historical facts retain the provenance and uncertainty of the cited references. Source timestamps record when the supplied material was imported, not an independent source retrieval or verification.
Supplementary content updated: 2026-09-24. This does not change the original verification status or review date.