1935 Shark Attack in the Swan River
1935 SHARK ATTACK IN THE SWAN RIVER
The West Australian 23 February 1935
SHARK ATTACKS HORSE ... FIGHT AT APPLECROSS ... JOCKEY'S ALARMING EXPERIENCE
Harassed by a shark that swirled viciously at his mount, circled around and then attacked again James Miller, a well-known Perth jockey, had a desperate fight to reach the shore with a mare and foal he was swimming in the river at Applecross yesterday afternoon. The mare herself showed remarkable instinct in attempting to beat off her attacker, as hampered by the water, she thrashed her way towards the shore. The horse and rider were not injured.
About five o'clock Miller, who lives at Canning Road Applecross, took the mare and foal for swimming exercise in Lucky Bay near the old German jetty. With the foal following behind, he rode the mare through shallow water about 250 yards from the shore until he reached the deeper channel, where she would be forced to swim. As the water began to rise to her withers, she showed an unusual reluctance to go on, and while swimming looked uneasily about her, as though scenting an unseen danger. The swim finished, Miller headed the mare towards the shore, and she had just started to climb the shelving bank of the channel when the rider saw, not 10 yards away, a dark shape swirling up from the deeper water of the channel. 'At first I thought it was a porpoise' said Miller. 'Then it turned and came straight at us, rolling over on its back as it came, so that I could see its gleaming white belly, and a mouth that looked big enough to swallow a cow'.
Desperately, Miller urged his mount for the shore, and, seeming to scent the danger, the mare responded with a tremendous effort, beating the water into foam and stirring up the mud from the bottom as she strained forward in an effort to gallop through the water that was clinging round her legs. It was the splash she made which probably frightened the shark off and saved her.
When he had recovered from the shock of the first attack, Miller looked around for the shark, and was horrified to see it circling between his mount and the shore. In a flash it was back again, shooting straight for the mare's front legs. The mare saw it too. With a shudder she threw herself down, folding her legs beneath her in a last desperate effort to save them, and the splash she made as she went down caused the shark to sheer off into deeper water. Miller clung to his plunging mount, dragged on the reins and she was in her feet again in an instant. The water was shallower now, and making better speed, Miller urged the mare to a nearby bank. Reaching it, the horse and rider stood panting, looking back on the scene of their struggle.
Miller looked for the foal, and saw it racing like a thing possessed for the shore, but safe in shallow water. 'I thought the foal would be gone,' he said. 'It was swimming in deeper water when the shark came for the mare, and it must have seen and understood the danger. Had the shark gone for the foal first it must have got it.' Slowly Miller rode the mare through the shallow water to the shore. 'She was anxious to get out of the water, and I think it will be difficult to get her in again,' he said.
The occurrence was reported to Constable Young of the Palmyra police station who said the locality was one often frequented by crabbing parties and people should be warned against getting too far into deep water.
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/32847286?searchTerm=Horse%20Miller%20jockey
Ted Miller added ...
My father told me about this incident. I have since worked out he was 23 years old at the time with two small children. He always stressed that he was convinced that the thrashing foam and splash created by the mare saved his life; how the foal survived he would never know. Afterwards he rode the mare back but stayed on the other side of Canning Highway (then Canning Road) opposite our home with the foal following the mare free. He was wearing only bathers. When we heard the story, we all marvelled how he managed to stay on the bare back of the wet horse in the river in such a panic of lunges and unpredictable movements. He called out to Mum at the top of his voice from across the highway. When Mum came out of the house she called at a distance: "Jim you're as white as a ghost. What's happened?"And he told her. Mum insisted that Dad report it to the police for the safety of other summer users of the river. The police contacted the newspaper and a reporter arrived in no time but Dad refused to have a photo taken.
- By Ted Miller