Gerry Bloustien, School of Communications Studies, University of South Australia &

Mark Israel, School of Law, Flinders University

Gerry.Bloustien@unisa.edu.au, mark.israel@flinders.edu.au

The centrality to Australian culture of the beach, with its associations to the natural, the healthy, the robust, has meant that darker events that occur on the beach have generated considerable soul-searching about the nature of Australian society; what is safe, where is dangerous, who is at risk and who is culpable.

In this paper we explore various academic and popular media accounts of particular violent deaths on Australian city beaches. We examine the competing representations of beaches as perilous spaces and those people who use them as dangerous or vulnerable. We argue that these narratives draw on and elaborate broader fears of and attractions to marginal people and places.