The Cronulla riots were a series of race riots in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. They began in the beachside suburb of Cronulla on 11 December 2005, and over the following nights spread to additional suburbs. The instigating event was a physical altercation on 4 December between a group of youths of Middle Eastern descent and lifeguards at Cronulla beach, following reports of assault of lifeguards and harassment by "young Lebanese men." Following reporting by the tabloid media and shock jocks on local radio, a racially motivated gathering was organised via chain texting.
On the morning of Sunday, 11 December, a crowd gathered at Cronulla. By midday, approximately 5,000 people had gathered near the beach. As the gathering began attacking members of ethnic minorities, the police attempted to intervene. Violence spread to neighbouring suburbs, where assaults occurred, including attacks on ambulances and police officers. Two people were stabbed during these events, and travel warnings for Australia were briefly issued by some countries.
The riots were widely condemned by members of parliament, police, and local community leaders and residents. A large police effort over subsequent months produced many arrests. Some media were criticised, and well-known radio personality Alan Jones was formally censured and fined for his broadcasts during the week.
Chronology
Background
New South Wales Police had been recording racial and ethnic tensions and incidents in and around Cronulla since October 2005. There is also a history of conflict between Cronulla locals and visiting beachgoers from the western suburbs ("Westies") with "bashings" (physical assault) common since the 1960s as part of a turf war between Westies and local surfers. There remains a great deal of debate as to whether previous racially charged attacks in the area like the Sydney gang rapes contributed to the tensions, or if the subsequent trials were used as justification for the attacks, despite many reporting otherwise. The previous summer on Australia Day (26 January 2005), a non-racial riot occurred with around 2,000 to 3,000 young people in the Cronulla area engaged in "civil disobedience", at one stage hurling missiles at police attempting to control the crowd.
4 December 2005
Just after 15:00 on Sunday, 4 December 2005, police were called to North Cronulla Beach following a report of an assault on two off-duty male surf lifesavers by four members of a group of eight men. A verbal exchange had taken place after three lifesavers approached a group of four young men with a Lebanese background on Cronulla Beach, with both groups accusing the other of staring at them. One of the Australian Lebanese men reportedly responded to the accusations, "I'm allowed to; now fuck off and leave our beach", to which a lifesaver responded, "I come down here out of my own spare time to save you cunts from drowning".
The verbal exchange escalated with one Australian Lebanese youth attempting to defuse the situation. Another Australian Lebanese youth then threw a punch, missing, prompting a pushing match that escalated into a fight. One of the lifesavers was badly hurt after falling and striking his head. One of the lifesavers later informed police that the four were part of a group of eight Australian Lebanese that had been on the beach most of the day and that there had been no problems with their prior behaviour. Despite media reports to the contrary, no Middle Eastern men converged on the area and there were no more than the original eight present.
What kind of grubs? Well I'll tell you what kind of grubs this lot were. This lot were Middle Eastern grubs.
One media report stated that there was already tension between the community and Australian Lebanese youths before this event and people, particularly women, claimed to have been harassed, almost daily, by "groups of young Lebanese men" attempting to "pick them up" and describing the women as being "Aussie sluts".
The events were reported widely across the Sydney media, particularly tabloid; also generating discussions on talkback radio. When a listener identified as "Berta" commented to shock jock Alan Jones of Sydney's 2GB Radio that she had heard "really derogatory remarks" aimed at Middle Eastern people, Jones interrupted stating "We don't have Anglo-Saxon kids out there raping women in Western Sydney". Jones also broadcast and endorsed one listener's suggestion that bikie gangs be brought down to Cronulla railway station to deal with "Lebanese thugs" and that the event be televised, arguing that despite their notoriety bikie gangs do "a lot of good things". By Thursday, Jones had stirred significant discussion, and stated "I'm the person that's led this charge here. Nobody wanted to know about North Cronulla, now it's gathered to this."
After the riots, Jones was found to have breached the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) Code of Conduct section 1.3(a), as his comments were "likely to encourage violence or brutality and to vilify people of Lebanese and Middle-Eastern backgrounds on the basis of ethnicity". In December 2009, the NSW Administrative Decisions Tribunal found Jones and radio station 2GB guilty of vilifying Lebanese Muslims in earlier "Cronulla Riot" broadcasts. A fine of $10,000 was imposed.
Police were concerned about the repercussions of these events. Later investigations revealed that over 270,000 individual SMS text messages were transmitted inciting a racially motivated confrontation at North Cronulla Beach the following Saturday.
11 December 2005
Over the course of Sunday, 11 December 2005, approximately 5,000 people gathered in and around North Cronulla Beach. Early in the morning, people began to gather and impromptu barbecues and "partying" took place. However at 12:59, a young man of "Middle Eastern appearance" was spotted on the beach and the crowds began "chanting stuff [and] yelling out things" before rushing him. The man attempted to avoid the crowd by quickly entering "Northies", a local pub, but the crowd forcibly dragged him out and attacked him. The police, having been in Cronulla since the early morning (including police helicopters and patrol boats), quickly intervened and resolved the situation. A Cronulla High School teacher later claimed that the crowd had attacked the man after he had shouted "I'm going to blow youse all up".
At 13:30, two women verbally argued with a small group; the police arrived and both parties left. However, an hour later, they again met and a scuffle ensued. At 13:45, another two boys from Bangladesh were surrounded by the crowd, and had bottles thrown at them, with the crowd repeatedly chanting "Fuck off Lebs!". The two boys escaped by car, which was smashed, stomped on and pelted with objects along the way. Chants and slogans such as "Fuck off Lebs!", "We grew here, you flew here", "Aussie Pride", "Fuck off wogs!", were repeated and displayed throughout the day by the crowd. The crowd also attacked the police by throwing beer bottles. Police vehicles were also prevented from entering the area. Around 14:00 another three males were assaulted on the beach with the crowd throwing sausages and beer bottles at them.
Rumours had persisted throughout the day that an additional 600 people would arrive by train, mostly from the west of Cronulla, to join the crowds. At approximately 15:00, "two young men of Middle Eastern appearance" arrived at Cronulla train station with the crowd outside chanting "Fuck off wogs!". The two men (one of whom was a Russian-born Afghan) took refuge in the train. However, the mob entered the carriage and began assaulting them; a police officer entered the train and forcibly cleared the crowd, later being found to have used excessive force.
At 15:20, two separate assaults took place; one involved a crowd attacking a man of "Middle Eastern appearance" and throwing beer bottles. In this case an officer intervened and removed the victim as they were both struck by the bottles. A second assault took place outside a takeaway restaurant; three men were taken inside the restaurant as refuge and the diners already inside were moved towards the back. The glass doors and windows were broken and those inside were moved outside without incident.
Injuries and arrests
By the end of the day, 26 people had been treated for injuries. The 15:20 assault required the victim and the police officer to receive hospital treatment. A total of 16 were arrested and charged with 42 offences including: malicious damage, assaulting a police officer, affray, offensive conduct, resisting arrest and numerous driving offences. One police officer was hit by a car and two ambulance officers were also amongst the injured as their ambulance, under mounted police escort, was surrounded and beer bottles were thrown, with one of the ambulance officers being hit on the head by a bottle and the other receiving lacerations on the arm.
Evening retaliation
At 19:45, around 100 locals of Punchbowl (a suburb 20 kilometres [12 mi] to Cronulla's northwest) gathered together at the local Punchbowl Park. Additional groups, armed with baseball bats, also gathered at The Promenade and Arncliffe Park. Between 20:30 and 21:00, the groups of young men of Middle Eastern descent formed a convoy of "more than 40 cars" and drove down to the beaches "to get revenge" with many of the cars ending up in Maroubra. At 22:45, police were ordered "not to approach convoys of men of Middle Eastern appearance"; however car details and registration details were to be recorded.
A local of Maroubra reported that each of the cars that arrived was "full, you know, had four passengers". The convoy was reportedly armed with bars and bats, knives, machetes and guns. The group assaulted several people, knocking one unconscious and threatening another with rape, and damaged between 60 and 100 cars, setting at least one on fire in Arden Street, Coogee. Police in riot gear moved to contain the violence and the crowds responded by throwing bricks and glass. Residents reported that in some streets "every car" had had their windows smashed, with glass covering the streets. Police also confiscated 40 iron bars and arrested 14 people.
At approximately 22:25, a 26-year-old mechanic Dan Gray was stabbed in the back three times and twice in the thigh with a 9.8 cm (3.9 in) blade. The incident occurred outside Woolooware golf club when two cars carrying a group of males "described as being of Mediterranean or Middle Eastern appearance" approached the man and his friends. Dan and his friends attempted to flee from the group, who were shouting "Get the Aussie dogs... get the Aussie sluts". Dan was knocked to the ground and was repeatedly kicked in the head. The attack ended when the knife snapped off in the victim's back. He was taken to hospital in a serious condition as the blade had narrowly missed his spine and lungs. The getaway driver for the attack was arrested and held in jail for 9 months, after which he was paroled 5 months later for good behaviour.
A man named Jake Schofield was attacked by a group of four men of "Middle Eastern appearance", who beat him repeatedly, stabbing him twice and hitting him with a piece of concrete before stealing his wallet and keys. The attack left him with a fractured eye socket and nose. All four assailants were arrested and charged.
A woman wearing a headscarf had her car stopped by a group of white males and was then abused and threatened by this group.
Aftermath
Additional smaller riots occurred on the following nights in the suburbs of Maroubra, Brighton-le-Sands and Cronulla. Text messages similar to the earlier 270,000 inciting racial violence had also turned up in other states including Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia.
On 12 December, rioters had written various messages including; "Aussi [sic] to Die", "Intifada", "It's war", "Sunday cowards die, Soldiers rize [sic]", "Never rest assie [sic] dog", "We came in planes yous came by chains u convict dogs", and "We fear no ozy [sic] pigs" before continuing to destroy cars and local shops. Approximately 2000 people gathered inside Lakemba Mosque with another 800 gathered outside the evening after the riot. Sheikh Shady Alsuleiman spoke to the crowd and called for calm. However some were armed with Glock pistols which were displayed to the media. At least some of the people gathered were reported to have planned to go on to Maroubra; however the police blocked roads leading into Maroubra and 20 police cars surrounded the mosque. The Uniting Church in Auburn, a predominantly Tongan congregation, was burned and those attending Christmas carols were abused and threatened. More than 30 Molotov cocktails were also confiscated by police.
Eight hundred police officers formed Operation Seta and were on patrol on the following nights, with up to 450 police officers blockading Cronulla on the night of 13 December and an additional 11 people were arrested; five were arrested in relation to a replica pistol and six were arrested for property damage. An additional seven people were injured including another police officer. A husband and wife were taken to hospital after the wife was struck in the head and the husband tried to defend her, and another man was struck by a baseball bat and suffered a fractured forearm.