Man killed in shark attack

A look back at significant moments in the North’s history

A 42-year-old waterside worker has been fatally mauled by a shark at Kissing Point baths.

The man attacked – Albert Arthur James Kenealey – was attacked about 7pm after taking a short swim and was about to leave the water when the devastating attack took place.

Mr Kenealey was shockingly injured and was dead when taken from the water.

His right leg was torn off at the thigh and evidence suggests the shark, which was not identified, had made more than one attack.

Mr Kenealey had earlier gone to the baths with Mr and Mrs Hinspeter of 28 Bell Street and their four children.

They were the only people present when the tragedy occurred.

Mrs Hinspeter had left the water a few minutes before with two of the children and her husband was in shallow water with the other two preparing to leave.

Mr Kenealey – who was standing with Mr Hinspeter – said he was going out for a final swim and then dived in and swam out about 14 metres to a fence around the enclosure.

The water at the spot where the attack took place is about 2.5m deep.

Mr Hinspeter said he saw Mr Kenealey swing on the wire at the back of the baths as if resting.

“Suddenly I heard Kenealey yell out and I saw a swirl of foam rising on the water,” he said.

He said that Mr Kenealey then let go of the wire and disappeared from sight.

Mr Hinspeter then raised the alarm and police and ambulance officers rushed to the scene.

They discovered Mr Kenealey’s body lying on the beach about 20 metres on the southern side of the baths, and about 35 metres from where he was attacked.

He was dead when a police officer picked him up.

Mr Kenealey had lived with his mother Mrs Ethel Kenealey at 26 Allen Street, South Townsville.

Another of Mrs Kenealey’s sons was drowned before World War Two in a Cleveland Bay tragedy.

He was one of three men who disappeared from a small boat.

Their bodies were never found, although the boat was washed up at Palm Island.

Since 1918 there have been 10 recorded shark attacks in Townsville waters, seven of those being fatal.

Most local attacks have been attributed to the tiger shark, which is distinguished by back and sides.

Shark fatalities have been recorded as happening at The Strand, Ross Creek and Magnetic Island.

One of the city’s most spectacular and extraordinary shark attacks happened in January 1935 when a shark attacked a small flat-bottomed boat in Ross Creek.

Two men were returning to the shore after pulling in a baited line when an estimated three-metre shark charged the little vessel and snapped at an oar.

At the time the boat was in only about half a metre of water.

Swimming furiously beside the boat with its back and fins exposed, the shark in its frenzy almost overturned the boat. dark bars on the