Our last afternoon in Perth, we totally enjoyed this beach. The kids new Aussie friend Brody recommended Cottesloe Beach, said it was one of the nicest around. He was right. This beach is famous for it’s terraced lawns overlooking the Indian Ocean. The water was crystal clear, the powdery sand had a few shells, and the waves were gentle. What a beautiful place to live!!
There were many people at this beach, but most were hugging the shoreline, not going out far, despite the smooth water and lack of riptides. We did notice a couple of swimmers who were getting in their workouts, swimming horizontal to the beach, swimming their freestyle in the ocean. It was so peaceful, we just wanted to stay. I could live in this beach town happily.
On our way out, we stopped at a small general store across the street from the beach, looking for any type of souvenir, when I just happened to see the headlines in the newspaper. The article was about how there is this group of senior citizens who brave the ocean every single day at dawn, to get their exercise in. They call themselves “the chorus line” . The article was about how most locals do not go to the beach as they used to, because recently there was a great white shark attack at this very beach where a swimmer was killed. They knew it was a great white because they analyzed his speedo that washed up on shore.
What??? Right here on Cottesloe Beach?!? A quick scan of the article and I read that there have been 11 fatal shark attacks in as many years right there in Western Australia. Yikes!! Holy smokes, that is really scary!
And my girl, you know how crazy she is, she’s afraid a shark is gonna attack her in a swimming pool, this was too much for her. She was done, no longing looks back at the ocean, no asking to stay just a few minutes longer, she was ready to go, she was done with the beach.
UPDATE: My sweet Aunt Vera sent me a note about the recent protests on this very beach. I am posting a link to the news article. It’s a must read!
http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/21207700/wa-shark-cull-thousands-gather-at-cottesloe-beach-as-catch-and-kill-protests-ramp-up/
Blinkman Buzz 
This beach made national news here yesterday, because they were shooting sharks–environmentalist were protesting fiercly.
aunt vera
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Wow wow wow! thanks for that information, I would never have seen it otherwise! I read the news article about Cottesloe and the protests … very interesting. I think I will post a link to the article, this blog is meant to be a record of our experiences, and I think that we will want to refer back to this article at some point. We really loved Perth and will definitely return. Love you!!