Surfer Killed by Great White In WA Days After Opting Not to Surf Over Attack Fears in South Australia

You want tragic irony?

Back in March, a thirty-seven-year-old Melbourne surfer, just five weeks into a six-month vacay around Australia with his girl and dog, was killed by a Great White shark in that pretty little West Oz town Esperance.

Not a particularly unusual story in Australia these days, and particularly Esperance, as you know.

At the time it was the fourth fatal shark attack in Australia in seventy-two days and the fourth fatal attack by a Great White in the area.

Regular readers don’t have to scroll too far back in the BeachGrit files to hit the story of Esperance surfers Andrew Sharpe, disappeared by a Great White in 2020, and teenager Laticia Brouwers killed in front of her family by a Great White in 2017.

Steven Payne’s attack was captured by drone, the footage mercifully unreleased and, surprisingly, unleaked.

“It (the drone footage) shows a lot of blood, the shark and some other things in there I don’t particularly want to go into and I don’t think anybody else needs to see other than maybe the coroner and some other experts who will determine the type of shark and size,” Esperance police Senior Sergeant Chris Taylor, who called off the search for Payne after seeing the vision, said at the time.

An inquest into the death has now revealed Payne was in Streaky Bay a few days earlier being killed and was tossing up whether or not to surf at Granites, the same joint local surfer Lance Appleby was disappeared by a Great White in January and where, the previous year, Tod Gendle was hit, killed and disappeared by a fifteen-foot Great White while surfing among a crowd of a dozen surfers.

Yeah, that’s irony.

“They were aware of a fatal shark attack at the location on January 2, 2025 and following speaking with locals they ultimately decided not to enter the water, Senior Constable Assisting the Coroner Craig Robertson told the inquest, and reported by WA Today.  “They had discussed wearing [shark deterrents] prior to their visit to Granites Beach. Unfortunately, they thought after leaving South Australian waters it would be safe to enter the water without them.”

The inquest heard Payne went to surf while his gal read on the beach.

An hour later “she glanced up and saw a large commotion in the water approximately 60 metres offshore. It took her a few seconds to realise she was witnessing a shark attacking a surfer,” Robinson said. “She ran to the shore shouting to alert others of the shark’s presence, but did not think that it was Steven being attacked, as the surfboard she could see looked too short to be his. She then realised that the commotion was where she had last seen Steven and the victim of the attack was wearing the same distinctive sun hat that he wore. From what she witnessed, she immediately knew that Steven was dead.”

A Department of Primary Industries scientist said the shark was a ten-foot Great White.

Robinson also told the court that Payne and his gal “made it very clear her and Steven do not support shark culling.”