Datasets / New South Wales / Taronga / Australian Shark-Incident Database / Explore

Explore Australian Shark-Incident Database

Charts and tables over the 1,306 rows of the latest version, worked out in your browser from the Parquet file. Nothing you do here leaves the browser until you save a link.

Paste this where the dashboard should appear. The frame shows the attribution and links back here.

Let readers change the charts in the frame. Their changes stay in their browser and never alter the saved dashboard.

The explorer needs JavaScript and a browser from the last few years. The dataset page has every file and the query API.

Data: Taronga Conservation Society Australia, with Flinders University and the NSW Department of Primary Industries, Australian Shark-Incident Database, sourced 30 September 2026, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5612259, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Licence terms.

How it works

Change a panel

Press Edit at the top right of a panel to open its settings. Drag fields into Group by, Split by, Sort by and Filter, pick a chart type at the top, and choose sum, count or average beside each number. More fields lists everything else in the dataset. The chart types include bars, lines, areas, scatter plots, heatmaps, treemaps and sunbursts, and maps of the coordinates. Add a chart puts a new panel on the dashboard. Drag a panel's title bar to move it, or drag the line between panels to resize.

Filter every panel at once

The chart marked Click to filter the others does just that: click a bar and the other panels show only those rows. Click it again to clear. Any panel can do the same. Open the menu at the left of its title bar and turn on filtering from there.

Share or keep a dashboard

The address bar holds the whole dashboard, so copying it is enough. Save a short link to store the dashboard on this site and get a shorter address. A saved dashboard never changes; saving again after an edit makes a new link. Embed gives a frame you can paste into a web page, with the attribution inside it.

Download what you see

The export button in a panel's settings toolbar downloads the panel as CSV, JSON or Arrow, or a chart as PNG. The copy button beside it puts the same data on the clipboard. The full files are on the dataset page.

What the fields mean

The explorer names each field in words. The files and the query API use the field name beside it.

In the explorer	Field name	Type	Note
UIN	uin	string
Incident (m)onth	incident_month	integer
Incident year	incident_year	integer
Victim injury	victim_injury	string
State	state	string	As recorded; the file mixes Qld and QLD and other spellings, kept as published.
Location	location	string
Latitude	latitude	number
Longitude	longitude	number
Site category	site_category	string
Site category comment	site_category_comment	string
Shark common name	shark_common_name	string
Shark scientific name	shark_scientific_name	string
Shark identification (m)ethod	shark_identification_method	string
Shark identification source	shark_identification_source	string
Shark length (m)	shark_length_m	string	As recorded, sometimes a range or a word rather than a figure.
Basis for length	basis_for_length	string
Provoked or unprovoked	provoked_unprovoked	string
Provocative act	provocative_act	string
No sharks	no_sharks	integer
Victim activity	victim_activity	string
Fish speared?	fish_speared	string
Commercial dive activity	commercial_dive_activity	string
Object of bite	object_of_bite	string
Present at time of bite	present_at_time_of_bite	string
Direction first strike	direction_first_strike	string
Shark behaviour	shark_behaviour	string
Victim aware of shark	victim_aware_of_shark	string
Shark captured	shark_captured	string
Injury location	injury_location	string
Injury severity	injury_severity	string
Victim gender	victim_gender	string
Victim age	victim_age	string
Victim clothing	victim_clothing	string
Clothing coverage	clothing_coverage	string
Dominant clothing colour	dominant_clothing_colour	string
Other clothing colour	other_clothing_colour	string
Clothing pattern	clothing_pattern	string
Fin colour	fin_colour	string
Diversionary action taken	diversionary_action_taken	string
Diversionary action outcome	diversionary_action_outcome	string
People <3m	people_under_3m	integer
People 3-15m	people_3_15m	integer
Time of incident	time_of_incident	string
Depth of incident (m)	depth_of_incident_m	string	As recorded, sometimes a range or a word rather than a figure.
Teeth recovered	teeth_recovered	string
Time in water (m)in	time_in_water_min	string	As recorded, sometimes a range or a word rather than a figure.
Water temperature (°C)	water_temperature_c	number
Total water depth (m)	total_water_depth_m	string	As recorded, sometimes a range or a word rather than a figure.
Water visability (m)	water_visability_m	number
Distance to shore (m)	distance_to_shore_m	number
Spring or neap tide	spring_or_neap_tide	string
Tidal cycle	tidal_cycle	string
Wind condition	wind_condition	string
Weather condition	weather_condition	string
Air temperature (°C)	air_temperature_c	number
Personal protective device	personal_protective_device	string
Deterrent brand and type	deterrent_brand_and_type	string
Data source	data_source	string
Reference	reference	string
SA2 code (2021)	sa2_2021_code	string	Code of the Statistical Area Level 2 (2021) the point falls in. Joined by location from abs-sa2-2021, not published by the publisher.
SA2 (2021)	sa2_2021_name	string	Name of the Statistical Area Level 2 (2021) the point falls in. Joined by location from abs-sa2-2021, not published by the publisher.
Council area code (LGA 2025)	lga_2025_code	string	Code of the Local Government Area (2025) the point falls in. Joined by location from abs-lga-2025, not published by the publisher.
Council area (LGA 2025)	lga_2025_name	string	Name of the Local Government Area (2025) the point falls in. Joined by location from abs-lga-2025, not published by the publisher.
Suburb or locality code (2021)	sal_2021_code	string	Code of the Suburb and Locality (2021) the point falls in. Joined by location from abs-suburbs-localities-2021, not published by the publisher.
Suburb or locality (2021)	sal_2021_name	string	Name of the Suburb and Locality (2021) the point falls in. Joined by location from abs-suburbs-localities-2021, not published by the publisher.
Postal area code (2021)	poa_2021_code	string	Code of the Postal Area (2021) the point falls in. Joined by location from abs-postal-areas-2021, not published by the publisher.
Postcode (postal area 2021)	poa_2021_name	string	Name of the Postal Area (2021) the point falls in. Joined by location from abs-postal-areas-2021, not published by the publisher.
State electorate code (2025)	sed_2025_code	string	Code of the State Electoral Division (2025) the point falls in. Joined by location from abs-state-electoral-divisions-2025, not published by the publisher.
State electorate (2025)	sed_2025_name	string	Name of the State Electoral Division (2025) the point falls in. Joined by location from abs-state-electoral-divisions-2025, not published by the publisher.
Federal electorate code (2025)	ced_2025_code	string	Code of the Commonwealth Electoral Division (2025) the point falls in. Joined by location from abs-federal-electoral-divisions-2025, not published by the publisher.
Federal electorate (2025)	ced_2025_name	string	Name of the Commonwealth Electoral Division (2025) the point falls in. Joined by location from abs-federal-electoral-divisions-2025, not published by the publisher.

How it runs

The page downloads DuckDB and Perspective once, about 17 MB, then this version's data.parquet (125 KB). Every chart is a query DuckDB answers in the browser, so there is no rate limit and the files stay the only source. Dated versions never change, so a saved dashboard over one shows the same numbers for good. A map panel draws its background from OpenStreetMap tiles, so while one is on screen your browser asks OpenStreetMap for them and it sees your IP address. The data itself never leaves the browser.