Warning signs erected after shark sightings at Chipping Norton Lakes

RECENT bull shark sightings at Chipping Norton Lake have brought back memories for the Morrin family, who remember when a shark ate a relative’s hands in 1935.

Photo of a bull shark

• Three shark sightings in a month
• Man attacked by shark at Bombo Beach
• Surfer insurance for shark attacks
• The shark hunting drone

Shark warning signs will be posted around the edges of Chipping Norton Lake following recent shark sightings.

For the Morrin family, the signs couldn’t come any sooner.

Keith and Alan Morrin’s relative Beryl, 13, was attacked by a shark in 1935.

She’d been playing in the Georges River at Kentucky Reserve, got out of the water and her brother threw mud on her back.

Chipping Norton Lake as it looks today. Picture: Glen Brouw

She re-entered the water to wash it off and, in her recount to sister-in-law Benice Morrin, was standing waist-deep when she heard a noise and noticed movement in the water.

“She froze, not daring to move, hoping it would go away. She screamed as she spotted the shark circling her,” Keith Morrin said.

Keith and Alan Morrin, the nephews of Beryl Morrin. Picture: Tim Clapin

Beryl Morrin became an expert nappy changer using her teeth to pin the nappy.

“It grabbed her by the arm, dragged her under the water and tossed her into the air. She tried to push the shark away and it grabbed her left hand too.”

Keith and Alan Morrin are the sons of Benice Morrin, the woman who captured the story in A Tribute to Beryl Morrin Her Story.

Family and onlookers used their petticoats to make tourniquets to stop the bleeding while they waited a couple of hours for an ambulance. The doctor was overhead saying “She won’t live you know”.

Beryl went on to live until the age of 92. She married, had children, changed nappies, cooked dinner and rode a bike; all without hands.

An article on Beryl Morrin back in 1938, a few years after the shark attack. It looked at how she coped with every day living.

Beryl riding a bike as a 16-year-old, after the shark attack.

Keith Morrin said she refused to wear the heavy prosthetics.

“She would change her children’s nappies with the pin in her mouth and use her arms to position the old-fashioned cloth nappy,” he said.

Mr Morrin remembers her smoking a cigarette with a big long holder with no problems.

“She loved animals and went on to paint. I still have some of her pieces,” Alan Morrin said.

“Everyone was amazed at what she could do.”

Beryl Morrin as an adult.

Beryl Morrin didn’t let the shark attack affect her ability to do things for herself.

Liverpool Council chief executive Michael Cullen said seven signs would be put up around the lake where users are most active.

These include Chpping Norton boat ramp, Chipping Norton Sailing Club launch area, Grand Flaneur Beach, Angle Beach and the roadway entrance to Heron Park and Davy Robinson boat ramp at Moorebank.

He said they were there to “alert people to the dangers of sharks”.