2005 Cronulla riots

2005 Cronulla riots
Police observing crowds prior to confrontations
Date	11 – 12 December 2005
Location	Cronulla (spreading to Maroubra and Brighton-Le-Sands) 34°03′06″S 151°09′21″E / 34.05159°S 151.15574°E / -34.05159; 151.15574Coordinates: 34°03′06″S 151°09′21″E / 34.05159°S 151.15574°E / -34.05159; 151.15574
Methods	Race riot
Casualties
Injuries	26 (11 December)
Arrested	104 (285 charges laid)

The 2005 Cronulla riots were a series of race riots and outbreaks of mob violence in Sydney, beginning on 11 December 2005 in the beachside suburb of Cronulla which spread, over the next few nights, to additional suburbs.

The riots stemmed from tensions between youths from Sydney's Lebanese and white populations.

A crowd gathered at Cronulla on the morning of Sunday, 11 December, and, by midday, approximately 5,000 people had gathered near the beach. The gathering began peacefully, but later in the afternoon a man of Middle Eastern appearance was surrounded outside a local hotel and attacked by members of the crowd. The police eventually intervened. Several similar attacks took place later in the day, followed by retaliatory attacks that night and on subsequent nights, resulting in extensive property damage. Violence spread to other southern suburbs of Sydney, where more assaults occurred, including two stabbings and attacks on ambulances and police officers.

The riots were widely condemned by local, state and federal members of parliament, police, local community leaders, and residents of Cronulla and adjacent areas. A large number of arrests were made over the subsequent months, from both the initial riot on 11 December and the retaliations over the subsequent nights. Travel warnings for Australia were issued by some countries but were later removed.

On 4 December 2005, a fight broke out between a group of volunteer surf lifesavers and youths of Middle Eastern descent. These incidents were widely commented on in the Sydney media and are considered to be a key factor in a racially motivated confrontation the following weekend.

New South Wales Police had been recording racial and ethnic tensions and incidents in and around Cronulla since October 2005. There is also a history of conflict between Cronulla locals and those visiting from the Western suburbs ("Westies") with "bashings" common since the 1960s as part of a turf war between Westies and local surfies. The previous summer, on Australia Day 26 January 2005 a non-racial riot occurred with around two to three thousand young people in the Cronulla area engaged in "civil disobedience", at one stage hurling missiles at police attempting to control the crowd. Several of the youths who were arrested that day for assaulting police officers were draped in the Australian flag at the time.