Groups of young Anglo Australians began congregating along
southern Sydney's North Cronulla Beach at around 8 am on
Sunday, 11 December 2005. Drinking heavily, cooking barbeques and
draped in Union Jacks, the crowd had grown to
around 5,000 strong by 10 am.
NSW police had been aware that locals had been planning racially
motivated attacks since the previous Tuesday, as text messages had
been intercepted regarding a planned day of
"wog-bashing". Later investigations found that
270,000 such messages had been circulated.
At around 1 pm on the day, the Cronulla riots began, when a
Middle Eastern man exiting the beach was chased by a crowd and had
to seek refuge in a bistro. From there, the situation escalated as
"white Australians" hunted down people of "Middle
Eastern appearance" and attacked them.
