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Aussie couple's 'crazy' find in river 30km inland: 'Swimming towards me'

Madi Jade was in the water when she saw something that made her flee immediately.

‘Crazy’ footage has captured the incredible moment an Aussie couple came face-to-face with a shark while going for a swim at a popular spot.

Madi Jade and her partner Bryce Moll were cooling down at Ross and Locke on the Mulgrave River — about 30km inland, south of Cairns — on Saturday when they spotted something moving in the water.

“I was in about up to my knee when I saw [a shark] was swimming towards me. It didn’t get close [because] I got out straight away!” the 24-year-old told Yahoo News Australia on Sunday. “We were very surprised when we saw it! The shark just kept swimming laps.”

Madi Jade and the bull shark she spotted swimming in a river.
Madi Jade and her partner were cooling down at Ross and Locke on the Mulgrave River when they saw a bull shark. Source: Supplied

Footage captured by the stunned pair shows what appears to be a baby bull shark gliding through the shallow water as the couple stand less than a metre away on the shore.

Some locals stunned by shark so 'far up stream'

In an attempt to alert other residents who may frequent the swimming spot, Ms Jade posted two videos of the “little fella” on Facebook, with the clips quickly attracting almost 700 comments.

While some viewers deemed the incident “crazy” and tagged their friends to declare “no more swimming days for me”, others pointed out that bull sharks naturally swim upstream and can be found in most river systems in Australia.

“We’ve seen them at Aloomba (part of the Mulgrave) but not this far up stream, holy! That’s awesome,” one woman said. “Omg such shallow waters. Also I’ve never seen them there and we have been going to Ross and Locke for decades!” another wrote, while a third person declared there was “no risk”.

“I thought everyone knew about them little sharks in Ross and Locke. I remember 15 years going tubing and in the deep, still sections you would see them swimming around,” one man commented.

Bull shark killed teen, authorities confirm

Tragically, a 16-year-old Perth student was killed by a bull shark — the only species of shark that regularly inhabit freshwater — in the Swan River last month. Testing has confirmed the species was involved in Stella Berry’s death.

The teen had been riding a jet ski in Fremantle when she jumped into the Swan River to swim with dolphins and was attacked. Authorities are now tagging bull sharks in the river to better understand risks and improve community safety, Environment Minister Reece Whitby said.

Two years ago, Perth man Cameron Wrathall was swimming in the same river when he was badly bitten on the leg by a bull shark.

With AAP

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