Jellyfish stings in Australia

The Irukandji Jellyfish is tiny, but very venomous.

Jellyfish stings in Australia can cause death, with there being several venomous species of jellyfish, such as the box jellyfish and Irukandji Jellyfish. Box jellyfish have caused more than 60 deaths in Australia in the past hundred years.^[1] Although they are commonly mistaken for jellyfish, bluebottles are actually siphonophores.

Numbers of stings

Irukandji are rarely found in Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia. Between 1985 and 1997 from cases of Irukandji sting where location was recorded, there were 83.4% in Queensland, 9.1% in the Northern Territory, and 7.5% in Western Australia; 81.5% of cases occurred in the afternoon.^[2] In a fourteen-year period there were 660 Irukandji stings in Australia, which were recorded by Dr Fenner, a medical officer with Surf Lifesaving Australia.^[3] There were 159 Irukandji stings reported in Broome in a five-year period with 25% of those stung being hospitalised but no recorded deaths.^[4] There were 62 people reported being stung by Irukandji in Cairns in 1996; of these more than half occurred in December, 92% were stung on hotter than average days, with 63% occurring while swimming inside a stinger net enclosure on the beach.^[5] In summer 2001-02 there were 160 people stung by the middle of February, with around 100 of these in Cairns, and between 10 and 20 in Townsville, the Whitsundays, Great Keppel and Agnes Waters.^[6]

List of fatal stings

This is a list of fatal jellyfish stings that occurred in Australian territorial waters by decade in reverse chronological order.

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

21st century

Name, age	Date	Species	Location; Comments
7yo girl	Jan 2006		Umagico Beach near Bamaga,^[7]
7yo boy	Mar 2003	box jellyfish	near Cairns,^[8]
44yo male	Apr 2002		Port Douglas,
58yo male	Jan 2002	Irukandji Jellyfish	Hamilton Island,

20th century

Name, age	Date	Species	Location; Comments
5yo boy	Jan 1987	box jellyfish	^[9]
	1955	box jellyfish	Cardwell,^[9]
	1953	box jellyfish	Saltwater Creek, Townsville ^[9]
	1951	box jellyfish	Kissing Point Baths, Townsville ^[9]
	1949	box jellyfish	North Mission Beach near Tully,^[9]
	1939	box jellyfish	Coogarra and Proserpine,^[9]
	1937	box jellyfish	Bramston Beach near Babinda,^[9]
	1934	box jellyfish	Coogarra,^[9]
	1923	box jellyfish	Proserpine,^[9]
young male	May 1911		Pioneer Bay,^[10]

19th century

Name, age	Date	Species	Location; Comments
	December 1884	box jellyfish	Ross Creek, Townsville ^[9]

Non-fatal stings

Some jellyfish attacks which have appeared in reliable sources are listed below.