[gavinlit]

Well I can tell you what's up. That beach is about 20klicks from my house and the only one directly reached by a train line in sydney. Hence it gets plenty of 'blow ins' from other parts of sydney who don't mix particularly well with the local surfing culture.

This particular media article (I'm sure you will appreciate this fint)seems to be stretching the facts somewhat. Check out smh.com.au for a more balanced report. Here's what I understand:
Two young lifesavers got bashed on the weekend at north cronulla beach
The locals (and much of sydney), obviously pretty upset, got heated up.
A text message circulated of a 'call to arms type' for all shire residents to get down to the beach on sunday.
As such a large police presence on the beach on sunday & barely anyone else there - there's some pics on the daily telegraph site of an empty beach on a hot sunday.
I havn't heard anything on the news about any other riots - associated or otherwise. Similarly none of the papers I read (both spectrums) reported 5000 people clashing with police. First I've heard of it right here. One of my mates in the fireis is also in the local polic so I'll ask him at drill this week but it sounds like media bs to me.