Bull shark washed up onto road by flooding, locals take tooth

WIN News Townsville chief-of-staff Philip Calder spotted the shark washed up on Rita Island Road on Thursday morning while he was out covering localised flooding.

Cyclone Debbie had passed south of the area on Tuesday and had caused moderate flooding in the nearby Burdekin River, which had washed the bull shark onto the road.

"There was only moderate flooding, peaked at nine metres in Burdekin River about an hour before we took the photo," Mr Calder said.

"The poor guy had obviously been trying to escape a torrent or something like that and had beached himself on the road.

"He was looking pretty clean and wasn't decomposing, so (it probably) wasn't there long."

Mr Calder said while he was there a few locals had come down and removed a shark tooth.

"There were a couple of locals who came over with a knife and souvenired a tooth from it," he said.

The road was expected to remain flooded for a couple of days.

Mr Calder said he had been told by locals the Burdekin River was "full of bull sharks".

"They never go swimming in it," he said.

A Queensland Fire and Emergency Services spokesman, whose organisation tweeted an image of the dead shark, was not sure what would happen with the dead animal.