"Teeth" aren't as big a deal as people seem to think - tho South oz does have a rep as Australia's most shark infested state
Doesn't bother most of us, tho. The reality is that you there's soemthing like a 1:900000 chance of being attacked here, as opposed to the 1:1000000 in the other states.
Still far more likely to be savaged to death by a crazed porker or die driving to the beach.
Surfing alone really isn't an issue, either way. Head to any of the places I outlined and you'll be amongst a group of other surfers. Head there and explore and you'll find somewhere uncrowded. Time of the week and swell obviously matters, tho.
If you choose to surf here you'll probably want to get your head around not worrying about sharks. We get two species - the Bronze Whaler and the Great White. So we really don't tend to worry unless a shark is over about 3 1/2 meters. And you don't see the one that gets you. I suppose you might say we just learn the warning signs. The standard stuff you can find all over the web. You'll find some
here.
If you won't have a car the best thing you can do is try to get a place on the mid-coast stretch and save up a few hundres AU$ for a cheap car. It'll make a bigg difference to the scope of waves available to you.
Oh yeah. At 4 and 8 years old my kids are just learning
-doug