The news is in and it’s all good - Cr Dean Webster is now Mayor of the Surf Coast Shire Council. Like Cr Rose Hodge before him, we found Dean to be a reasonable and logical Councillor, willing to hear all sides of a discussion and let common sense prevail.

But it wasn’t a landslide win, and it does look like we’re heading into another period of split council. If anyone knows how council terms work (ie how long councillors serve, re-elections, etc), we’d appreciate hearing from you.

The Victorian nudist community has never asked councils anywhere to pick sides - just stick to the facts and give nudists a fair go!! We’re no different to anyone else on the beaches, we just wear less!!

Here’s the link to the article if you want to read more -> Click here!!

And remember, if you see anything inappropriate on the legal nude beaches, make sure you report it!! In particular, the carparks and dunes areas are NOT part of the nude beaches - be responsible nudists, make a stand for our facilities and report anything you see!!

As mentioned previously, the position of Mayor of the Surf Coast Shire is up for grabs, after Cr Rose Hodge decided not to renominate. Cr Rose did a fine job, by using common sense and showing that good decisions simply required open discussion and no bias. So of course we are interested to see who will fill her shoes in case there is another round of beach threats at the end of the coming summer.

A bit over a week ago it looked like it would be a fairly quiet transition, with Cr Dean Webster deciding to put his hand up, and getting Rose’s support in the process. But a quiet transition is not Cr Ron Humphrey’s style, and it looks like he wants the spot for himself. A recent article by Aleks Devic in the Echo (apologies, we don’t seem to have the actual date) indicates that is Ron going to contest, and he wants council unity!!!

The most fascinating quote has to be from Ron - “… I believe I can unite everyone and remove factions within the council.” From our interaction with the council when the beach status was under threat and we attended the community workshop, the only faction that appeared to exist had only one member… guess who?

In a way it would be interesting to see what Ron would do as Mayor in the highly unlikely event he got the job - we’d be assured another beach fight, but at the same time to have THE MAYOR producing the quality quotes Ron became famous for would be a highly entertaining media frenzy…

Anyway, it’s an interesting read, click the link below to see a scan of the article (and if anyone knows the date this ran, please let us know). Feel free to SMS the Echo if you feel so inclined (it’s only a poll, your vote will not count - be interesting if it did!!)

Webster, Humphrey battle (article credit to the Echo, written by Aleks Devic)

Registrations are now open for Clean Up Australia Day 2008. Point Impossible is registered again, and we want nudists to show their support for one of the great Victorian beaches by getting involved!!

Just follow the relevant link below to get more information and to register!!

Clean Up Pt Impossible Details - More details about the day, and contact information
Register - Register and join the Point Impossible Team

If you use Victorian Beaches and appreciate how precious they are, particularly to our community (and given how hard we’ve been fighting to keep them!), then jump on board and help out - a couple of hours of cleaning goes a long way to showing the community and the councils that we are serious about our lifestyle and our beaches!!

Contact Rob if you have any queries about Clean Up Australia Day (details are on the first link above), or drop us a line here!!

And huge thanks to Rob for getting this organised again - the last one went quite well, and we’re looking forward to an even bigger turn out this year!!

(Click the picture to see an article in The Age from last years event)

Just had word in today from one of the nudist community regulars at Pt Impossible that the promise of increased police presence at Posso does appear to have materialised!! Early afternoon today, a couple of police (looking a little hot, understandably!) did a full return lap of the beach, spoke to a couple near the entrance and left.

If you are on the beach and see the police doing the rounds, please go and say hi to them, or give them a wave - we are a friendly community, don’t be shy about it!! But most importantly, if you have seen inappropriate behaviour, or have noticed people loitering in the dunes or the carpark, absolutely mention it if the police wander past. And if you see anything you would normally report to police on any other beach, don’t ignore it just because you are on a CO beach - Inappropriate behaviour is not acceptable any time, anywhere and should be reported to authorities so it can be stamped out!!

We are really pleased the police made the effort on such a warm day, well done guys!! A regular beach walk is a great deterrent to inappropriate behaviour, and the community supports all efforts to make our beaches safer and more enjoyable for all users, including us well-behaved nudists!!

Photo: GaryH - Silent Street Photography

Our good friends over at BLL (brokenleftleg.blogspot.com) have also been tracking the Mayoral election situation down on the Surf Coast Shire, and in this latest post (“News from Ronland”) there is some good discussion about the ins-and-outs of local council politics, specifically highlighting why Cr Ron is not on the cards to be mayor any time soon…

What’s news about all this? If was the last comment that threw us into a spin (and to quote from BLL, thanks for your indirect support just from doing what you do best!!):

But do you know what the funniest thing about Ron is?

With no state or federal MPs, Ron is the highest ranking official in the Liberal Party in the Greater Geelong Region. Ha Ha.

Wow…