Sunnyside beach at Mt Eliza is now officially under threat – in the past there has been a few noises here and there about getting the CO status revoked, particularly around the same time Pt Impossible was being debated by the Surf Coast Shire Council. This time is different – the articles in the media have started!

An article appeared in the Franskston Leader titled “Bid to Strip Away Nudist Rights at Mt Eliza Nudist Beach – you can check out the article here: Click here. Another post will follow this with a high level analysis of the comments made in the article – we just want to go back and read up on the discussions from Pt Impossible, since this feels like deja vu!!

If anyone here recalls the beach battle over Pt Impossible a couple of years ago, you’ll probably know how this is going to play out. So we’re starting early on this one and asking that we all start “rallying the troops” so to speak. The same issues as Pt Impossible have already been raised, with the primary reasons given being antisocial behaviour in the car park and inappropriate use of the toilets! And again, like last time, we’d like to highlight the fact that neither of those areas are the clothing optional beach, and we expect the participants are not nudists!

We ask all beach users to continue to behave appropriately at our beaches. Victoria Police encourage people to call and report inappropriate or illegal behaviour, just like you would at any clothed beach. But most importantly, talk to each other, particularly at the beach itself – many of the beach users are not always online, may not see sites like this one or participate in the various forums, so chat to the person next to you and we can all stay informed.

It is almost certain you’ll see more articles on this topic over coming weeks – please lend your support and help fight to retain the status of the beaches we all use and enjoy! If anyone is willing to put their hand up and be involved, please let us or the forums know – there’s always a shortage of people who can attend council workshops, talk to the media, or be ready to go with comments on newspaper polls.

As a side note, kudos to Andrea Kellett, the journalist who wrote the article. It was a factual and objective piece, and didn’t follow any of the disappointing “cheap laugh” patterns we saw from articles in the papers across the bay last time we had a beach battle on our hands! We look forward to working with the media throughout this process to ensure that both sides of the argument are fairly and duly represented

Today there was a sudden flurry in activity surrounding the (ongoing) push for a new clothing optional beach closer to the city. We’re not exactly sure why the sudden interest in what has been a long time (but often unmoving) interest in a “Clothing Optional” location that is more convenient in terms of public transport – as we all know, unless you have a car then the extraordinary lengths you need to take to get to a CO beach often turns people off the idea (not to mention the parking challenges if you do have a car, particularly at Sunnyside!).

An article appeared in the Herald Sun that has more details – Click here to read. There’s also a similar version on News.com.au – Click here

From the article:

[Water Minister Tim Holding said] “I think the slogan has always been if you’ve got it flaunt it and I am willing to recognise my limitations and I won’t be encouraging the spread of nudism in anyway across Victoria”.

An interesting view and everyone is certainly welcome their own, but it is clear that Mr Holding has never frequented a Clothing Optional beach, as he would very quickly identify the lack of supermodels trying to “flaunt” anything!! We hope that perhaps Mr Holding’s view of not encouraging nudism (which he is entitled to do) does not stretch to actively discouraging it!!

Sandringham MP Murray Thompson said he would oppose any proposal for a nude beach in Sandringham for safety and health reasons. He said families should be encouraged to cover up to lower the risk of skin cancer.

That’s the first time we’ve heard of that argument against a clothing optional beach – obviously nudists encourage a sun smart approach, and a visit to a nude beach will soon highlight that nudists and their use of umbrellas and sun shade (tents) are more sun smart than your average beach goer!! But we digress – the swimming attire of your average beach goer has less coverage than most underwear anyway… enough said!

But the main point we’d like to make here is that this discussion is not at all about “us and them” – the goal is always to provide Clothing Optional beaches to be used by anyone in any state of dress. The nudist community is the first to acknowledge that the beaches are for everyone to use and enjoy, and making them clothing option is simply a slight adjustment on how they are currently being used!! Suggesting that any beach should be “nude only” would be the same as trying to prevent beach users from wearing T-shirts and shorts and calling them over-dressed – it just doesn’t make sense.

It was interesting to note that (at the time of writing) the Herald Sun poll attached to the above article was showing just over 70% support for the idea of a clothing optional beach closer to the city (2419 Yes from 3433 votes). Many of the article comments recognise the reality of beach life today – swimming attire is so close to nude already, it’s not really a huge leap anyway.

Lady God1va, famous for her work on the 4th Plinth in London, has made the front cover of Canadian naturist magazine FCN. Kudos for continuing to promote a positive message to a global audience!!

Even though it’s a Canadian magazine, it’s not overly expensive and digital as well (so no shipping costs!!) – and the article featuring Lady God1va looks like a good read too (you can get a few free “zooms” when you try the site out!). Click here to check it out!

Well done Lady God1va, keep up the great work!!

An interesting, entertaining and informative article written by a non-nudist who (somehow inadvertently) ended up participating in a “nude olympics”!!

Well worth checking out, which you can do by clicking this link

A great quote from the article, on “the moment of truth”:

I’m naked! I feel exceedingly pleased with myself. My body feels like a suit of armour – my skin is doing the job my clothes used to do. And my body hang-ups have gone.

(Side note: Site upgrade is progressing slower than expected, it would appear this is a pretty busy time of year, apparently there are approaching holidays and festivities and plenty to cause distraction. At least the weather has been lovely in our fine state, make sure you get to the beaches if you have a chance – and, as always, behave appropriately and report anything inappropriate to the authorities!)

We only just noticed that this site (and variants of it) has been up for 5 years!! The domain was first registered 2 Oct 2004, and here we are in November 2009 still going!! We also realised that the site has actually only had 2 style/theme refreshes in that time, and so comes that time again – time for a new look, and perhaps some new and enhanced functionality as well!!

We’re happy to take feedback, and we certainly encourage suggestions on what you’d like to see on the site – but mostly we hope you’ll be patient, since the update is going to leave a little bit of a mess initially!! Like any home renovation, the walls have to come down first before the cool new stuff gets installed!!

Keep checking back as we go through the upgrade process – another note will be posted once the dust is settled and we think it is done (and then you can yell at us for all the things that are broken!!)