We’ve just received this email from a nudist who visited Campbells Cove (Werribee) today, and we thought we should post it – everyone knows it’s not our most popular beach, but this description makes it sound positively horrible!

To whom it may concern,

I decided to visit Campbells Cove today on a whim, as I was sort of nearby and had never visited before. The weather was reasonably warm, but cloudy and quite windy. I drove out to Campbells Cove Rd and turned left like the directions said. The road past the beach huts is excellent and appears quite new, so I was initially pleased with the location.

However, the newish road soon ran out, just at the end of all the beach huts. From there it turned into a standard dirt/gravel road as it crossed a turn-around area, and then it turned into the WORST carpark area at any beach I’ve ever visited! The potholes were massive, to the point where I thought my largish 4WD might even struggle!! This is not a carpark for your average sedan or small car, it’s precarious driving at best! Recent rains have not helped the situation.

Just when I thought it wasn’t going to get worse, I saw the beach – well, I saw the little strip of sand/seaweed/deadwood that counts as the beach! It’s not a pleasant bit of beach, the view (and smell) is not that great, and the little low “dunes” that exist are barely waist height and provide almost no protection from the carpark. Once I saw this, my interest in stripping off took a dive!

But the biggest disappointment was the other beach “users” – for a cloudy and windy Monday, about 10 cars in the carpark seemed like a lot. Yet there was not a single nude person on the beach. A quick look around identified a number of males either in their cars or loitering “with intent”(?) nearby. I was left with little doubt as to what they were all congregated in the carpark for. It clearly needs a police presence, although the beach itself is hardly worth visiting even without all the loitering.

I noticed there was a young couple with a dog walking on the beach – not nude, and I don’t blame them! I hope it wasn’t their first visit to a Victorian nude beach, it would be a sad introduction to our great beaches otherwise. I would suggest you update your website to let people know that Campbells Cove is not worth the visit. I’m not going back there ever again, that’s for sure.

Has anyone else been to Campbell’s Cove lately? What did you experience?

A great article about all the beaches in The Age today. According to the article:

For more than 30 years, nudists have been getting their gear off around Melbourne. Here’s Metro’s guide to the best clothes-free beaches. Luke Buckmaster reports

Great comments from Barbara Rolfe, who represented the views of the nudist/naturist community very well in the article. Werner Jacob, president of the Nudist Association of Victoria, also made some excellent comments, so thanks to both of you.

More from the article:

Nakedness and liberation is an association widely echoed within the nudist community, but self-empowerment tends to mean little to those who campaign against public nudity. Pro-nude organisations such as Free Beaches Australia Incorporated claim their shores are constantly under threat from the nudity naysayers: councils, property developers and religious lobbyers.

To read the entire article, click here

We delayed posting this information while we waited for comments/outcry’s from the various councils, but since none has been forthcoming, we assume this information is now safe to release. This letter was received by one our our representatives on 22 March, from DSE South West Region in Ballarat – this is an official response given by DSE on behalf of the Minister for Planning, and therefore is about as official a response as we’ll ever see!!

Thank you for your letter dated 5th March 2007 to the Minister for Planning in respect of the Point Impossible clothing optional beach. I have been asked to reply to you on the Minister’s behalf.

The department (DSE) appreciates your interest and participation in the January 2007 workshop held by Surf Coast Shire. The contribution of stakeholders in such processes is very important, and brings many benefits including informed and balanced decision making.

I am pleased to note your endorsement of the outcomes of the workshop. I understand that the Shire in conjunction with the Great Ocean Road Coast Committee (GORCC) have commenced to implement the workshop’s recommendations for improved management. I am advised that works include widening of access paths, revegetation of disturbed dunes, installation of pedestrian barrier fencing to protect dune vegetation and installation of upgraded signs including interpretative signs encouraging dune conservation, are proposed or underway. I am also pleased to hear that your Association has been working with and supporting GORCC with its land management responsibilities at Point Impossible.

I am advised that the other councils who have raised similar concerns in respect to the locations and management of clothing optional beaches in their municipalities are being encouraged to run similar workshops to review their concerns and identify the management options. Any changes to the status of any of the currently designated clothing optional beaches will be based on a thorough understanding of the issues and options and through consultation with stakeholders.

At this stage, I understand that no change to the status of any of these beaches is proposed.

Thank you for your interest in this matter.

HURRAH!!!! Well done to everyone involved, but in particular to Rob, who relentlessly wrote letters, made phone calls, and generally hassled anyone who would listen – perhaps the State Government simply gave in to stop the flood of letters and calls?!?

It’s also important to note that last sentence before the sign-off – no change to the status of any beach is proposed!!! Now that the heat is slightly reduced, we can use the coming winter months to work on our strategy for next summer, when we hope to show we can keep our part of the bargain and get real interest from beach users in looking after their facilities.

We’re proud of our efforts, and we’re pleased that so many people were able to support us along the way. Thanks to everyone who got involved and did their bit to help save our beaches.

We’re also pleased to note that Cr Humphrey, the one person who started this whole roller-coaster ride, has now moved on to something new – opposition to parking meters being installed in beach carparks… and so it goes….

There’s a poll showing currently on the front page of the online Geelong Advertiser, posing the question “Should nude beaches be banned?”. We’re going to ignore the obvious generalisation of the topic on the grounds that there must have been a limited number of words the Addy could fit in that little box!!

Please get along to the poll and show your support for keeping nude beaches open for the enjoyment of thousands of users from all over Victoria, nationally and even around the world

http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/

Update: 27/1/07 1.45pm – 68 voters say no to banning CO beaches, from 76 respondents that’s 89% for keeping them open!!

Update: 28/1/07 10.00am – 187 votes are in, with 91% in favour of not banning nude beaches!!

Update: 30/1/07 11.40pm – 602 votes are in, with 92% saying nude beaches should not be banned!! Support for keeping the beaches open is clearly there

Update: 31/1/07 11.50pm – 662 votes are in, with 92% still saying nude beaches should not be banned!! After 4 days of running, it looks like slightly more than 9 in 10 people want to keep nude beaches open. That’s a very interesting result indeed!!

According to this article in the Gellong Advertiser (Click here to read), support for the poll has gone international!! Just think, lots of potential international nudist tourists now know Torquay and Pt Impossible exist!! Nudism is good for tourism, we say!!

An article appeared in the Werribee/Hoppers Crossing today, by Kirsty Ross, titled “City must face” (Click here to read). Kirsty has written some nicely balanced stories in the past, and this one sticks to the facts – Wyndham has spent some money cleaning up the access and improving the general area, and may have done so on the assumption that they wouldn’t get any resistance to revocation of the clothing optional status.

Interestingly, Wyndham CC’s motivation appears to be related to tourism and redevelopment opportunities – both areas that the nudist community supports, and can integrate into, if there had been some consultation!! This holds true for all the beaches and the three responsible councils – all you had to do was talk to us and we could have actually worked on achieving mutually beneficial objectives!!

One day we hope the councils will realise that clothing optional beaches are identical in their requirements to the clothed beaches, the only difference between the two is the smallest amount of fabric. And a piece of clothing does not change the requirement for well maintained and managed facilities, appropriate monitoring and responses processes, and the protection of the legitimate users from the undesireable behaviour that occurs on ALL beaches, in beach carparks and toilet blocks.

Thanks to Rob for his comments, you’re right on the money as usual – check out the article if you haven’t done so already!!