We were alerted to an article in the Geelong Advertiser by the eagle eyes of Vita Nuda. You can check out the full article “Creep Blitz on Nudist Beaches” if you click here.

Cr Ron Humphrey is back, and interested in our beach again!! Given the outcome last time, we would have thought he would have bigger issues to resolve. Apparently not. That’s OK, with Ron having his second shot at being on Council, he can be sure there’ll be plenty of people scrutinising the media ready to jump on anything interesting he might have to say. The whole article itself is worth the read, but we noticed a couple of interesting quotes worth mentioning below.

At least 11 people have been handed $200 fines by police and local law officers since the two- week blitz started last Friday.

That’s brilliant – we’re always happy to see people who behave inappropriately or are caught in areas outside the designated clothing optional area to be dealt with accordingly. The nudist community in Australia, and around the world for that matter, is often tarnished with a brush not of our own making. The Pt Impossible beach has two problem areas – the carpark/toilets and the dunes. Neither of these areas are designated nude areas. Other beaches have carparks and toilets, and have similar problems – so lets blame all the beach users on those beaches as well, surely they must be responsible for things that happen nearby. Or the dogwalkers, surely they have a part in it?? We’re being facetious here, but you get our drift.

And while the article itself is not bad in it’s general flavour, the journalist (Andrea Hamblin) does let Ron get away with a couple too many general purpose “headline grabbers”:

The beach threatened the family-friendly atmosphere of Torquay’s growth corridor, he said.

C’mon Andrea, that’s weak sauce – quoting something just because it came out of his mouth doesn’t make it good! What does that sentence even mean? The beach itself hasn’t done anything except be a beach, it is as family-friendly as Whites Beach, and Torquay’s growth corridor is down a dirt road?? You can quote us on this one – “The narrow dirt road to Pt Impossible threatens the safety of family cars, placing families at risk driving down Torquay’s growth corridor”. Maybe that will get the road fixed, it’s a real issue!! Again, we’re being facetious, but it is always handy to know who all the players are – a quote is only worth as much as the reputation of the source…

Cr Ron Humprey is not a new character in this “close the beach” theatre production, a show that has been running for years. Cr Ron hasn’t changed his tune much either, still blaming the nudists and continuing to mix his messages:

“When it was originally proclaimed (a nude beach), it was a tip down there and now there’s a big hotel, a golf course, a lot of residential development and a lot of kids,” Cr Humphrey said.

And a nude beach, Ron – you forgot to mention the international tourist attracting, revenue raising, family and business friendly beach that brings people with disposable incomes into Australia. European tourists who look up nude beaches in Australia are attracted to Victoria BECAUSE it has 4 nude beaches – and do you think they’ll visit your town if they see that the police AREN’T cracking down on inappropriate behaviour? Do you think they’ll visit if they see a Shire Councillor who thinks shutting down one beach solves an unrelated problem?

If the nude beach lost it’s designation, would the inappropriate behaviour in the dunes and carpark stop?? Or, from the flip side, is it only the well-behaved and ever vigilant/passionate nudists that have prevented the dunes/carpark from being much worse? We’ve made points about this in the past, relating to Pt Impossible and Sunnyside specifically. We even know from the Monash University study “Feasibility of Identifying Family Friendly Beaches along Victoria’s Coastline” that crime prevention is best achieved through environmental design and having MORE people use the beach, not less. If you are interested, you can read our previous post

Cr Humphrey said the perverse behaviour of some beachgoers could ruin the area for others.
“If that area was still being used that way, I would take up the campaign (to have it closed) myself,” he said.

Cr Ron, you know it’s not the beachgoers who are ruining it for others, it never has been. A more constructive action that all beach users on the Surf Coast would support and applaud you for is to clean up the inappropriate use of ALL carparks, and ALL toilet blocks. Focusing on the one beach is a distraction and not looking at the real source of the issue. Surf Coast Shire residents look to you for an approach to solving the big issues, not the one nearest your backyard. But if you want to take up the campaign, you know we’ll be happy to jump in to make sure it stays open to nudists.

Just a couple of quick additional notes:

• We look forward to the Geelong Advertiser, Surf Coast Times and other local papers reporting fair and balanced news on these topics. We also, as always, invite any of those papers and their reporters to contact us if they want a community perspective; and
• Cr Humphrey is very familiar with our passionate approach to keeping the nude beach open, while making sure the dunes and the carpark (non-nude areas) are identified and targeted for exactly the kind of blitzes mentioned in this article.

The nude beach itself is not the issue, and never has been – those involved in defeating Cr Ron’s last attempt to close Pt Impossible in 2006 will be ready again to jump in again, and we invite the nudist community to show their support of the beach by putting comments in to this site and directly against newspaper articles as we identify them. Feel free to write to Andrea Hamblin, it looks like she’s one of the few assigned to quoting Ron! Her email address is on her link above…

As always, nudists behave appropriately on the beach, don’t go in the dunes and report inappropriate behaviour around the beach to the police – we fully support the Torquay police and the Surf Coast Shire in addressing the inappropriate behaviour of a group of non-nudists acting in non-designated areas. Their behaviour is not a reflection of the nudist community, is not in line with nudist beach etiquette, and should be stomped on.

Just had this one sent in to us, it would appear that the Great Ocean Road Coast Committee (GORCC) is kicking off the planning for the Coastal Management Plan (CMP). This is a seriously important process – these management plans become the basis for projects, funding and other coastal programs that guide and shape how the spaces under management are used.

Beaches affected are Pt Impossible and Southside, and this process is our opportunity to make comments or suggestions covering various topics around the beaches and their management.

We highly recommend anyone interested in contributing should fill out the online survey, or register to attend one of the workshops coming up later this month. We missed out on being part of the CMP Community Reference Group (decided back in September), so this is our chance to get our voices heard!

Check out these links to get more info:
- GORCC home page – http://www.gorcc.com.au/
- About the CMP – http://www.gorcc.com.au/projects/298/
- CMP Fact Sheet – Fact Sheet
- CMP Survey – http://surveyfactory.net/s/746/cmpsurvey1

Just a short update this time around, to let everyone know that our efforts this year at Clean Up Australian Day Point Impossible were a great success!! We doubled last years attendance, largely to the excellent efforts of our organiser Jenni (thanks Jenni!!). Every year we collect a little less than prior years, which is always good!

After the cleaning was done, we all enjoyed a BBQ and a chat, and then some of the group spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach enjoying the lovely weather – best weather we’ve had for CUAD since we first started 4 years ago!

On other notes, we did find a few “meerkats” up in the dunes. Most took our advice and headed down to the beach when reminded that being in the dunes was illegal. As for the rest, they’ll come to realise soon enough that the combination of dedicated nudists and dune conservationists will result in more reports to police, more visits by GORCC, and more attention on their dune activity in general. At some point, being in the dunes will be more hassle than it’s worth!

Join us next year for CUAD and support your beach – we’re working hard to keep it clean and open for your use, so a couple of hours effort one day a year is not a huge amount to ask in return!

For regular readers of this site, you’ll know that a group of us head out every year to take part in Clean Up Australia Day, with Point Impossible beach as our chosen clean-up location. This will be our third (4th?) year of taking part, and every year we find a little less rubbish than the year before – testament to the care and dedication nudists have to looking after their beaches! Even the dunes area (where no-one should be anyway) seems cleaner each year.

This year is no different, with our group seeking (and likely getting) permission to enter the dunes area (clothed) for our clean-up efforts. We walk the beach as well, to make sure it is spic and span!! The carpark and surrounding areas also get the once-over.

The details this year are similar to prior years – meet at the carpark at 10am on Sunday 6th March. The plan is to work until around 1pm (if we need that long), followed by a sausage sizzle (bring a gold coin!).

Our clean-up site is registered already – head on over to http://www.cleanupaustraliaday.org.au/Pt+Impossible+Beach and register your details!

We’re looking for more supporters this year to come out and assist – while it’s great to see the regulars each year, a few new faces would be great!! If you use the beach and appreciate the facilities that we are lucky to have access to, then half a day out of your year is not much to ask!

A huge thanks to Jenni for being our organiser this year, your efforts are appreciated!

A new article appeared in the Surf Coast Times (read more here) providing an update on the “stalker” event on New Years Day. If you want to refresh your memory, you can check out the post previous to this one!!

Anyway, the summary is that the court date is set for February 17 in the Geelong Magistrates – everyone please keep an eye out and let us know the result if you hear it.