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!!

Today we received our first official communication from the State Government, in the form of a status letter from Ian Voigt, Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) Regional Director South West. Ian states that councils responsible for all 4 Victorian beaches have asked for either revocation or review, and that DSE “is currently preparing advice for the Minister for his consideration and a decision on the way forward.” You can read the full letter here (Click here to read)

It was nice to get official communication, after all these months of wondering if our cries were being heard. But it’s not nice to get confirmation that all the beaches are under attack!!

We’re surprised that councils and the State Government think revocation of clothing optional beaches is a step forward in our current society. Cape D’Agde in France brings in 300,000 visitors every year from all over the world, because they have invested in infrastructure and facilities for a booming nudist tourist industry. In Europe more beaches are clothing optional than not (and even some parks in some town centres). Nudists are willing to spend their hard earned dollars where quality facilities are located - does Surf Coast Shire want to lose those tourist dollars to people willing to travel to Sydney or Adelaide because Victoria is heading backwards towards where Queensland is currently??? Does Mornington realise that inappropriate activity in the carpark won’t go away if you ban the nudists from the beach 300 meters away!!

All it would take is the realisation that nudists on the beaches are in the best position to improve the situation. Ban the nudists, and there’ll be nothing stopping the inappropriate behaviour at poorly used beaches if there aren’t any crowds.

This one happened a week ago, we’ve only just found the audio now (in fact, since the nudist community does not appear to have been invited to comment, we’re lucky to have found it at all!). At the end of this article is a link to a snippet of audio from Cr Ron Humphrey’s interview on ABC’s Radio National on Sept 5 breakfast with Fran Kelly. You can read the story (Click here to read) and download the entire show (Ron’s at the end of the second segment). Or you can just click the link at the end of this post to listen directly.

To summarise, Fran Kelly asked a couple of interesting questions that hinted at some underlying knowledge of the issue, but did not appear to have the time (or the willingness) to really hold Ron up to the light and check the transparency of some of his statements. In true Ron form, here’s some of our observations from the interview:

• Ron admits that only Pt Impossible is the target of the council motion, and cites growth of Torquay as the justification
• Ron admits that the problems are not related specifically to nude bathing
• Ron seemed to have a problem expressing himself in the middle of the interview, stuttering over “depraved behaviour”, while also failing to attribute said behaviour to nudists (or to anyone specifically for that matter!!)
• Apparently Ron has been approached by 15 of his neighbours reporting they’ve been accosted and approached, yet again no nudist has been accused of these activities, and yet again the police report no sexual assaults recorded (but we already knew that!)
• Talking about police reports, apparently stats aren’t collected according to Ron, unless the calls go through 000. Yet Torquay police informed us that all calls are recorded (and that makes sense - how could a policing system be relied on if the local station didn’t record every report they received!! We can accept the odd paperwork problem, but a local police station that doesn’t record anything - come on Ron, you’re stretching!!)
• Ron claims Torquay police have run “undercover operations… trying to catch these people, and it’s very difficult” - given Ron’s penchant for avoiding facts wherever possible, our money is on no operations ever existing!! We would have thought if this behaviour was as bad as Ron makes out, surely an undercover operation is overkill for a problem so obvious (and he admits there aren’t enough police in general, so who’s running these operations anyway???)
• Apparently Pt Impossible is advertised on Gay websites as a meeting place. Funnily enough, it’s also advertised as a nudists meeting place, and it is advertised as a clothing optional beach around the world. Perhaps Ron is actually suggesting that the depraved behaviour is coming from the Gay community - I’m sure they’ll take that accusation on the chin…
• Apparently (and this one is a show stopper!!), “the nudists are leading the push at the Mornington one (Sunnyside) to shut it down because of the behaviour down there” - wow, that’s the first we’ve heard of that, and the Melbourne_nudists-naturists community are big users of Sunnyside beach at Mt Eliza - we certainly are not pushing for anything except better facilities!!

There’s plenty more gold where that all came from. As usual, Ron is behaving true to form - not a verifiable fact to be seen anywhere, lots of specious arguments supported by emotive rhetoric, and this time around he even topped his previous best by also trying to link three different topics (the beach, the nudist community and the gay community) into one almighty argument supporting his cause.

Have a listen to the audio and make up your own mind - We would have liked Fran Kelly (Radio NAtional presenter) to hold a candle a bit closer to Ron’s paper-thin commentary, particularly since (as usual) we were not given an opportunity to comment. Such is our battle - and so it continues.

You can listen to the audio - Click here (credit to ABC’s Radio National)

An article appeared in The Age (Melbourne) today, titled No nudes good news for beach towns (Click here to read). We were concerned with the title initially, and the first paragraph, since both seem to indicate that the issue is between nudists and the local communities. Obviously we are all aware that it is Australia’s nudists vs 4 local councillors, 3 of which have been very quiet on their support of their ring leader (master?) Cr Ron Humphrey since our response to his appallingly prepared and executed motion.

But credit to Rachel Kleinman (the journalist responsible), she does only dedicate half of the article to Cr Ron’s repeated ramblings (and note we’re still waiting for him to utter a verifiable fact!!), and uses the rest of the article to present some actual facts, such as:

Victoria Police’s Surf Coast Inspector Bill Mathers said there had been no sexual assaults reported at Point Impossible in recent years.

… the row over nudity was more a “social and community than a police issue”. (Inspector Bill Mathers)

“Wilful and obscene exposure occurs everywhere, it is not necessarily connected to nudist beaches,” Inspector Mathers said

“We were being informed of a really responsible and strategic process that was overturned (by Cr Humphrey’s motion),” Cr Mears said.

The decision clearly rests with the Minister - obviously the nudist community is eager to be involved in this process, being directly affected by any decisions that are made. Of concern is the comment from Minister Hulls spokeswoman Claire Miller, who stated:

“We will be considering the councils’ requests and consulting with them,” Ms Miller said.

What about consulting with the Victorian Nudist community? I hope this was an oversight of the news article, and not a stance of the Minister’s office to exclude the community from the consultation process!!

Everyone please keep writing those letters - the Addresses page has been updated with new contact details