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

It would appear some people are either not aware of the beach issues, not listening, or just not thinking. Apologies for the long post, but we need to highlight how the community tries to do the right thing and self-regulate inappropriate behaviour so that our beaches are safer and more enjoyable environments for all users, clothed and otherwise.

First, this post appeared on one of the community forums:

play
Posted by: [name removed]
Thu Jan 15, 2009 11:14 pm (PST)
just wondering how other members feel about couples playing (discretely or otherwise) on the beach. my partner and i when visiting Sunnyside, notice that couple do attract our attention and others i presume. As for us,we enjoy a little play, nothing that would’nt be acceptable if we were in cozy’s, but we have noticed some seem to take if a little further… we enjoy watching and sometimes feel it is put on for our benefit. there is nothing more beautiful than the naked body…. or should i say two naked bodies and in an adult enviroment – should we be critical.

Clearly this kind of comment and enquiry flies in the face of everything we’ve tried to establish for our beaches, in terms of appropriate behaviour and etiquette… and sure enough, the community unleashed!! Here are 2 of the swift replies:

Re: play
Posted by: [name removed]
Fri Jan 16, 2009 2:16 pm (PST)

[name removed], wake up and look at the bigger picture.

A public beach is not the place for any kind of ‘adult play’. It is that kind of activity from users of our clothes-optional beaches that can eventually lead to its closure to nudists.

Don’t indulge their fantasies by watching, it will only encourage such inappropriate behaviour to continue. If you want to watch another couple going for it, I’m sure you can find what you’re after on the net.

And this:

Re: play
Posted by: [name removed]
Sat Jan 17, 2009 3:42 am (PST)

Noooooooooooooooooooooo!

[name removed],

Do what ever you like, with whoever you like in private.

That is not the beach, the adjacent dunes and scrub, or the toilet in the carpark.

Our hold on the beaches is tenuous, but is stronger now that it was a couple of years ago because of a lot of hard work.

The reason we almost lost the lot was to do with people who thought that a clothing optional beach was a great place for them to indulge their sexual whims.

Remember, the law says they are clothing optional – no more. Anyone engaging in activity that goes beyond simply being naked runs the risk of copping the full force of the law for offensive behaviour, obscene exposure, etc.

We encourage everyone to do the right thing on the beaches – they are clothing optional, nothing more. There is a designated area for being clothing optional, and nowhere else. You should behave on the beach the same way you would behave on any other beach (actually, we should be BETTER behaved, we have a higher standard to maintain!). And if you see something out of place, don’t be afraid to report it – the police are aware of our efforts to improve the beaches, and encourage us to report activity that doesn’t belong.

Haven’t times changed? Less than 2 years ago the fight to save our Surf Coast CO beaches from closure commenced, and here we are today with an article in the Geelong Advertiser stating:

SURF Coast Shire is offering its coastline to topless bathers after a NSW bid to outlaw the practice.

Brilliant!! Not only is our own Surf Coast Shite Council disagreeing with the recent moves in NSW to ban topless bathing, they are proactively making a statement of support!! Even better, these comments were not even related to the designated CO beaches – they were talking about ALL beaches along the Surf Coast!!

Even the Surf Coast police made a comment:

Torquay police Sergeant Brian McKiterick said flashing breasts on the beach was not an offence and he hadn’t received any complaints.

Enlightened times in Victoria it would seem – Feel free to visit our beaches, all you international tourists and NSW sun-seekers, you’re more than welcome here!!

Click here for the full article

A post on the forums noted this little piece of amusing media suggesting topless bathing on NSW beaches should be banned – amusing until you see that it actually got a some support!!

From the article:

TOPLESS bathing would be banned on mainstream beaches in NSW under a conservative push to reclaim the sand.

With women increasingly going au natural, conservative powerbrokers from all sides of State Parliament yesterday supported a ban on topless bathing.

Local councils currently don’t fine or prohibit topless bathers as they do not regard bare breasts as nudity.

Click here for the full article, and then perhaps head out to get yourself a new swimsuit from the 1950’s

One of the risks faced by the nudist/naturist community is something not usually considered until it’s too late (particularly by new forum administrators) – the use of free online community forums such as Yahoo and Google groups can actually be spontaneously closed down with no warning!!

This has happened a number of times in the past and has happened just recently to the “SE Qld Nudists”, a popular online community forum running for over 6 years!! In this case, Yahoo did not give a reason (and they rarely do), but the group was immediately recreated successfully with the word “naturist” instead of nudist in the title, so it would appear terminology might be the cause.

The greater issue facing our community on a national basis is that the use of free online service providers like Yahoo and Google means we relinquish some of the control of our online presences to corporate entities who have little concern about communications histories, topic threads, and the wealth of detailed information contained in a long running community discussion forum (6 years in the case of SE Qld Nudists).

Perhaps it is time for a centralised internet presence (including forums) for Australian nudist and naturist community groups? The nudist community definitely has the skills in house (being webmaster of this site is not overly difficult!), and the costs are very low – we might suggest it to the nation forum via ANF http://www.aus-nude.org.au/ and see what transpires.

Comments welcome on this topic – should the multitude of nudist/naturist internet presences (including forums, club and resort websites) be consolidated wherever possible to ensure that a consistent, professional community presence is visible not only to the local communities but also to international communities and holidaying “nudistourists”?