Weather has been great here in Victoria for the last few days, so hopefully we’re all getting ready to throw off the winter shackles and get ready for a warm spring and summer – for the snow bunnies, we’ve had reports that the snow is already struggling to stay intact, with visitors to both Hotham and Buller reporting very low snow levels for this time of year (although the resorts themselves are saying the cover is great!! Righto…).
It’s been 2 months since we last posted anything – just goes to show how the cold really slows the community down, with only the regular swim nights continuing to keep nudists in their natural state (although it does get quite cold in the swim centers as well!). And it’s swim center controversy behind this post as well – news in tonight that Channel 9 News ran a story about Solar West’s nude swim nights, a fascinating (and short) article that almost seemed to be Channel 9 doing some news trolling??
We’ll not do an analysis here, except to say it reminds us a bit of the beach fight we survived back in 2007 – lots of sensationalist reporting, surprise articles with little or no community consultation, lack of balance in the reporting and factual inaccuracies. You can check out the articles yourself, on these links:
Channel 9 news witch hunt? on the Solar West website;
Pool opens for nude group, although you may need to hunt for the video as a direct link does not appear to be available.
At the time of writing, the video had only had 380 views, with no Tweets or FB Likes – we suspect Solar West may have received a little publicity out of this, rather than the outrage perhaps Channel 9 were hoping for. It does beg the question though – did Jacqueline Felgate put her hand up and say “that story looks awesome, I want a part of that!!”, or was she lumped with it? She did post “Exclusive: A secret nude swimming club at a council pool” on her Twitter feed just before the news broadcast – didn’t get any serious bites though, one respondent saying “you’re funny!! Everyone is tweeting about gay Katter brother, you about nude pool! Hahaha!”, while another said “how do you know? ;)” – Touche!
Keep an eye on the Solar West website, as more updates are sure to be posted there!
Update: The Herald Sun has jumped on board the article, with similar tones to the newscast. You can read the article here. The comments left by readers are really interesting, with the majority in favour of the nudists – no surprises there.
Update: Apparently the swim nights have been suspended pending an investigation by the council. The Herald Sun has the article here. Solar West has been using the pool like this for years, it will be interesting to see if the council wilts under the weight of a little public controversy! Hey Maribyrnong Council, your pool is a business – and Solar West have been one of your best customers over many years. We all know the “investigation” is simply lip service, otherwise pool staff would have reported inappropriate behaviour years ago. Here’s hoping the council is sensible and can rise above a little unwarranted commotion!
As a side note, Jacqui Felgate (the original Channel 9 reporter who break the amazing “exclusive”!) has not had any other comments on her tweet since the story, but later on had a little ditty with Nicole Denton (3AW Senior Producer for Ross & John) about Channel 9 breaking the story first and not the Herald Sun!! Australian media, point scoring on the backs of minority groups and never looking back at the chaos they caused. Hey Jacqui, if the reporting was balanced you might have mentioned the nudists never wanted $45,000 in ratepayer funded pool modifications (and that story was your own network – who’s doing your research??).
