It’s been a busy week on the beach fight front, there’s been plenty of activity and some positive news to report. Firstly, since the last outburst from Cr Humphrey, more media have contacted members of the Victorian nudist community with interest in our battle. As media releases come to light, we’ll post updates here (and if you come across one that we are not aware of, please let us know).

Talking about the media, some confusion was experienced this week when we were informed that a state inquiry was going to be conducted into all nude beaches in Victoria (YIKES!!!). The community rallied, and after a bunch of emails, calls and discussions later, it looks like there was some confusion over information provided to the media that was the source of the apparent “inquiry”.

The news gets even better - according to one of our community members who is in direct contact with our source at a state level (and who is directly involved in this issue):

Highly placed Government sources have today denied any knowledge of an inquiry into clothing optional beaches, and have re-affirmed a commitment to maintaining the status quo at Point Impossible.

Don’t let up the pressure though - Cr Ron Humphrey founded this entire debarcle on misinformation and emotive rhetoric, and we need to send a clear message that such tactics are unacceptable. We need to keep writing letters to the Surf Coast Shire Council, the press and to the Ministers office showing our support for clothing optional status. If you are local and live within the Surf Coast Shire, also write to the council expressing your disgust at how Cr Humphrey has tried to subvert your rights without appropriate consultation - his behaviour on this issue alone should be enough to ensure no-one votes for him again.

Edit: It would appear some sort of review is going to be performed, although the Ministers office has released zero detail, simply stating they are going to look at the issue. Refer to the post above for more detail

It would appear once the Council has made their decision, the process moves along to the next notch - in this case the Great Ocean Road Coast Committee (GORCC). We have sent an Open Letter response to Cr. Humphrey which you can read below.

Still a long way to go before we’ve put this fire out - keep up the support, and keep writing those letters!!

Below is the cover page - You should download the full letter here -> Click here

Dear Cr. Humphrey,

Please find attached an Open Letter drafted in response to your motion to apply for the revocation of the clothing optional status of Pt Impossible and Southside Beaches, in the Surf Coast Shire.

This letter has been posted on a number of community forums and websites, including landed/non-landed Victorian nudist clubs and resorts, all of whom have members who are regular users of the Surf Coast Shire Facilities. We invite open and transparent discussion of your concerns and encourage the full and open disclosure of all supporting information and statistics in support of your case. We make every effort to ensure our facts are correct and can be independently validated, and we apologise in advance for any errors that may occur. Responses received will also be posted to the community for review and verification, to ensure the nudist community remains informed. More information can be found at http://www.fbanavic.org

We are a community in support of safer beaches and facilities for the use of everyone. We urge the Surf Coast Shire, the Great Ocean Road Coast Committee (GORCC), and the Minister to work with us towards providing an environment that is safe and enjoyable for all users.

We would appreciate if this letter and our concerns be included in the GORCC scheduled meeting for this Friday 18 August 2006. We apologise for the late delivery of this information, we have been excluded from the process to date and have only just become aware of the scheduled GORCC meeting.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any queries.

Kind regards

Victorian Nudist Community
webmaster [Email address: webmaster #AT# fbanavic.org - replace #AT# with @ ]

cc:
Hon. Rob Hulls (Minister for Planning)
GORCC Head Office
David Clarke - Executive Officer, GORCC
Free Beach Association of Australia
Australian Nudist Federation
Cr. Beth Davidson (Surf Coast - Anglesea)
Cr. Keith Grossman (Surf Coast - Torquay)
Cr. Rose Hodge (Surf Coast - Jan Juc)
Cr. Roly Livingstone (Surf Coast - Winchelsea)
Cr. Libby Mears (Mayor, Surf Coast - Aireys Inlet)
Cr. Lindsday Schroeter (Surf Coast - Winchelsea)
Cr. Jim Tutt (Surf Coast - Anglesea)
Cr. Dean Webster (Surf Coast - Torquay)

If you’ve been living under a rock for the last few weeks (it’s cold, we know!!), then you may not know that 3 of the 4 legal clothing optional beaches in Victoria are under attack, as councils make moves to try and have their clothing optional status revoked. Read previous articles in the archive to get up to speed!!

Our good friends at SolarWest have seriously jumped into the fray on behalf of the Victorian nudist community, and have had correspondence with a number of parties, including some of the SurfCoast Shire councillors at the centre of the activity. Good work SolarWest, we appreciate your efforts. We’ll be collecting together a summary of work done to date and posting it here in the near future.

At the moment we are working on compiling an archive of the letters that have already been sent to various parties, so you can see what people have already written and perhaps use some of these examples to craft your own letters. We don’t believe form letters that are exactly the same are as effective as personal letters - so make sure you communicate what motivated you to show you want our beaches saved!

The Melbourne_Nudists-Naturists Yahoo group/forum has been abuzz with activity - the notion that we may lose our beaches without consultation and without discussion of alternatives has caused extreme irritation in the community. We all like a rational argument, but the reasons given in the SurfCoast Shire motion did not appear to be based on the reality of our beaches as we know it - it’s too bad it is so cold, otherwise we’d love to meet the councillors on one of the beaches for a day of nude discussions about how our community values the small space we are allowed to use on what is otherwise a _very_ long coastline. Even better, if any of the councillors want to head along to one of the swim nights to talk with concerned members of our community, let us know and we’ll be happy to provide details!

The national Free Beach Association is also involved, lending their support. If you want to become involved in the fight to help us save our beaches, feel free to contact anyone at Free Beaches, the ANF (Aus-nude), in the forums, or here at this site. Contact details can be found on the contacts page on the right.

We commend the efforts of the team over at
NakedAustralians for their great article regarding the fight against the reclassification of some Victorian beaches.

The post shows Councillor Ron Humphrey’s speach trying to justify a change in the clothing optional status of Pt Impossible and Southside. Read the speach carefully - one commentor on the site pointed out this interesting throw-away line from Mr Humphrey, perhaps suggesting he has his own personal feelings about nude bathing that are not quite so aligned with other aspects of his speach:

“It’s not the aspect of nude bathing that necessitates this response; although I’m not sure how this activity fits in today’s society of political correctness particularly on public land.”

The post also lists the names and email addresses of all the Surfcoast shire representatives involved, so that we can send appropriate (and respectful!) letters and emails. It is also important to note that the minutes of the meeting indicate two councillers voted against the motion to revoke clothing optional status (Cr Beth Davidson of Anglesea and Cr Libby Mears Mayor of Airey’s Inlet) - in all cases, please be professional and respectful if you do send any communication, and please cc: either this site or the Melbourne Regional Director of the Free Beach Association (contact details for Sue are on the Contacts page).

Here’s the link to the NakedAustralians.com post with all the details -> Click here

Here’s the posting of the meeting minutes again -> Click here

At a recent council meeting of the SurfCoast Shire Council, motions were made for a sub-committee to apply to the appropriate minister to have the status of Pt Impossible revoked, and to increase monitoring of Southside with a view to possible application for revocation in future!

Victoria only has 4 clothing optional beaches - Pt Impossible and Southside are two of them, and Sunnyside and Campbells Cove are the others. Is it coincidental that suddenly 3 of Victorias clothing optional beaches suddenly come under attack? Hard to say… But it is outrageous that Victoria would be heading in a backwards direction while QLD (a state that has never had legal clothing optional beaches) is getting so close to joining the rest of us in the modern world!!

Come on Victorians, this is beyond a joke. If you use the beaches, then help us do something about it - contact the Free Beach Association in Melbourne (check the Contacts page), contact us here, or write to the Minister in charge using the following details:

The Honourable Rob Justin Hulls
Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Minister for
Planning
Level 17, 8 Nicholson St, East Melbourne 3002
Tel: 9637 8855
Fax: 9637 8921
Email: rob.hulls [Email address: rob.hulls #AT# parliament.vic.gov.au - replace #AT# with @ ]

To read the actual minutes of the SurfCoast Shire meetings, click the link below

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