Hamish Heard
A leaked Surf Coast Shire email reveals secret plans to fence off a sand dune behind one of Torquay’s nude beaches to stop its use as a gay sex haunt.
In the email leaked to the Independent, shire chief executive officer Peter Bollen also hoses down calls for a public meeting to determine whether residents want the state’s only two nude beaches on their doorsteps.
“A public meeting is not the right way to go with such an emotive issue,” Mr Bollen said in the email.
Instead, he suggested a meeting with authorities including Great Ocean Road Coast Committee, Victoria Police, council and Department of Sustainability and Environment.
The email referred to councillor Ron Humphrey’s calls for State Government to stop use of the dunes behind the nudist beach at Point Impossible as a “haunt for gays”.
“Maybe (Department of Sustainability and Environment) would agree to fence the dunes on environmental grounds,” Mr Bollen said in the email.
“The area could be excluded from the (optional clothing) declared area and this would make it easier to police.”
Cr Humphrey has led the push for the beach’s clothing optional status to be revoked since other Victorian councils launched similar action, threatening to leave Torquay with the state’s two remaining nude beaches.
Cr Humphrey’s motion to ask Planning Minister Rob Hulls to ban nudists from Point Impossible hit a hurdle last month when the minister responded with a request for the shire to consult more people.
Several residents have told the Independent of encounters with perverts in the area.
Cr Humphrey believed State Government was stalling on a decision about the beach until after this month’s state election.
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