Keeping our beaches clean.

Quoting, with small changes, from the Surfrider Foundation website: "Keep Australia Beautiful's Clean Beach Challenge is a beach focused, community-based program which aims to enhance beach side communities and the environment by promoting personal initiative, civic pride and environmental awareness.

The Clean Beach Challenge has been running for a number of years in New South Wales and Queensland. More recently it has been launched in Victoria. In New South Wales, the number of beaches nominated has increased three fold since the program was established.

(MORE INFORMATION, see below.)

There are many benefits in participating:

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The Challenge acknowledges Councils, Community groups and Individuals who take time out to protect and enhance their environment
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It provides local government authorities, schools and community groups (such as boardriders clubs) encouragement for undertaking environmental programs
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Establishes and enhances working relationships between local government authorities, community groups, schools, local business and industry in environmental projects
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Raises public awareness of a range of environmental issues and related projects.

"Why should nudists, naturists and other beach goers get involved? "

It's a statement we hear all the time. Why get involved? Because it's been estimated the population on our coastline will increase 60% in the next 20 years, so it's more than likely that your beach, wherever you are, will see an increase in population and infrastructure, and the threats to your fragile coastal environment increased.
The Clean Beach Challenge encourages participants to have management plans in place, so that when these threats and developments occur, you'll be geared up and good to go, not unprepared and unaware."
 

President of the then Free Beach Association of NSW, Bob Reed, became involved in this competition, because of his lobbying of politicians, particularly, at state and local government level, for 'free beaches'. We entered Cobblers Beach, at Middle Head, in Sydney, and were delighted to have the beach win Friendliest Beach, in the Sydney section.
It CAN be done. It gives, in our case, nudists, a framework, a plan, a reason, to clean up and protect our beaches, not just on one day of the year, but all year round.
More official and unofficial nude beaches should be entered. It is a fun and easy process! MORE INFORMATION
 

Post script. The (Melbourne) Age, yesterday reported on Naturists at Point Impossible beach, near Torquay, getting their rubbish bags out, for Clean Up Australia Day.

It's becoming my bandwagon, or hobby-horse but, while it's good to let the public know the beach is there and ought to be one of many legal, nude beaches, I repeat that it would also help the cause a lot to see photos, in the media, of (dressed) naturists, receiving certificates, in a competition like the Keep Australia Beautiful Clean Beach Challenge, proving their care of the (beach) evironment.
I have some miss-givings about pictures in newspapers of male bare bottoms and text like: "Ron who declined to have his surname published" and "Justin, who declined to have his surname published."
It makes it SOUND as if these people are hiding something but it's 'blaming the victim'.

Jo M.