Bagsing beach spots not on but not much councils can do about it
The Prime Minister has slammed an “entitled” and “unAustralian” act on a popular beach dividing the community.
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The Prime Minister has slammed selfish beach hogs who attempt to snag prime spots on the sand with cabanas they won’t use for hours as “not on” but local authorities say there’s little they can do to stop the “land grab”.
The must-have beach accessory is now being used — along with tents and more traditional umbrellas — to reserve prime spots on the sand at beaches across Victoria, including the Mornington Peninsula’s Safety Beach, the Herald Sun reported on Tuesday.
Early birds flocked to the narrow strip of sand on the weekend to mark their territory with cabanas, chairs and towels before leaving to return at their leisure.
But the act has been slammed by many beachgoers and, on Tuesday, Today show host Alex Cullen posed the question to Mr Albanese: “Where do you sit, Prime Minister, on this burning question that is today dividing the nation?
“Well, that’s not on,’’ Mr Albanese replied, with Cullen concurring, “It’s un-Australian. Thank you, Prime Minister.”
“One of the great things about Australia — unlike some parts of the world (where) you go and you’ve got to pay to go to the beach — here, everyone owns the beach. Everyone.
“And it’s a place where every Australian is equal.
“That’s a breach of that principle, really, to think that you can reserve a little spot as just yours.”
A poll on heraldsun.com.au, which had more than 6000 votes, showed 71 per cent of people were against “bagsing” sand.
But beachside councils have little they can do to stop the “cheeky” practice, despite some counties in the US banning cabanas entirely.
In May last year North Wildwood City Council in New Jersey implemented a cabana ban at its beaches due to erosion issues.
The move was widely unpopular at the time with 1000 residents signing a petition against the restriction.
But the ban was scaled back a few months later ahead of the country’s Fourth of July weekend, with the council moving to allow beachgoers to set up tents 10x10 feet or smaller. Any larger structures are still banned.
Brick Township in New Jersey also enforced similar bans last year.
Kingston councillor Georgia Erevnidis suggested a way to stop the beach hogs who saved their spots for days on end would be to ban cabanas overnight.
“I think there needs to be bylaws to prohibit people from doing that,” she said.
“Maybe no cabanas after 10pm.”
But her colleague Caroline White said she didn’t believe beach hogs would be deterred by a change in council policy.
“To suggest ratepayer’s hard earned money should be spent on council officers policing cabanas on our beach is completely absurd,” she said.
“Most of us will always do the right thing and those who don’t will never be deterred by more Nanny-State legislation.”
Mornington Peninsula mayor Anthony Marsh said using a cabana to secure “prime real estate” on the sand and returning hours later was “un-Australian” but enforcing cabana use on the beach would be a “logistical nightmare” for the council.
“It’s not like we can chalk the cabana and come back to check if it’s moved,” he said.
“And it doesn’t have a rego.”
Even those willing to own up to committing a cabana “land grab” despise the practice.
Matt Petrou has been bringing his young family to Safety Beach for three years and said on hot days he would be on the beach as early as 6.30am to set up.
“I’m one of those people, and I hate that I have to do it,” he said.
“But if I don’t, we don’t get a spot.
“If it was just us as a couple it wouldn’t matter, but we have kids and friends visiting. You want to be a good host and we don have other families sharing the cabana with us.”
He said he would be happy for early birds to use his space until he returned.
“I’d love there to be a roster or some way of communicating to people that they’re welcome to use the shade until we come back at 10 or 11.”
Mr Petrou drew the line at leaving his cabana up overnight.
But Safety Beach locals Gena Abbott and sisters Katelyn and Sophie Jowers were sick of “entitled” people reserving a spot on their beach and leaving it empty for hours.
“It feels elitist,” she said.
“There’s nothing wrong with coming to the beach early, but if you’ve got a big set up you should be there using it.”
Bayside councillor Andrew Hockley said, within Bayside, any policing of cabanas would only be in relation to safety.
“On a windy day, an unsecured cabana could do a bit of damage,” he said.
Mr Hockley called the practice cheeky and “a bit mean”.
“There’s nothing wrong with getting to the beach early, but parking a cabana to reserve space on the beach is a bit mean,” he said.
“People need to be able to sort themselves out and behave like grown-ups.”
Meanwhile a Surf Coast Shire councillor who represents people along the Great Ocean Road said leaving beach equipment unoccupied was “unacceptable”.
“I don’t support it,” Adrian Schonfelder said.
But while he disagreed with the practice, policing people’s actions on the beach was “not in the jurisdiction of the shire”, he said.
“It’s up to the Great Ocean Roads Parks Authority,” he said.
Speaking at a state government press conference on Tuesday, Minister Lily D’Ambrosio urged people to act fairly when they went to the beach.
“We’re renowned as a community for waiting in line and taking our turn. Certainly there’s a better way for us all to behave, one that is based on fairness,” she said.
“If you arrive first, of course, you should be able to take the place in the sand on the beach.
“Turning up in the early hours of the morning and putting your marker in the ground to be taken up later down the track really doesn’t pass the test in terms of what’s fair and appropriate.”
Meanwhile, the mayor of Bass Coast Shire — which includes popular holiday destinations like Phillip Island and Inverloch — Rochelle Halstead said if people wanted to reserve spots on the beach with cabanas they should adopt a “sharing is caring” mindset.
“If you’re prepared to share it with others when you’re not under it then absolutely go cabana mad but if you’re just reserving the space and going away then it’s a little cheeky,” she said.
“We’ve got long stretches of beaches here so there’s always plenty of room.”
Queenscliffe councillor Donnie Grigau said there was “more to life” than “bizarre” quarrelling over sand space and urged beachgoers to “share the shade”.
“It’s just very silly,” he said.
“That’s why we are over on the Bellarine Peninsula. We are a little bit more chilled.
“It’s like, c’mon guys, there’s more important things in life.
“We haven’t had a beach-going summer for the last few years. So go enjoy the beach and, you know, play nice.”
Kingston’s Ms Erevnidis said it wasn’t just cabanas that were being left on the beach.
“People dumping things is causing other problems with the wind, people are taking things away when they’re unsupervised,” she said.
“Some people are buying things like gas tops and just leaving them on the beach, it’s not good.”
Her colleague Hadi Saab backed her up, saying the bigger problem was people leaving equipment behind.
“We’d like to see people taking their beach gear away with them so they don’t cause other issues down the track,” she said.
A spokesman for Life Saving Victoria said there had been no reports of issues from their operations, as long as the cabanas were properly secured and didn’t affect rescue access to the beaches for the clubs.
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