Naked in public

There’s never a dull, or even modest, moment in the easternmost part of the nation. Take last week, when nude beach-goers were under Council’s watchful eye in the ordinary meeting. 

Despite a staff recommendation to revoke the clothing-optional status of Tyagarah Nature Reserve, councillors deferred it to a stakeholder consultation.

While bathing nude is generally not a threat to the public, there is no doubt that Tyagarah’s Grays Lane, specifically the tea-tree lakes and Tyagarah beach’s sand dunes, is a place where public sex acts are, well umm, performed. And that has unsurprisingly shocked and offended those who were not aware of the activities that exist there. 

Nothing like walking little Timmy past a grunting, hairy, fat, masturbating old weirdo to get some beach time.

If a film crew visited daily to collect footage, would the incidents decrease? Maybe the typical pervert would instead revel in a new found celebrity status and become even more of an exhibitionist. Is that even possible? One imagines you’ve reached a plateau of no return with that behaviour.   

Interestingly, the same issue was tackled at the Boatharbour Nature Reserve near Lismore years ago, where National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) locked the gate to what had become a seedy pick-up joint. The problem with the tea-tree lakes and beach is that locking up such a large area would be well, impossible, and unfortunately signs alerting the public are regularly stolen or taken down.

Hopefully a solution can be brokered where baring your bum on the Tyagarah beach is allowed and the creeps that frequent a traditional Aboriginal birthing ground are expelled.

Hans Lovejoy, editor