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Byron Shire
March 29, 2024

Nude not Lewd rally

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Karina Mereki, Tyagarah

The Echo’s reporting of the Nude not Lewd rally at Tyagarah Beach on Sunday 16 September gives rise to some strange figures.

The clear picture of the ‘almost 100’ supporters of the clothing-optional beach turns out to have only 55 people in it.

Residents counted the cars in the carpark at midday on that day and there were 47 cars. Thirty-one had Queensland registration. That leaves 16 from NSW. Some of those would be from out of the Shire. Meaning a Nude not Lewd rally in favour of a clothing-optional beach at Tyagarah in 2018 gathered approximately 12 to 14 local Shire residents.

That is a big fall from the heady days of the Nude ain’t Rude rally of the 1990s, and possibly represents a reflection of the criminal behaviour that over-ran the beach for so long and has brought some local residents to a firm resolve to have the clothing-optional classification removed.

Local residents have not advocated for an alternative site for a clothing-optional beach. We do note, however, that Council’s efforts to look for a more appropriate site have not drawn welcoming sounds from any other community area in the Shire.

♦ Ed: Not all naturists want to be in a photo for the world to see (Naturist does not = exhibitionist). Not all naturists travel in cars alone, are from New South Wales, and not all nude rally naturists were on the beach at the same time. The story said: ‘…almost 100 supporters visited the Nude Not Lewd beach rally throughout Sunday morning.’

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4 COMMENTS

  1. Karin Mereki, why would you truly bother on numbers or where people came from? We already know as we had people signing petitions on the day – including some Grays Lane Residents.
    I’d state the majority of locals walked from Sunrise as we knew we’d be pushed for parking at Grays Lane. A lot utilised Bayshore Carpark and many carpooled from various points …
    I don’t truly understand the point you are trying to make, is it a competition? Or did our rally to lobby the clean up of the Clothing Optional Beach have you and a handful of other residents see red that we are encouraging the community to take ownership and responsibility for getting rid of lewd, inappropriate behaviour?
    Our campaign ‘Snap and Report’ widely used in magazines and social media, has had a huge impact on eradicating what was previously ignored.

  2. If you want to talk about numbers, the small amount of residents of Grays Lane represent a minuscule amount of Byron residents. No matter how vocal they are gives them no more rights to this public beach than any other resident of Byron. Owning a block of land doesn’t extend rights beyond its boundaries.

    This means that Queenslanders or other tourists not from Byron have as much right as you to use this beach. Visitors from all over that are drawn to Byron Bay and regularly visit Tyagarah beach and also spend money in Byron Shire. It’s logical that they came to the rally to show their support.

    Also it may be that large numbers of Byron residents aren’t in the trenches with you denouncing naturism because to them it’s a non-issue. They more than likely prefer the traditional Byron where freedom and ‘live and let live’ attitudes once reigned supreme.

  3. I did try and count the number of people. It is always hard to get an exact number with a group of moving people. but I counted a minimum of 92 ( not including media people) . In my line of work you get good at estimating numbers of people and before I counted I thought 95 to 100.
    Counting the cars is not a very accurate way of counting people as you never know how many people in each car. But statistics say that on average there almost 2 people in each car ( unless traveling to , from or for work then usually only 1. if going to an event then 2 to 4) But lets assume worst case and only half had 2 and the rest only had 1 that gives you 70 ( rounded down) Plus I saw some bikes I did not count them but I guess 5. There where at least 20 that walked from Elements. So we are back at approx 95 at the peak. Remember some came early and did not stay long after all the weather was not good it was quite cold and windy.and others came later. So I would like to thank Karina Mereki for attending the rally adding to the numbers, and confirming that there where approx 95 or “almost 100” people at the rally at the peak may be 130 total with the coming and going.
    I would assume the bicycles where local Greys Lane residents. If we are talking numbers in the tv report on CH7 in support of closing the beach I counted less than 10 people in the group shot and from what they said some of them are in favor of a clothing optional beach.they just want to get rid of the “Bad Elements” which is what we want also
    So in my opinion most of the people involved actually want the same thing that being a safe clothing optional beach.

  4. Your arguments are very well made, Jay and Trevor.

    The “bad elements” at Tyagarah beach are merely a small symptom of much more serious bad elements throughout modern society; they are reported upon every single day in the news.

    There will always be bad elements all over the World. Society has had only very limited success in combatting or eradicating.

    Tyagarah Beach is fortunate that the incidence of “bad behavior” is probably a lot less than in society in general; possibly because the vast majority of visitors there are responsible, caring, law-abiding folk.

    If Greys Lane residents achieve revocation of the beach’s clothing-optional status, one wonders what type of ‘elements’ will then visit there. The situation might become worse than the current position.

    I think it is strange that parts of modern society, which can turn a ‘blind eye’ to many forms of corruption and savagery, feel the need to bear down hard on nakedness and minor offences.

    .

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