Jeff Poole, Wynnum
I’m one of those pesky Queenslanders who often dares to bare on the nude beach here.
I never take moralistic campaigns at their face value. Especially where there is a religious component – now our spiritual guardians are finally being exposed for heinous crimes over generations of time.
I wonder, for example, why former members of the Rajneesh cult are at the forefront of opposition to Byron’s legal clothing optional beach at Tyagarah.
Wikipedia says the leadership of the Rajneeshpuram commune, Oregon in the 1980s, were ‘uncompromising and behaved impatiently in dealing with the locals’. Also ‘insistent upon having demands met, and engaged in implicitly threatening and directly confrontational behaviour’.
Sound familiar?
That commune fell apart in 1985 amid lurid claims of alleged crimes, including violent attempts to undermine local authorities, according to Wikipedia.
Followers dispersed. Some eventually settled at Gondwana on Prestons Lane, Tyagarah – where the hostile campaign to close the clothing-optional beach is being co-ordinated.
There is no suggestion that any of the current or previous residents of Gondwana were involved with any of the alleged events at the Oregon commune.
It is interesting, however, that one of the bidders for a nearby 250-acre property on Buckleys Lane, currently for sale, was described by the agent in Echonetdaily as a US-based ‘religious organisation’ and ‘the most aggressive’ bidder.
Coincidence? Quite possibly, but unlikely morals campaigns always bring out a desire to scratch beneath the surface.
The puritanical, urgent need to eradicate the so-called lurid behavior of a small minority of the many nudists who enjoy the freedom of the clothing optional area is simply a SMOKESCREEN designed to cover up the real intention: which is to remove the official designation of “Clothing Optional” from Tyagarah Beach.
Consequently to discourage the vast majority of genuine nudists from visiting the area.
Why? Because an approved nudist beach anywhere in the vicinity of newly subdivided land would be discouraging to many purchasers and be a drag on land sales.