Save Sunnyside North: tell the council

Anyone who's ever been to Sunnyside North beach on the eastern side of Port Phillip, will probably remember the rocks, the narrow strip of sand, the limited parking and the knowledge of it being the only legal clothing-optional beach east of the city.

The Mornington Peninsula council is currently investigating the removal of the clothing-optional status and I fear that will only mean one thing unless enough feedback in support of it's continuance is received.

They are asking for feedback at https://shape.mornpen.vic.gov.au/sunnyside-north-beach.

I've already written my thoughts on this and I'll repeat them here:

I can see why Sunnyside North was chosen for CO status, with both ends having a rocky path to traverse past the small headlands, safe from the eyes of sensitive souls. It's thin and rocky, without anything going for it apart from the dress code that's unique for the 1930 km2 of Port Phillip.Also, it's isolated from immediately-populated areas. There's 8 private residences and the campground near the end of Sunnyside Road per Google Maps, but they also have the main portion of Sunnyside in front of the carpark and that stretch of sand never seems busy unless a troop from the camp are there. By contrast, it has to be pretty cool before Sunnyside North is deserted and any nice day has one searching for the perfect gap to place their towel between all the other beach-goers. The only souls who pass by without participating appear to be people walking from the more-populated Moondah Beach to the north, when they can be bothered to clamber over the rocks. They have about 1.5 km of sand they can walk before they encroach on Sunnyside North.Meanwhile, the southern end of Moondah occasionally has a nude bod or two anyway, despite being outside the official CO area. At least they're occupying the 'quiet' end, I guess.Undoubtedly, nudists unable to use Sunnyside North shall look for various 'quiet' areas, but I don't know if any area that would match for isolation and accessibility from the city.The campground does have direct access to Sunnyside North, but the only time I've seen their ramp used is for maintenance or when a couple of camp councillors (?) came down the ramp and skinny-dipped themselves.

If you have any connection with Sunnyside please consider a submission at the above website.

There's only a few questions along with some text boxes where written answers can be placed.

I encourage honest sentiments to be written as I think an avalanche of appreciation for the CO status in honest and individual words would be the best to convince the council to act in our favour.

The questionnaire asks your location, whether within the locality, the greater council area or outside, and your originating postcode. The local postcode for Mount Eliza is 3930, in case you've forgotten.

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RE:Save Sunnyside North: tell the council

Oh, submissions are due to close in one week (21st April). Click that Link now and fill it in before you forget. It only takes a minute or two, depending on how much you wax lyrical about your local CO beach. :-)

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RE:Save Sunnyside North: tell the council

Soonbnude alerted me to a petition running to save the CO status of Sunnyside North. This recent article covers the current situation.

Please consider signing.

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RE:Save Sunnyside North: tell the council

Yes, to all those who have ever visited and enjoyed North Sunnyside please support the petition in fighting to keep this beach open. It's isolated and a relatively small beach, it's not great but it is the closest to Melbourne as I think the one at Werribee South was closed due to the encroaching housing development/s. There are less than a handful of legal CO beaches in Victoria so we should fight to keep them all open. Some of that will mean calling out inappropriate behaviour on our beaches, such as people going into the dunes to have sex, they were not legalised for that purpose. If we as nudists / naturists can manage that better then maybe complaints about our CO beaches would reduce.

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RE:Save Sunnyside North: tell the council

https://www.change.org/p/save-sunnyside-north-beach-clothing-optional-beach

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