It’s a Tuesday morning, the infinite blue sky of Byron Bay has opened up and the six naturists – four men, two women – have stripped down to their birthday suits for a quick dip in the buff.
This section of beach – an 800-metre stretch along the vast coastline – forms the only legal clothing-optional beach in the shire. Among those taking advantage of the opportunity to be out in the open is Duncan James, vice-president of Northern Rivers Naturists, who is something of an evangelist for “embracing the beach as Mother Nature intended.”
“Many of the beach users have described the clothing-optional beach as their happy place, a place where they can disconnect from modern day stresses, a place they can feel at one with nature,” he says.
There is, however, a metaphorical cloud on the horizon. On Sunday, Tyagarah is set to be stripped of its status as an official clothing-optional beach.
“I guess these values aren’t shared by New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service [NPWS], who are hell-bent on closing one of Byron’s last alternative community hubs and experiences,” James says.
Tyagarah itself was first designated as a clothing-optional beach in 1998 to allow those looking to engage in non-sexual nudity to be one with the surf without risk of being fined or arrested.
It is not the only such beach, or event, in Australia. Maslin’s beach in South Australia was first designated in 1975 and since then, with the exception of Queensland, two dozen similar beaches dot the Australian coastline. Every year at Dark Mofo, hundreds brave the Tasmanian cold to swim naked to mark the winter solstice.
But with Tyagarah now being taken away, those on the beach see it as a troubling sign of the times.
‘We’re not prudes’
The politics of being naked in public has always been fraught.
For its part, Byron Bay has always been comfortable with a certain degree of exposed flesh. The region has one of the highest rates of skin cancer in the country but when the sun is out, people sunbathe topless or discretely skinny dip along its beaches. Every year a naked bike-ride runs through the centre of town and in March local paper the Echo ran uncensored images from the ride showing male genitalia on its front cover.
Until the clothing-optional beach opened, Maxine Hawker says she would skinny dip each morning just outside her front door – something she has been doing since she was 18.
“My first time was probably when I was 18, swimming on an isolated beach on the north coast. We were on holiday and I just went ‘this is magic’,” she says.
Hawker says Tyagarah is far from town, which means it shouldn’t offend those with a more modest outlook, while not being so remote that it is totally inaccessible.
But Bradley Benham, president of Northern Rivers Naturists, says authorities took a “set and forget” approach soon after it was established, which led to problems involving indecent behaviour in the nearby dunes and a lake farther inland.
In 2016 a group calling itself the Safe Beaches Committee formed to clean up Tyagarah, but around this time residents and business owners along Gray’s Lane – a long stretch of road that runs from the Pacific Highway to the coast – began to campaign for its closure. In 2018 they delivered a petition with 86 signatures to council complaining of “lewd” behaviour.
Benham describes this period as “nasty”, saying the negative publicity only attracted the attention of people who weren’t interested in nude sunbathing. At one point he says he was abused by three fishers when leaving the beach.
“The people trying to close the beach down are quite obsessed with the idea of people having sex in the dunes,” Benham says. “The people trying to shut the beach are focusing on this idea that it’s a sex beach, which has never been my experience.”
Things died down for a while but the issue revived in February when the council announced the results of a land survey undertaken by NPWS that found the beach fell within the Tyagarah national park and the clothing-optional section had been created without proper authority.
A tense council meeting followed, featuring impassioned speeches for and against. A mother of two claimed she, her husband and daughter had encountered a naked man with an erect penis while on a bike ride nearby; in his own speech Benham said it was unfair to treat those who used the beach responsibly the same as those who may lurk in bushes.
None of this changed the council’s fundamental position and in a motion it was announced that on 30 June the beach would close.
Speaking to the ABC one resident, Gwen Gould, celebrated the news.
“We’ve worked for about eight years on trying to have this closed down,” she said.
“People say we’re prudes. We’re not prudes.”
Naked Frisbee, volleyball and cricket
Like others in the community, Maxine Hawker says she was “devastated” by the decision.
“I am so shocked by it. I can’t believe Byron Bay would become so conservative,” she says. “We have, as a people and a culture, become more conservative and I think that conservative creep has come to Byron.”
If residents were opposed to the beach being at the end of their street, she says the simplest solution would be to move it.
So far there has been little interest.
A Change.org petition addressed to the New South Wales environment minister, Penny Sharpe, and that received over 7,700 signatures to save Tyagarah beach or find an alternative failed to get anything moving. NPWS, partly citing opposition from traditional owners, has stood by its decision to close the beach but has written to Byron shire council to request that the date be extended.
“NPWS has requested that Byron shire council extend the permissibility of the COA from 30 June 2024 to 30 August 2024, which will allow appropriate notification for the naturist community,” a spokesperson said.
Whether or not the council has responded to the offer is unknown. The Byron shire council mayor, Michael Lyon, was contacted for comment.
With Sunday approaching, Benham says there is no word about alternatives, when exactly the designation will be lifted, or how the naturists will be treated at law if they continue to use the beach.
The community is planning a send-off that may include naked Frisbee, volleyball and cricket. Even if the weather’s bad, the group says they’ll be out. Getting into the elements in the buff, they say, makes you feel alive.
What happens after that is unknown but Benham says he intends to continue using the beach and that he is willing to risk fines and even jail to do so.
“Some people certainly work in jobs where they don’t want to be arrested and have to go to court,” he says. “I’m fortunately in a position where I’m prepared to do that for what I believe in.”
“That’s how much this means to me.”
