Wednesday, January 15, 2025
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Saving a spot: how Australia’s beach cabana conundrum exposes a battle over long-held ideals

The structures mark a de facto frontline in a battle over one of the country’s most sacred principles: free and equal access to the beach

Emerging from the water at Victoria’s Safety Beach, Virginia Mamakis settles on the sand under her family’s orange-striped cabana.

Under the portable shade structure, Mamakis is opening a stainless steel container, filled with cheese and cherry tomatoes, to share with her family.

“You can’t do without it. It shades the food too,” she smiles, acknowledging her shelter.

In the scorching early afternoon sun, this narrow strip of sand on Safety Beach – renowned for its shallow and calm waters – is lined with cabanas. Large and loud, these structures mark a de facto frontline in a battle over what some regard as one of Australia’s most sacred ideals: free and equal access to the country’s beaches.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, weighed in, saying using cabanas to reserve a patch of sand for later in the day was against the nation’s spirit of equality and “not on”.

While beachgoers in parts of Europe fork out money to lounge on a deck chair with an umbrella, where coasts feature long stretches of private water, Australia has long flaunted its free-for-all coastline.

And while cabanas have become commonplace on beaches, the new debate over their use was sparked by photos of them being used to stake out prime beach spots on the Mornington Peninsula, including at Safety Beach, on Melbourne’s southern fringe. Social media users reported people arriving early to set up their cabana, chair and towels, before returning later.

Asked about such behaviour on breakfast television, Albanese boasted that, unlike in some parts of the wold, in Australia “everyone owns the beach”.

“It’s a place where every Australian is equal and that’s a breach of that principle, really, to think that you can reserve a little spot as just yours,” he told Channel 9 last week.

Mamakis can see both sides of the debate.

“People are free to do what they want but it makes it hard to enjoy,” she says.

“You come to the beach, you want a little bit of quiet, have some room for kids to play, and that makes it hard when people come and set up shop and take over the beach.”

Storm Hooper, and her family have been at the beach for more than four hours. The lapping waves are just metres from where Hooper and her partner are sitting under their cabana, as they watch their children in the water. It’s a practical sun-safety solution, says Hooper.

“I disagree with people coming in, setting them up and being absent from them, with the intention to come back within hours,” she says.

“I get why people do it, but it’s unnecessary. There’s plenty of coastline.”

Globally, Australia has one of the highest rates of skin cancer, and cabanas offer shade on the sand.

The head of SunSmart at Cancer Council Victoria, Emma Glassenbury, says people should consider sun protection, including access to shade, when planning a day at the beach.

“Whether it’s a beach umbrella, cabana, shade cloth or beach tent, access to shade is one of five forms of sun protection essential to preventing skin cancer,” she says.

“Any product that offers additional protection from Australia’s harsh sun and the resulting ultraviolet radiation is a helpful tool in lowering our skin cancer risk. And we know when shade is available, people use it.”

Despite their benefits, the proliferation of such structures – even when being used immediately – is receiving criticism.

The mayor of Sydney’s Fairfield council, Frank Carbone, located more than 25km inland from Bondi Beach, thinks there is a more selfish side to their use.

According to Carbone, the cabanas are exacerbating inequitable access to Sydney’s beaches. Residents in the western suburbs have to travel long distances, in some cases over an hour, to get to a beach – and his council last month announced a free Sunday bus service to run residents to the coast.

Carbone says it has been frustrating for residents to make the trek, only to face a sea of cabanas.

“It just adds to a very difficult situation, where people from western Sydney feel locked out of the beaches,” he says.

“I mean what’s next, are people going to build their own little houses on the beach? Will they build granny flats on the beach? It’s not their property.”

Back at Safety Beach, Helen, who requests her last name not be used, is asked about the debate. She says she would happily pay $50 a day to rent a sun lounge and umbrella.

“If they provided that, we wouldn’t have an issue,” she says.

But previous moves to commodify beaches have faced backlash.

In 2020, a proposal to turn part of Bondi beach into a private “Euro beach chic” club – aimed at surgeons, bankers and models – was knocked back by the local council.

The mayor of the neighbouring Inner West council called beach access “a democratic and egalitarian principle that should never be compromised” and a petition opposing the plan drew thousands of signatures.

Janek Gazecki, the man behind the beach club proposal, says the prime minister’s comments on the cabanas are “utter nonsense.”

“I think the cabanas are simply a way to create shade so that people can escape the heat and not get skin cancer. And I read the prime minister’s comments, what utter nonsense.

“As soon as you put down a towel on the beach, you’re effectively carving out that section of the beach to lie upon. So if you bring with you an umbrella to give you shade or put up a portable cabana to give you and your young children shelter from the sun.

“That’s not un-Australian, that’s just common sense.”

Dr Ece Kaya, a senior lecturer at University of Technology Sydney’s business school with an interest in beach culture, says Australia’s public beaches have historically been viewed as spaces where social hierarchies dissolve.

“The practice of reserving a spot could be seen as giving unfair advantage to those who cannot afford expensive equipments, or who have the luxury of arriving to the beach very early,” she says.

Kaya says this is in stark contrast to the country of her birth – Turkey – where beaches usually are privatised and associated with exclusive clubs.

“Reserving spots is un-Australian,” she says.

“The best thing that I love is that having public, free beaches, and you can go anytime you want, and you can access any beach you want.”

Dr Stephanie Collins, an associate professor of philosophy at Monash University, describes the cabana debate as a classic tragedy of the commons situation.

“There is some public resource, where if each individual just thinks about their own self interest, then they each have complete incentive to use more than their fair share,” she says.

Collins says the solution involves people considering the best collective outcome.

“Everyone’s going to be better off if nobody stakes out a spot at 7am.”

Rochelle Halstead, the mayor of Victoria’s Bass Coast Shire, says there “should be nothing stopping others” from using empty cabanas on the beach.

Libby Stapleton, the acting mayor of the Surf Coast Shire which takes in the famous Great Ocean Road in eastern Victoria, says it would be impractical for councils to regulate cabana use.

“I would just ask everyone who’s using the beach to be considerate of other people,” she says.

“When you sort of talk about having to start to regulate things like cabana use, I feel like we’re losing our way.”

Additional reporting by Dan Jervis-Bardy

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