North Swanbourne Beach Western Australia
One day laying naked in the sun on our favorite clothing optional beach looking out on beautiful Sydney harbour and the next laying naked on the sand enjoying the sun and looking at the Indian ocean on the other side of Australia.
I had the opportunity to visit this Western Australian Naturist Icon on a beautiful June day with a slight south easterly breeze. Knowing I was traveling to Perth I did my research on the
FBA WA website and found that North Swanbourne beach was a legal clothing optional beach within 30 minutes of the CBD.
From the FBA WA website
Having access to a car and thanks to the trusty GPS I had no trouble finding the beach which is on the edge of a residential development and has carparking and a cafe that overlooks the beach and the ocean. I could not help but compare your average east coast clothing optional beach stuck in the remote corner of a national park down some steep access track.
The clothing optional section starts about 300m north from the surf lifesaving club and is clearly marked by this sign.
From the FBA WA website
It then extends north for, I believe. about 3 kilometers in front of a military firing range. Note this part is closed when the firing range is being used.
As usual I had my Naturist uniform with me and so could take full advantage of this beautiful day. Walking along the shoreline I reached the designated area, took a few more steps and then my T-shirt and shorts came off and I joined the 2 dozen or more local naturist who were also enjoying the sun.
One group obviously regulars had placed their windbreaks, I gather these are a prerequisite for this beach, to form a large compound and were having great fun enjoying not only the sun but also the company of like minded people.
As I took in the surrounds I wondered how this group of people were happy to sit in the sun naked and yet a few hundred yards away people were playing on the same beach rugged up in clothing?
Have we been misinformed, are there some instances where you are actually warmer naked? I have observed the same thing in Sydney a beautiful Winter day that sees us head for the beach and people rugged up with scarves and coats. Have they got the calendar mixed up with the weather forecast?
Some clouds did appear after an hour or so and took the edge off the day but the patches of blue sky that followed kept the temperature up.
With what looked like increasing cloud cover on the horizon I decided to bring my visit to an end and walked to the end of the clothing optional zone and reluctantly dressed.
I will never understand some people. As I am walking back along the beach about 30 m from the start of the clothing optional sign I saw a group of naked people (they were not naturists by my definition) 3 men and a woman, in a slight depression near the start of the sand dunes. One man appeared to be massaging the woman while another looked on.
It only talks a small proportion of the population to bring social nudity into disrepute. Why when there is 3 Klms of clothing optional beach were they naked contrary to the signs.
Here we have the closest situation that I have experienced of the European beaches that are tolerant of nudity and these "people" are putting it at risk.
I suspect that they have been warned off by the local naturists for I can see no other reason why they would not take their activities at least further up the beach into the clothing optional area. Then again they may get some perverse thrill by acting as they do.
As I walked further along the beach back to the car the sun again appeared almost like a final farewell as I prepared to do a couple of hours work in preparation for the following day.
