It’s summer, it’s hot – and this time forty years ago people were getting their kit off.
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In January 1979 a wave of topless bathing on beaches near Nowra caused such outrage that it made the front page of The Shoalhaven and Nowra News.
The Shoalhaven Historical Society uncovered the scandalous story recently. The article reads;
“Residents claim that what were once popular family beaches are now turning into areas of blatant nudity.
One Culburra resident said she could see the female bathers from her house.
“Naked breasts of all shapes and sizes are something we should not have to be subjected to on our lovely beaches,” she said.
She said she has asked the shire council to place signs, banning such behaviour.
The woman said she was offended not only by the displays of near or total nudity, but she was concerned over the marked increase of men in the area.
“They are perverts out here for only one thing – to see the unclad bathers on the beaches,” she said.
Apart from Culburra, other reports of topless bathing have come from the appropriately named Nudist Beach on Jervis Bay. (The beach is now known as Blenheim Beach)
A Nowra man, with his wife and young son, saw four women wearing only the bottoms of their bikinis.
“They were on a crowded part of the beach and seemed not the least bit embarrassed or shy,” he said.
The man said he was not against people getting a good all-over tan but public beaches were not the places for it.
“They were on a crowded part of the beach and seemed not the least bit embarrassed or shy."
The Shire Council, knowing the controversial nature of the problem, is believed to be acting in a low key fashion.
After a check with other coastal councils, it has found that attention given to the matter such a placing signs, only attracts more offenders.
So instead of placing signs banning topless bathing it has told its beach inspectors to instruct offenders to ‘move on’ to more secluded areas.