Green light for beach trial on Coast opens up a vendor’s paradise
What I like is that this revives the ‘have a go’ spirit we’ve been missing for a while
- Mayor Tom Tate
THE city’s beaches could turn from a surfer’s paradise to a vendor’s paradise after Gold Coast council approved a trial for an operator to hit the sand with hire equipment.
Council yesterday gave conditional approval for a vendor to hire deck chairs and beach umbrellas but some councillors fear it will open up the city’s golden dunes to overcommercialisation and peddlers harassing tourists.
The vendor, yet to be named, will be given the chance to hire his equipment from December through to the end of March at both Kurrawa and Main Beach.
Al Baldwin, better known as Al the Suntan Man, was the last person allowed to operate a business on the city’s beaches and became an icon after three decades of spraying suntan lotion on tourists. He died in 2004.
The council will meet again in two weeks to discuss terms and conditions of any licences for the trial and give it final approval.
If the trial goes ahead and is successful it could spread to other beaches in the city.
Broadbeach councillor Paul Taylor said the beaches had to be open for business for the city to compete with international destinations where hiring beach equipment, surfboards and even selling food and drink was commonplace.
‘‘When you go to Spain, the UK, they have this on their beaches,’’ he said. ‘‘We’re a tourist destination and we say to tourists, come to the beaches of Queensland,’’ he said.
‘‘But then they find there’s nothing on our beaches but lifeguards.’’
But Carrara councillor Bob La Castra said the lack of commercialisation on the beaches set Australia apart from the world.
‘‘One of the things that makes us so attractive is we are one of the last bastions in allowing beach-goers to go to the beach hassle free,’’ he said.
‘‘Once we do this it does open the floodgate to commercialisation.
‘‘I don’t find beach hire offensive . . . but we don’t want touting and people being bothered.’’
Mayor Tom Tate said he backed the trial as it would confirm if there was a demand for the service.
‘‘What I like is that this revives the ‘have a go’ spirit we’ve been missing for a while,’’ he said.
‘‘Our beaches will always remain open and free for everyone to enjoy. This is simply about giving our visitors and locals a bit of shade and a seat with the best view in the world.’’