A tongue-in-cheek suggestion to solve the national ‘cabana crisis’, that has even been on the mind of Anthony Albanese, has been taken seriously by some people who think it might just work.
Popular Instagram influencer Miss Double Bay, who has almost 64,000 followers, has shared a ‘solution to the cabana epidemic that is plaguing the beaches’ by dividing the sand into areas where they’re allowed and those where they’re banned.
Miss Double Bay proposed that councils need to set up ‘Cabana Corners’.
‘While I am all for sun safety I think we can all agree here they (cabanas) are unsightly,’ she said.
‘Especially if you are a family of two why do you need an eight-seater (popular make) CoolCabana?’
‘People come to the beach to take in the sights and sounds of mother nature… not some weird patterned tent that looks like your grandmother’s couch.’
The solution ‘everybody will get around’ is to have a ‘designated area of the beach where the CoolCabanas can live’.
‘This section would be in the back of the beach so no one could see,’ the influencer said.
The ‘Cabana Corners would have ‘parking meters where if you want to stay for longer you have to put more money in’.
To enforce this a new type of inspector would have to employed.
‘If we are seeing a cabana that is not in the Cabana Corner, immediate fine, immediate fine and you are asked to leave the beach,’ she said.
She then – a little overenthusiastically – outlined other cabana offences that could attract an ‘immediate fine’.
‘I feel like council would really get on board with this because as we all know council likes to issue fines,’ she said.
The video finished with Miss Double Bay asking for help to draft her proposal to send to beachside councils.
But many were unimpressed by her bold solution.
‘Negative… I’ll put it up wherever my fam sees fit for sun safety,’ one person replied.
‘Go back to Double Bay love, really,’ was another disgruntled reply.
A third added: ‘Okay so your solution is colonisation and the policing of public spaces.’
‘F the council they don’t need more revenue raising,’ another said.
A fourth said: ‘ Sounds like an eastern suburbs elite solution that simply involves taxing western Sydney.’
However others praised her idea.
One said: ‘I love the idea but I wish they had better prints, they are so fugly. I think you almost have the right idea.
‘The cabanas stay at the back of the beach, no tents at the front of the beach near the water.’
The issue of beaches becoming covered in cabanas has escalated all the way to the office of the Prime Minister.
On Nine’s Today show Mr Albanese was asked about people putting up cabanas early in the morning to claim a spot of the beach and reserve it throughout the day even when they are not there.
‘That’s not on…. to think that you can reserve a little spot as just yours,’ Mr Albanese replied.
‘One of the great things about Australia, unlike some parts of the world (where) you go and you’ve got to pay to go to the beach. Here, everyone owns the beach,’ Mr Albanese said.
‘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.’
Sunrise hosts Jayne Azzopardi and Alex Cullen blasted the behaviour as ‘un-Australian,’ cheekily calling on the Prime Minister to legislate against the practice.
‘Well, maybe,’ he responded.
