But it turns out Waverley Council did not actually vote to restrict ocean access to locals. Council minutes reveal the resolutions establishing Swim&Go and Surf&Go set out measures such as the hours of operation and how the queuing system would work - but not who could use it.
Liberal councillor Will Nemesh said the suggestion public land should be restricted to locals was"outrageous and disingenuous"and was never part of the discussion at the council meeting.
"It can't be open to some and closed to others,"Nemesh said."We are not living in the Greater Republic of Waverley."
Labor's Masselos concedes this point,saying she was only urging common sense."We're not going to be asking people to see their driver's licence,nor do we have the power to do that,"she said.
She said the new system had been successful so far. It was initially planned to be week days only,but on Friday the general manager decided to extend it to the weekend.
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The NSW public health order,which expires at the end of June,says people must stay at home but can leave the house for various reasons such as exercise. It does not specify whether you can travel for exercise.
Some people have interpreted that to mean you should exercise within walking distance of home,while others believe it is reasonable to drive to an exercise location such as a beach,national park or cycleway.
Last week Premier Gladys Berejikian came down on the side of lenience."You can drive in a car to go shopping,you can drive in a car to go somewhere and do exercise,"she said.
Historian Caroline Ford,author ofSydney Beaches:A History, said while people had genuine fears about the virus,the pandemic was also fuelling a dynamic that stretched back more than a century.
"There's a long history of tensions between people who consider themselves locals to the beach and people who come in from other suburbs of Sydney to go to the beach,"Ford said.
The NSW government purchased Bondi Beach from a private owner in the late 19th century and opened up beach bathing during daylight hours a few decades later. Believing beach recreation to be inherently healthy,governments of all political stripes invested in public transport,vetoed commercial proposals such as a Luna Park at Bondi,and explicitly positioned beaches as public resources"for the people".
"There's a passion and possessiveness that people have for the beaches,"Ford said."There's a fiercely protective response against any challenges and any perceived threats to free access to the beaches."
During the Second World War,Sydneysiders climbed barbed wire fences to swim in the ocean,while in the late 1980s,100,000 people joined protests against sewage pollution at Bondi.
But tensions between locals and outsiders are not new.
As early as the 1910s,residents of Freshwater were complaining about wharfies and labourers coming in from suburbs like Pyrmont,Erskineville and Marrickville to camp on the beaches.
In the 1960s,Bronte locals derided visitors as"Leichhardt sand throwers",whilePuberty Blues,set in 1970s Cronulla,describes the locals banding against"Bankies"from Bankstown or"anywhere uncool".
In the 1990s,Bondi residents successfully campaigned against the extension of the eastern suburbs train line to Bondi beach,with some using the argument it would"bring crime from the Westies"and affect property prices.
Infamously,at Cronulla Beach in 2005,conflict between mostly white locals and ethnically diverse beach users from other parts of Sydney turned into violent riots.
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And in 2020 on the northern beaches,some residents have put up signs marking out their turf,such as one at Avalon that said"if you don't live here,don't surf here"and warned:"If you decide to come out anyway,it'll be a short surf".
Newport's Nick Carroll has been surfing for 50 years and grew up in a culture of"localism"- where young men would aggressively defend their surf breaks from interlopers and bully younger surfers. He said this attitude abated from the 1980s when women and girls took up surfing but never disappeared.
"I think the pandemic is an excuse for a bit of localism to rear its head again,"Carroll said.
He said similar signs were popping up at many beaches,some of them even mocked up to look like official council notices. But he has seen no actual violence in the surf and says the notes have a passive-aggressive tone where"it's not a real threat,it's a sort of fake threat".
Meanwhile,just south of Waverley,Randwick Council has kept its beaches open,including Clovelly,Coogee and Maroubra. It's strictly for exercise,including sand running,and physical distancing rules are enforced,but it's not locals only."Anyone can come,you're welcome to our beaches,"said Randwick Mayor Danny Said.
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