This article is more than 5 months old

This article is more than 5 months old

Residents of some of Sydney’s beachside suburbs have called for Covid-19 restrictions on water access to be relaxed just to allow people to swim for exercise, but at least one local council has said beaches will remain closed.

The mayor of the Sydney local government area of Waverley, Paula Masselos, said NSW’s eastern beaches would remain closed despite a petition with nearly 5,000 signatures.

Waverley’s Bondi and Bronte beach were closed on 21 March after large crowds ignored physical distancing recommendations. Other local councils, such as Randwick and Woollahra, quickly followed suit.

Now no one is allowed on the sand, but some locals feel there is little danger in allowing people in the water for exercise.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest An aerial view of a notice dug into the sand at Tamarama Beach reading #Stay home. Photograph: James Gourley/Getty Images

The idea of a “swim and go” policy for beaches has been growing in popularity among some residents.

“It would just be someone going to the water’s edge dropping their towel, swimming and then coming back and leaving the beach straight away,” said Carolyn Martin, a lifelong resident of Coogee.

Martin started the petition on change.org, asking her council, Randwick, to open up beaches for water exercise.

Bondi Beach: how the Australian icon became a coronavirus hotspot Read more

“There would be no gathering, no loitering, no sunbaking. I thought that would be easy for the lifeguards and police to police because as soon as people start to set up towels on the beach, well then, they could just come and move them along.”

Martin said it wouldn’t just be avid swimmers who would benefit.

“There is an old lady that she said ‘look, I can only swim, I can’t walk and I can’t run’… there are families with autistic children who use the water as a way to start the day. Even the doctors and nurses up there in the hospital sometimes swim just to clear their head, it’s good for mental health.”

While Martin’s petition is only for the Randwick area, similar ideas have been posted online concerning Waverley and Woollahra council beaches.

But Masselos said it was not that simple.

“While the beaches are closed, our rangers can actually enforce that. Once the beaches are open, they are open. We have no power to move people off the beach.

“The police are clear in that they don’t want the beaches open at this point. They’re the only ones who can actually move people on, and their resources are so stretched at the moment.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A woman rollerskates in front of a closed Bondi Beach in Sydney. Some eastern suburbs locals have suggested reopening beaches to locals only. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP

The Waverley area is among the hardest hit by Covid-19 in Australia, with case numbers still rising.

Masselos said all three councils were putting up a unified front on the issue of beaches.

“We’re in lockstep … the councils have agreed that we’re going to be working together in deciding when the beaches are open because the experience has been if one beach is closed, then people flocked to the next beach,” she said.

“We are looking at strategies for slowly reopening the beaches once it gets a little bit cooler, but at the moment our experience has been that when the beaches are open, people will go.”

An idea to open the beaches only to locals, excluding the large backpacker population, has also been gaining traction across social media, but Masselos said this would not be considered.

“How are we going to patrol that? Are we going to have to ask people to show us their IDs, to say some people are allowed and some aren’t? Council doesn’t have the power to do that nor should we … I just don’t think that is very desirable.”

However, Martin said she did not think people would be able to go months without using the beaches.

“I think we would all go mad, the restrictions have to be sustainable … I mean, we can go to Manly and swim … but that’s probably not the right thing to be doing either. Travelling when we shouldn’t be and putting pressure on other council areas.

“I just want us to see if we can work out a way we can do it here.”