Restrictions at Cactus Beach become a prickly issue
Visitors to Cactus Beach on South Australia’s west coast are being warned against taking photos or video of the hotspot and putting them online.
The surfing Mecca became recognised as a national surfing reserve in January and locals are now handing out pamphlets to visitors stating photos and video are not to be published or put on the internet.
The pamphlets say surfing competitions are also banned.
Locals made it clear cameras were not welcome when 7News visited the beach this week, with ‘No camara (sic) c***’ written on the back of the crew's vehicle in wax.
Robert Debelle from Surfing Australia warned that the situation could develop into something much worse.
“One of these days, that’s going to cause a serious incident and it’s going to be ugly for everybody,” he said.
One traveller who spoke to 7News was too frightened to be identified, fearing she would be abused after taking a photo.
The waves at Cactus Beach were only discovered in the 1960s, but it has been a prickly issue ever since.
Some locals have been trying to keep the secret to themselves.
Directions are difficult to find, with signs pointing to the beach being scrubbed off and the more recently torn down.
But the local mayor wants to see more visitors to the area.
“We need tourism, we don’t need to try and chase them away by being stupid,” Allan Suter said.
The local surfing association claims the restrictions are to prevent exploitation, but the South Australian Government said it is a public beach and there is no restriction on photography or filming.
