I’m going to make a bold prediction. This weekend I think they will close the beaches. Again.

They first closed the beaches (all in the eastern suburbs) back in March of 2020. I blogged about it back then – click here for that one. Quite a good read if I do say so myself. That was at the height of the initial covid panic-demic. It was the local authority’s response to Bondi beach being totally mobbed out on the Friday (20th March 2020). That particular afternoon the temperature hit 30+ and everyone just seemed to collectively say “Ah fuck it! This pandemic scare is a bit of a hoax. Let’s hit the beach.” They were quite correct of course.

At the time I wrote that closing the beaches was very “un-Australian”. That was true then and is still true now. Yet here we are some 18 months later still being scared to death by the authorities and the media.

Today the beach was busy….

Today there was a clear blue sky and a high of 23ºC. Fairly warm for mid winter. So, I went for a walk down to Bondi beach. As part of my daily exercise you understand… graciously permitted me by the wonderful authorities… The place was buzzing. Plenty in the sea pretending to surf. There were no waves to speak of, the Pacific ocean was more like a pond today.  There were others pretending to do their allowed exercise by having a dip in the sea. But there were people on the beach just sunbathing. The outdoor gym-cum-monkey bar area was packed out with would-be ‘Arnies’ flexing. Generally it was very busy and no sign of any cops. Just why they are keeping such a low profile I can only guess.

But here’s the thing. If this weather stays like this then I predict at the weekend we may have a similar situation to March last year. With a heavy police presence  in the western suburbs, as well as the Australian army in the area I wonder how it will play out. A quick look at the weather forecast suggests the temperatures will be a little lower this weekend. But we shall see.