St Kilda Beach, Victoria

Kitesurfing on St Kilda Beach

St Kilda Beach is a beach located in St Kilda, Port Phillip, Victoria, Australia, 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) south from the Melbourne city centre. It is Melbourne's most famous beach.

The St Kilda Sea Baths are located at the beach.

The St Kilda Pier is another landmark. The pier is terminated by the St Kilda Pavilion, an eccentric Edwardian building in the mould of English pier pavilions which is considered of high cultural importance to Melburnians. It was recently reconstructed and listed on the Victorian Heritage Register after burning down. The pier has a long breakwater which shelters St Kilda Harbour and hosts a Fairy Penguin colony.

St Kilda Beach is one of the 46 bayside beaches which are monitored by EPA Victoria for water quality. St Kilda Beach water quality is generally rated as good, but is considerably higher after rains, which flush stormwater drains. The reading exceeded the enterococci investigation trigger of <500 orgs/100 mL on 28 December 2009. This was short-lived, with bacterial levels returning below the investigation trigger the next day. The cause of the high reading was attributed to a oneoff, unidentified discharge into a stormwater drain, which is located close to the sampling site at St Kilda Beach.

Recreational activities

Besides swimming, sunbathing takes place on the beach as well as the grass area adjacent to it. People also engage in other watersport activities, such as windsurfing, sailing, kitesurfing, rollerblading, beach volleyball, jetskiing and waterskiing. A skate park for the Fitzroy street end of Albert Park is in the planning stages. There is also a walking track along the beach and a bicycle track.

St Kilda Beach is the home of the St Kilda Lifesaving Club, which was established in 1911, and the Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron, which began in the early 1870s as the St Kilda Sailing Club, with the present clubhouse and boat ramp built in the early 20th century.

History

Early lithograph (1864) of St Kilda main beach looking toward west beach and Port Melbourne.

Until the 1850s, sea bathing was not generally considered acceptable. It was permitted within large timber structures as protection from predatory marine life. The St Kilda Sea Baths were opened in 1860, and provided separate sections for men and women. Women were protected from the sight of men bathing because men frequently bathed naked. Sea bathing was popular as it was considered to have health benefits, as was exposure to the sun. Throughout the nineteenth century, there were as many as six different sea baths operating along the St Kilda shore.

Standards of acceptable ‘decency’ and dress at St Kilda beach, as along Victorian beaches in general, were the subject of vigorously local debate. St Kilda Council’s bye-law prohibited open sea bathing and bathing on Sundays and on Christmas and Easter. The bye-law was first challenged by the Open Sea Bathers’ League whose members entered the water in 1912, without being arrested.

Open-sea bathing was legalised in 1917. However, the prohibition to Sunday bathing was not revoked until 1922.

A tramline had been extended to pass St Kilda Beach in 1925. By 1925 open-sea bathing was becoming more popular, with increasing numbers of people bathing in the open-sea, to the loss of patronage at the sea baths. To cater for the need, St Kilda Council erected three open-sea changing pavilions along its foreshore: at West St Kilda, on Beaconsfield Parade; at St Kilda Beach (at 40 Jacka Boulevard, which still survives as a restaurant); and at Elwood (Ormond Esplanade, demolished in 1971). The beach pavilions proved more popular than the sea baths.

"Mixed bathing" was legalised in 1927. By 1928 men and women were mingling freely in the water of St Kilda Beach.

In 1938, "mixed bathing" in the St Kilda Sea Baths was restricted to weekends and only in the ladies’ section. However, during World War II (1939-45) nude sunbathing made an appearance on St Kilda beaches. Also in 1945, Sidney Nolan, who was living in St Kilda, painted the beach and the Sea Baths, and in works such as The Bathers and St Kilda painted nude sunbathers.

External links

• St Kilda Historical Society