Heated debate sparks over common beach act in Australian summer: ‘When did this become a thing?’

A frustrated mother-of-two has sparked a heated debate online after questioning whether it was ‘normal’ for beachgoers to settle in front of other families.

For clarity, the Melbourne mom added a photo to the conversation showing a blue and white striped beach cabana sitting in front of her own.

The other cabana was almost at the water’s edge and had been “put there after” her family had gotten ready for the day.

“Since when did it become a thing to set up a beach tent in front of other beachgoers?” “I go to the beach a few times a year and this is the first time I’ve seen this,” the mother grumbled.

She added that the tents were “four deep” on the popular beach.

‘We arrived at 9am and around 11am someone came between us and the water. I was astounded and then noticed that this was the case on the beach,” she added.

But people were quick to ‘pull her into line’ and criticize her for wanting ‘unrestricted water views’.

“If you were the only two people on the beach I would understand this question, but as you said the beach was full. Expecting them to leave the room for you is just rude,” one woman said.

But other beachgoers said “a space is a space” and she can’t expect people not to settle near her in the summer

‘Beach space is scarce on a city beach in the summer. You can’t reserve the space or view in front of you, only the space your stuff takes up,” said another.

Others were much blunter.

“Excuse me, who do you think you are?” a woman asked.

“I think they are trying to enjoy the outdoors and reduce their risk of melanoma,” said another.

A third said: ‘Are you serious! Do you think you are entitled to uninterrupted views of the water because you were there first?!! Sheesh.”

Others revealed that they now park as close to the water as possible to avoid anyone getting between them and the water.

Some people admit that they avoid the beach during peak hours because they don’t like the cabanas, but know there’s nothing they can do about it.

‘I grew up on the peninsula, lived here for 38 years. It’s beautiful, but I don’t feel like going to the beach in the two weeks between Christmas and New Year’s. It’s towel to towel in there,” one woman said.

‘We live in Noosa and the beaches are covered for the two weeks after Christmas. We just go to the beaches without the crowds! (I know that’s hard in some areas),” said another.

But some people took the mother’s side.

‘It’s strange to see people standing so close or right in front of you. It happened to me and a friend recently with a group of people sitting right in front of us and the beach had so much space around it – it felt like it could have been polite of them to just sit a little further away next to us instead of right in front of us .

“It was very awkward when the girl in front of us leaned right in front of us and applied sunscreen to her lower legs – we literally had to turn our heads away,” one mother added.

“Yesterday I had people from all sides get up and start smoking, very gross,” said another.

A third fumed: “I feel this in my bones. We are going to a dog beach, it is not busy. We don’t have a cabana and are in a shady spot. We’ll be there around 7 o’clock.

A family came by and set up TWO cabanas within a meter of where we were sitting… It made me very angry.”

Others pointed out that the situation for the family could have been much worse.

“At least it’s the kind of tent you can see through,” one woman said.