A proposed Amalfi-inspired beach club on Bondi Beach has received widespread opposition from Bondi locals and politicians.
The initial proposal of The Amalfi Beach Club, set to erect on the southern end of Bondi, outlined plans to erect a private area on the beach. The club would host 100 guests, each paying $80 for two hours of entry with food and drinks.
The proposal outlines that the club would target “high net worth” people between 25 and 45, with “high disposable income”. Those behind the project anticipate male patrons to be “aspirational professionals such as doctors, surgeons, members of the finance industry”, and women who “occupy a similar high-end platform in areas of publishing, advertising, fashion, beauty and modelling”. I have to tip my hat to the hilarious, men are doctors women are models mindset.
Naturally, a bunch of folks take umbrage with this sinister display of nouveau riche corniness. We all want to LARP our Slim Aarons fantasies, but privatising a public beach is flagrantly out of touch.
In an interview with The Sun-Herald, NSW Planning & Public Spaces Minister Rob Stokes said he’ll “step in” to stop the club from happening, calling the proposal “elitist and un-Australian”.
“Flogging off a bit of Bondi for the so-called beautiful people is one of the ugliest things that could be proposed,” he said. “Our public spaces and beautiful beaches are to be enjoyed by all – not cordoned off like in the south of France or the United States for only those who can afford it.”
Janek Gazecki, the man behind the project, has defended the proposed club, telling The Guardian that the Amalfi is “just an experience for those people who want to enjoy the beach in a particular way”.
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Gazecki reckons that the exclusivity and magnitude of the club have been misreported by the media. We reckon he’s backtracking. He said that there would no longer be an $80 access fee to the club, and that was only announced during coronavirus restrictions.
“If you don’t like it, just sit on any other place of the 55,000 square metres of beach,” he said. “They already have a cabana and day bed leasing service there, that has been there for a decade. You can hire deckchairs and umbrellas and lay them out there – all we just do is add an alcohol and food service.”
Frame it however you please toots. If the council don’t The Amalfi Club, know that your Italian summer fantasy will not withstand the tyrannical powers of the UE Boom. You may be able to fence off the public, but there’s no hiding from Drakes’ Scorpion.
