Bells Beach, shown here, is in developers’ crosshairs. Photo: Change.org
The local community at the iconic Victoria, Australia-surf spot Bells Beach is up in arms over a tourist development proposed by a local landowner, and has rallied to collect over 20,000 signatures for a Change.org petition against the proposal.
Aside from its beefy right-hand walls, Bells, second stop on the World Tour, is known as an undeveloped haven, backed by farmland, hills and scrub vegetation.
The recent proposal to build “eco units” has already been nixed by the local Surf Coast Shire. But the landowner is seeking approval at a higher level from the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, which is all they need to go ahead with construction. A hearing is set for October 24.
If it’s approved, “the first precedent will be set for further tourist developments in the Bells hinterland/viewshed,” the petition states. “This is the final stand to save Bells Beach from tourist development.”
Surfrider Foundation’s Australia chapter lists Bells as an “endangered” wave despite its status as the world’s first Surfing Recreation Reserve. Surfrider cites tourist developments like the one proposed, along with increasingly large events and local population growth among Bells’ major threats.
“It is bad enough that there is [sic] houses there let alone a tourist development,” Surfrider Foundation committee member John Foss told the Geelong Advertiser. “This is just a really good example of the ongoing commercial pressures at Bells Beach, where people are just looking to make buck out of it,” he said.
