After running foul of Council rules, Eliza Hilmer’s weekly ‘free or by donation’ yoga session has found a new home on the roof of the St Kilda Sea Baths.
The weekly Sunday yoga started during COVID and quietly grew in popularity, attracting up to 100 participants to the St Kilda foreshore.
But a front page photograph in The Age earlier this year prompted Council to limit the classes to 15 participants or only four times per year.
After fours years of weekly yoga, Eliza found this hard to comprehend and disappointing.
After meeting the Mayor Heather Cunsolo, Eliza was told the rules were the rules and nothing else could be done. (See The Age report 6 Feb)
A win for local knowledge
Eliza contacted former Councillor Serge Thomann for ideas on how to respond to Council. Serge suggested seeking alternatives, including the Sea Baths. And now Eliza’s Feel Good Flows yoga has a new venue.
Join the sessions on Sundays from 9.30 am – 10.30 am.
Visit the Feel Good Flows website
Good news that turned sour – The Age front cover that prompted Council to restrict the yoga
But wait there’s more …
Volleyball permitted, yoga is not
TWiSK wondered how weekly activities like the beach volleyball could be permitted and yoga could not?
So we asked Council, and their response created more questions than answers..
Here is the Council statement in full:
“All permits have different requirements and restrictions. The beach volleyball on St Kilda Beach is permitted under the Outdoor Commercial Recreational Activities Permit, not the event permit.
“The beach volleyball fees are $341 annually plus they are required to pay the Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Action (DEECA) mandated participant fee of $1.60 per child and $2.40 per adult each session.
“Our Commercial Recreation Policy excludes any activity which is identified as personal training, such as yoga. This is why yoga classes require a personal training licence.”
Opinion
Time for Council to wake up and smell the coffee (or chia latte)
Take a lesson from yoga and be more flexible
TWiSK likes to think that St Kilda could be a magical place where the community can thrive, connect and share.
Surely a community organised, self-supporting and effectively free weekly yoga session on the foreshore is a dream come true.
Yet after discovering that such an activity has been happening weekly for four years, the Council moved to shut it down – because there are rules.
But as we have reported above – there are many rules and the decision to exclude yoga is revealed to be arbitrary, narrow and out of step with reality.
If the current foreshore rules forbid weekly yoga sessions with more than 15 people, the rules need to be changed.
Indeed an online petition attracted over 7500 signatures support the yoga session quicker than you can assume a downward dog pose.
Data quoted in The Age from the Australian Sports Commission confirms a long-term decline in organised sports in favour of lifestyle activities, with 1.17 million Australians 15 and older practising yoga – ahead of soccer (1.13 million), golf (1.04 million) and tennis (1 million).
Council needs to take a lesson from yoga and be more flexible.
View aerial video of the beach yoga as it was until Council found out
