Berowra Nudist Colony

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Identifiernot specifiedDate1937Photographernot specifiedDescriptionIn the 1930s strange and perhaps even titillating accounts of nudists camping in the Bush around Berowra began to appear in newspaper articles. The story was scandalous and reported as far afield as Western Australia! Police were dispatched to locate the camp and deal with its naturalist inhabitants, yet the nudists were never found.
Nudists at Berowra may seem a wonderful story, yet the truth behind the rumours is perhaps more fascinating still. Peter Huett recalls:
The residents all knew it was a hoax, but we all kept it quiet. See, my Dad and Billy Macarthy liked telling stories, so they’d say ‘have you heard of the nudist colony down on the waters’. The Progress Association thought this wasn’t a good tourist attraction, but the story spread far and wide and people came to see them from far and wide. It went on for 4 or 5 years and people would ask about them. They’d be sent to somewhere on the water, like Rat’s Castle and told to ‘look up, you’ll see ‘em’. Of course, they never did but they’d be told the nudists must’ve moved. Pressure from the newspaper’s forced the police to investigate eventually and my sister and I were walking home from school when a plain clothes detective pulled up. He said he was trying to find the nudist colony so we just gave him a long story about where it was on the waters and he went on his way. Of course, then the war came and the nudists ‘disappeared’. After all, you can’t have nudists in wartime – have to put them in uniform!
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Berowra Nudist Colony