News
Frankston Beach on the Victorian Beach will be accessible for another year for people living with disability. Activist and youtuber Shane Hryhorec ( HA-HOR-RUCK) of Accessible Beaches Australia, who travels the world with his wheelchair, had seen how matting on beaches gave access to wheelchairs at a beach in France. His suggestion to Frankston Council that they do the same was trialled this summer, with some people travelling as far as 200 kilometres to go into the water, now the council has just approved another year’s funding, to the delight of councillor Nathan Butler, who spoke with RPPFM.
The amount of joy that this accessible program brought to people was just absolutely huge. And I think reputationally, for Frankston, we're leading the country in a space where we're trying something new. We're trying something novel, and it always risks with that. You know, will it work? Will the community respond well to it? Will we be making an impact? And I think we ticked all three boxes on this one.
Nathan Butler
As Nathan Butler says:
Beachside cities, including Byron Bay, that are looking at what we've done and seeing how they can implement similar programs on their beaches. And I think that could be a legacy for Frankston itself. , We were first, we delivered it, it was validated, it was verified as something that both people wanted and it was good value for money and then other cities are taking note changing the landscape for inclusion at beaches for the better across the whole country.
And there are people that hadn't been in the water in over 10 years, just because you couldn't physically access the water didn't mean you didn't have a really strong desire to still be able to do these things. It's just society hasn't up until Frankston paved the way really let people do this.
Nathan Butler
The positive impact is what counts to Nathan Butler:
Beachside cities, including Byron Bay, that are looking at what we've done and seeing how they can implement similar programs on their beaches. And I think that could be a legacy for Frankston itself. We were first, we delivered it, it was validated, it was verified as something that both people wanted and it was good value for money.