A revealing look at the Kiata Country Club
On the north-west outskirts of Sydney in the unlikely bushy suburb of Maroota, down a potholed dirt road, a humble, locked fence stands across a road. Signs discourage prying from any passers by who happened to stumble down this quiet road.
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| This zebra is nude |
That was why I was here: my band, Birdyard Big Band, had been invited to play for the club's monthly social, a princes and princesses ball. As one of the Kiata community told me:
"as nudists, it's a bit of a novelty dressing up, so we really like these opportunities".Now, those who have bought or read my book Top Walks in NSW know that I'm not averse to a bit of skinny-dipping now and again. I quite like the feeling, actually, of being care-free and kit-free, on a remote beach somewhere. And thankfully I've never really struggled with body-image issues. But thinking of doing karaoke nude in front of a whole bunch of others? Hmmm. Talk about "stage fright". Let alone dancing in a crowd. Or tennis? "Keep your eye on the ball" takes on a whole new meaning.
It was mid-July, and it was freezing, so us band members uninitiated into the ways of the Aussie nude community, asked the same questions that a lot of nudists get asked in the winter - do they really get around nude all day and night? But as one Kiata member laughed to me: "We're nudists. We're not insane". During the cold days (it was only about 13 degrees during the day), the community may or may not be wearing clothes. In summer, it's evidently a bit different.
When our band leader had set up the gig, he was met at the gate by a woman in a sarong, and a man wearing a hat. Yes, just a hat. Which really suited the song You can leave your hat on (which we did do later in the night, leading our singer to comment that it is the first time for this band that the lyrics have actually been acted out in front of us).
When we arrived, on that cold winter's night, the friendly crowd had a roaring log fire going in the corner, and a caterer had been hard at work setting up a roast dinner. Most of the crowd was very smartly dressed indeed, the one exception perhaps being one fairly attractive woman wearing a very short white tutu and nothing else.
Not surprisingly, the toilets are unisex, which is quite novel, but not unlike some of the Sydney nightclubs I've been to where gender doesn't seem to matter either.
The mix of people at Kiata is actually a slightly younger crowd than I expected. Yes, the bulk of the nudists appear to be older, but there seemed to be quite a few in their 40s, and a handful or so who were younger.
Some people buy into the community at Kiata, keeping their own caravan site and living on site. Others might just pop in for a week, a weekend, or rent one of the spaces for shorter periods. "A lot of grey nomads are nudists," one member told me. "They travel around Australia going from nudist camp to nudist camp." Evidently there are about 30 in all around Australia.
In the late 1960s, there was another nudist colony in the Sydney area, run by an officious German woman who had "a lot of rules", one long-term resident told me.
"No smoking, no drinking, no holding hands..".A group got jack of all the rules and set up Kiata in the 1970s, and it has been there ever since.
I have to say that having performed in a variety of bands for more than 25 years, the crowd was one of the most enthusiastic and friendly I have ever performed to. As soon as we started playing, we had dancers filling the small dance space, squished between the fireplace and the band, jiggling and joggling around us. It didn't matter if we played swing, Latin, rock or classics like Nutbush (yes, intentional pun), the floor was full of swinging dancers. Well, some bits of them were swinging more than others.
Throughout the night, more and more clothes came off, but not always what you expected. One bloke had a full dinner shirt and jacket on, but nothing on his lower half at all. Another just had his shirt off. Some remained clothed, others were starkers from early on in the evening. Women, men, all ages, all dancing together, and having a great time.
They were slightly more sexually mischievous than I imagined, and by the end were encouraging the band to strip. We obliged by taking off our suit jackets.
After three encores, and the clock passing midnight, some of the lovely friendly faces on the way to the spa invited us back for New Years. "It's a great night," they said. "A lot more nudity though."
Could be fun.
Photography is banned at Kiata expect by official photographers. BE WARNED: if you click on the Kiata website it does have images that may offend some people.
www.kensbigbackyard.com.au
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