Altona Dog Beach. Bounded by Altona Coastal Park, Altona Road and Altona Workers Club. Check tidal conditions, best at low tide.
Location
More Information
For additional information please visit the Hobsons Bay City Council website.
Note: While Doggo aims to provide the most up-to-date information, councils and/or park authorities may change their regulations regarding dog exercise areas at any time. We suggest checking with the relevant park management for the latest information.
11 Comments
Altona Dog Beach is absolutelty fantastic for you and your dog. Before you know it you have spent hours there. Bring your dog old or young, fantastic place for my puppy to socialize and play in the water, and no one will get annoyed by her playfulness. Highly recommended
The Altona Dog Beach has been a fabulous outlet for myself and 2 rescue dogs for nearly six years. This Summer however has changed all that. The Kite Borders have moved in and are giving private lessons on the public beach. My dog chases the Kites (border collie kelpie) and it has made it impossible for me to use the beach while the kite borders are there, which is every day this Summer.
The Altona Foreshore on the Geelong side has been overrun with them, all of them in breach of laws governing their proximity to beach and speeds traveled, however a blind eye is turned to it.
The Dog Beach is at risk of becoming another playground for “persons” with their go fast toys, destroying which was once a tranquil and peaceful area, interfering with bird life and tearing past dogs and people at dangerously high speeds. Why can’t we have a little space with no contraptions clogging them up.
Please sign our petition to stop the Kite Borders ruining this sanctuary:
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/save-the-altona-dog-beach.html
Keep some thing for our four leged friends we humans have
Taken over everything they need somewhere where they
Can run around and have fun
Tracey Fregon says it all. The kiteboarders have no respect for other people or animals in their vicinity. They have the whole bay to play in. Why do they need to sail/skim/surf between children, dogs and their owners. If a ‘school’ gets set up there, that will mean we will have even less experienced kiteboarders slaloming their way past our beloved, and licensed pets.
I agree with all the comments and have personally had a couple of run ins with kite surfers on land and in the water. At the beach while my dog was retreving her ball a kite surfer past extremely close to her then moments later the same guy cut between myself and my dog (the gap between us was only about 3meters). Then at the off lead park opposite the Kooringal Golf Course I had a guy abuse me telling to to keep my dogs under control and to keep them away from him and his EXSPENSIVE kite. They were only sniffing around because the kite was on the ground and no long terrifying to them when the guy hit one of my dogs over the nose. He was extremely rude and aggorgant acting like he owned the park and the dogs didn’t have a right to run around, play and get their exercise.
Tracy, I have started a facebook site to support this horrible take over! I also signed your petition. If you want to get petitions in shops and such I am willing to help.
http://www.facebook.com/groups/170885263014227/?profile_pic_upload=1&success=1#!/groups/170885263014227/
Hi Tracey
As a long time user of the beaches, there are a couple of things to consider:
1. As a dog owner, you are responsible for your dogs behavior. If your dog causes damage to 3rd party property, you are still responsible for it. There are no exclusions for this, be it kites, or someone kicking around a footy ball that your dog happens to chase. The difference here is this equipment is expensive, maybe $1000+ so its likely the owner is trying to prevent damage if your dog bites it. Someone in the council would easily argue that kids have been flying kites on the beaches for many years and it’s the owner’s responsibility to control their dog. I believe it would be extremely difficult to get a ban on flying kites which children have been doing for many years. Water use is a different topic which I’ll cover later.
2. Having a dog beach does not exclude other beach users from using that beach. A dog beach is exactly that, a beach where dogs are allowed, not a beach where other users are not allowed. There are a number of beach users who may have been using that beach long before you started walking your dog there. Again, some residents have lived in this area for more than 10 years and are just as entitled to use the area as anyone else, for whatever purposes they want (fishing, canoeing, flying kites etc)
3. Any actions (private lessons) would need to be sanctioned by the council. If the person is question is teaching any form of lesson (aerobics, fitness, kiting), chances are they have prior approval from the council. If they don’t, they are not allowed to be there and you can have them removed. If they are, you’re going to have a problem.
4. The actions of one kite person should not tarnish everyone. You would do well to remember that dog owners are just as guilty. I’m pretty sure you would have seen dog owners who haven’t cleaned up after their dogs at the beach and I’m sure you wouldn’t want dogs banned because of the actions of one or two selfish (or arrogant) individuals. Ive actually seen a dog urinate on a persons back sitting on the beach before. Any water users (I would believe these kites would be classes as a type of boat in the same way a windsurfer may) are subject to bay water laws which restrict how close they come to people in the water. If this person came within 3 meters it’s clear that they are not adhering to water laws and I would call the water police to deal with this. It’s the same as the jetski’s menace we have to listen to in summer. Jetski’s can come to shore but they have to be riding slowly. The likelihood of getting a petition through is low but the water police (coast guard?) have to respond to complaints about behavior and that would give you the upper hand. The next time you see it, report it, police come down and deal with it, person gets fined, bad behavior unlikely to continue or the person won’t come back again.
1. My dog isn’t interested in eating kites.
2. Then why am I excluded from the beach while the kiteboarders are there?
3. As I understand there is no license to conduct lessons on the dog beach.
4. Leave it as it is and I guarantee you that within 5 years there will be hundreds of kiteboarders on the “public beach” excluding, children, people, many other members of the public. Hell lets just have jets skies, kite boarders, why not have a car race on the sand.
I’m not saying you’re excluded, I’m just saying they are not excluded. I’m also not proposing leaving it as is. In fact, the exact opposite. I’m saying if you see someone behaving like an idiot close to shore, report it to the right authorities and end it now. If there are people having in a responsible fashion, leave them alone.
If someone hoons in the street, do you take up a petition to have hoons banned or call the cops to deal with them? A petition could take months, a call to the cops deals with it immediately and ensures they won’t be back doing the same thing again. Find out who is the correct person to lodge a complaint to (same people who deal with jet ski’s) and report any such behaviour to them immediately. The cops will come down and deal with it and the offender hopefully won’t come back.
Well, what a stupid idea
I nearly got hit by one about 4 weeks ago
I was chatting to a fantastic older italian man about why they were tjere and then the jerk came straight for us with not a care in the world
Come on guys, you have one beach leave the dogs have theirs
Bugger off tad bagers
Well, what a stupid idea
I nearly got hit by one about 4 weeks ago
I was chatting to a fantastic older italian man about why they were tjere and then the jerk came straight for us with not a care in the world
Come on guys, you have one beach leave the dogs have theirs
Bugger off tea bagers