Jaimen Hudson on the boardwalk at Twilight Beach. Photo: Chloe Sipeki.
Disability advocate, tour boat operator and drone photographer Jaimen Hudson is calling on the Esperance Shire Council to prioritise beach access for everyone.
Every year, tourists flock to the Esperance coastline, many of them travelling hundreds of kilometres to spend a day lying on soft, white sand, gazing at turquoise water.
Mr Hudson is an Esperance local.
He said he had never strayed too far from Esperance’s famous coastline, his childhood filled with fun memories at the beach.
When he was seventeen, Mr Hudson had a motorcycle accident that left him paralyzed and wheelchair bound.
He broke his neck for the second time last year when his wheelchair flipped on the gravel vehicle access road down to West Beach.
He said he still had his affinity for the ocean, but since becoming disabled, the lack of beach accessibility made him feel as though he had been “robbed”.
“I’ll sit in the car park here while my wife’s down on the beach with our two young children building sandcastles and running around,” he said.
“I have to watch it from 150 metres away.”
Mr Hudson said his only options to safely go to the beach were to drive an hour out of town to Lucky Bay or go to the town beach.
Though the Shire had invested in beach matting and beach wheelchairs for the town beach, Mr Hudson said it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that they were rarely used.
“[The shark nets are] probably installed at the grossest beach that we have in Esperance,” he said.
“You’ve got these screaming easterlies that blow in there and just push seaweed up onto the beach and no one wants to go and hang out there.”
“What they’ve done is a step in the right direction, there’s no issues with that, but it needs to be expanded out to the further beaches – all these amazing locations that we have three kilometres or whatever it is from the town centre.”
Mr Hudson said a spokesperson from the Shire had indicated plans to put a ramp up at Twilight Beach before summer last year.
Summer had nearly come and gone, he said, and the beach was still not accessible.
“I don’t know what summer they were talking about. One in five years?” he said.
“Will it ever happen?”
We directed these questions to the Shire and a spokesperson said plans to install an access ramp at Twilight Beach were “longer term” and land access issues had to be addressed before plans could move forward.
“The Shire will continue to work on this,” the spokesperson said.
After giving the benefit of the doubt to the Shire for some time, Mr Hudson said he was disappointed by what he saw as false promises and a complete disregard for people who would benefit from better beach accessibility.
“Anyone can use a ramp, but not everyone can use stairs,” he said.
“It would become a huge drawcard for our coastal tourism town where if people knew they could travel here and despite their disabilities go to beaches, they certainly would.”
“It doesn’t just help people with the disabilities, it helps prams, buggies, bikes, all sorts.”
For Mr Hudson, his passion for the issue is fuelled by his fear that he is running out of time to make special memories with his kids.
“I don’t want to miss out on anything,” he said.
“You have such a small window where – I know it sounds silly but – [you’re] cool to your kids before they don’t want to hang out with you anymore.”
“I want to sort of capitalize on those years now.”
He said he understood disabled access could easily become an oversight for people who were able bodied and had their own lives to lead, but he hoped the community would recognize the need for change.
“I never thought I’d be in a wheelchair,” he said
“Sometimes I still can’t even believe I’m the person that’s in a wheelchair, but I am, so it can happen to anyone.
“It would just be so nice to be in a world where there was more public access to beaches.”
