Work on Questelles beach continues

THE QUESTELLES BEACH remains in the hands of the resilient ‘Questelles Beach Boys,’ who assure they are not stopping until they get the job done.

While the informally titled ‘Questelles Beach Boys’, with a core of nine members, have been cleaning their adopted beach for months now, they are showing no signs of inertia.

The head of the community group, Rupert Mulzac, spoke to SEARCHLIGHT approximately two months after he was first interviewed at Questelles beach on February 17, while in the midst of working on placing a cover on the well that has been on the beach for as long as anyone can remember.

The group, which not only cleans the beach, but has a number of sub-projects in progress to improve the aesthetics of the area, has already cleaned out the well, and added a back to it so that debris does not fall in from the cliff behind.

The well, described as a “work in progress” by Mulzac, was at one point full of trash, but now has fresh water inside of it.

Three other guys were working with Mulzac in order to build a lid for safety purposes, using material donated from We FM 99.9.

The beach boys have also put up the signs that they had just finished painting the last time SEARCHLIGHT visited, with reminders to ‘Throw nothing down the well!’ and ‘Keep the beach clean.’ “People have commented on them. They like the signs because they are handmade and they look good…We’re trying to keep it that way,” Mulzac saying that the goal is for people to say “Hey! Those guys are trying and we’ll help them.”

Mulzac says that the Parks, Rivers and Beaches Authority has come to meet with him in relation to the building of a bathroom on the beach. The Authority has offered their help in that, “The Parks and Recreation thought that there would be a plan (for a bathroom) because the Government had broken ground there,” Mulzac stated. Failing this, the Authority is looking for existing plans for bathrooms on other beaches.

The beach boys are taking a more active stance on some of the problems they had before, including the mass removal of sand, and are using the force of the law against perpetrators.

“We had two incidents where people came trying to do it, and we say, Hey! No, you can’t do it. You can take half a dozen bags, and you can’t take a truck load, and they were compliant. We’re happy with that,” Mulzac divulged, while saying that the problem has subsided significantly from the days when people would take away truckloads.

“Most of the time somebody here(on the beach) is affiliated with the whole project, and will try to deter them from taking the sand…, and since we’ve started, and if we’ve had any problem, we’re like Hey we’re gonna call the police.”

“… We’re keeping a watch out, we’re keeping vigilant,” the head stated.

“We might slow down, but we’re not stopping. We’re determined. We’re not gonna stop until we’re done,” Mulzac indicated.

Ending, he summed up the hope for the ‘Questelles Beach Boys,’ “I think we’re working on it… getting it to be ‘Destination’.”

A NEW HAND painted sign rests underneath an older sign at the entrance of the beach

A SIDE VIEW Questelles beach

RUPERT MULZAC head of the‘Questelles Beach Boys’ poses next to one of their hand painted signs

MULZAC (second from left) and his small group of volunteers that were working on building a cover for the old well at Questelles beach