The great debate: Are Cool Cabanas a sun-safe beach haven or a dangerous eyesore?

Go to a Perth beach this summer and you can’t escape them.

No, not the g-string bikinis that have become de rigueur for under-30s, but a beach staple that’s just as ubiquitous and a lot more comfortable: cabana-style sun shelters.

King of them all is the Cool Cabana-branded shelters, which have turned their Queensland inventor Mark Fraser into a multi-millionaire.

But the cabanas’ popularity is not universal, with a vocal minority frustrated by what they see as an eyesore that takes up too much space, blocks the view and could even hamper the ability of lifesavers to patrol.

This week, accusations the cabanas were being used to reserve beach space without their owners being present even led Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to enter the chat and declare it was “not on”.

“One of the great things about Australia. . . here everyone owns the beach,” he said.

“And it’s a place where every Australian is equal. And that’s a breach of that principle, really, to think that you can reserve a little spot.”

Isha, snapped at Cottesloe beach with husband Christof and children Noah, Luka and Ava, said their cabana made staying on the beach with young children safe and easy.

“The first time we saw it on the beach we thought it was fantastic,” she said. “There have been numerous times we’ve just seen a beach umbrella being taken by the wind.

“It’s an Olympic sport leaving the house for the beach, so it’s nice to be able to stay for longer. We love it.”

Cancer Council WA SunSmart manager Sally Blane said the only problem with the cabanas was that there were not more of them.

“The fact that you’re protecting (especially) kids from future skin cancer completely outweighs any cluttering up on the beach because our beaches are so immense and vast,” she said.

Every year in WA more than 1400 cases of melanoma are diagnosed and 100 people die from it.

Surf Life Saving WA general manager Chris Peck also backed the use of cabana-style sun shelters, saying they were not a significant issue on patrolled beaches.

But not everyone is Team Cabana.

In the US, the shelters are banned on South Carolina’s Myrtle Beach because of concerns they were creating a “virtual wall”.

And in 2023 two Sydney councils flagged the structures as a problem but stopped short of attempting to ban them.

Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce weighed into that debate, saying: “I just think, wear a shirt, wear a hat and once you’ve had enough sun, get off the beach.”

This summer, TikTok is awash with videos of Australians lamenting the number of cabanas on popular beaches.

The angriest of them come from Sydney or Queensland, where the beaches are generally more crowded than in WA.

“They’ve destroyed our whole beach, what is this crap?” east coast beach fan Mona Saeidavi said in one video.

“You only need to grab your towel, come to the beach, get your Esky, take up enough space for one towel. . . there’s no beach space anymore and the rest of us don’t get to have a view.”

Sydney beachgoer Ariel Davies said the problem was cabana etiquette.

“The correct etiquette, the way the beach should be laid out is: here’s the back of the beach, here’s the Cool Cabanas, followed by beach umbrellas, followed by everyone else,” she said.

“Because I’m sick of trying to lay at the beach and enjoy the view but I can’t even see the ocean because all I can see is your Cool Cabana.”

Others were more prosaic.

One video shared to social media showed a beach crowded with Cool Cabanas and a one-line caption: “I have no idea how investing or stocks (or the economy in general) works but I do think investing in Cool Cabanas a year ago would’ve been a good move.”