Australian states regulate sexual freedoms with a surprising amount of inconsistency, and nowhere is this truer than Queensland. For example it's legal there to sell R-rated videos, but not R-rated magazines.
Laws around the legal age of consent are also a little strange, with 16 being the standard, but anal sex banned until And then there's all the red tape around swinging. Swingers clubs in Queensland must be in commercial areas with specific zoning. They can't charge for entry unless they're a licensed brothel. If alcohol is for sale, there can't be any sex, nor can there be any unwrapped food. There also can't be any sex in public areas, such as dance floors, and properties must open themselves up to frequent council inspections.
The upthrow of all this is that unlike NSW or Victoria, swingers in Queensland have only a handful of venues, and just one on the Gold Coast: the illustrious Chateau Vino. The club makes money through a complicated system of memberships. Hidden away in the industrial suburb of Molendinar, Chateau Vino boasts a BYO bar, a dance floor, a stripper pole, an outside area for smokers, and 11 "play rooms" for their patronage of people aged 20 to And while swinging isn't really my thing, I went along on a Saturday night to see how Sunshine State laws have affected the local scene.
The guy in the white shirt works at Chateau Vino almost every night, despite not swinging. The pirate is Mick's wife. It was Pirates of the Caribbean night at the Chateau and I arrived to find some wenches watching porn and gossiping at the bar. Off to the side, a group of Captain Jacks shot pool and eyed off the wenches. The atmosphere had an unmistakable sexual charge but I was surprised by how comfortable I felt.
As mentioned, there can be no sex or nudity in Queensland's public clubs. Consequently "playing" is restricted to the playrooms, which is actually sort of futile as the doors to these rooms are often purposely left open.
