Sand grab On the frontline of the battle for shade on Australia's best beach spots

Emerging from the water at Victoria's Safety Beach, Virginia Mamakis settles on the sand under her family's orange-striped cabana.

- Adeshola Ore & Mostafa Rachwani

Under the portable shade structure, Mamakis is opening a stainless steel container, filled with cheese and cherry tomatoes, to share with her family.

"You can't do without it. It shades the food too," she smiles, acknowledging her shelter.

In the scorching afternoon sun, this strip of sand on Safety Beach - renowned for its shallow and calm waters - is lined with portable structures, variously known as cabanas, gazebos or sun shelters.

Large and loud, these structures mark a de facto frontline in a battle over what some regard as one of Australia's most sacred ideals: free and equal access to the beach.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, weighed in, saying using cabanas to reserve a patch of sand for later in the day was against the nation's spirit of equality and "not on".

While beachgoers in parts of Europe fork out money to lounge on a deck chair with an umbrella, Australia has long flaunted its free-for-all coastline.

And while the sun shelters have become commonplace on beaches, the new debate over their use was prompted by photos of them being used to stake out prime beach spots on the Mornington Peninsula, including at Safety Beach, on Melbourne's southern fringe.

Social media users reported people arriving early to set up a cabana, chairs and towels, then leaving and returning later.

Asked about such behaviour on breakfast television, Albanese boasted that, unlike in some parts of the world, in Australia everyone owned the beach.

"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 as just yours," he told Channel 9.

Mamakis can see both sides of the debate.

"People are free to do what they want but it makes it hard to enjoy," she says.