Reuters.com By Mark Bendeich
Mon Dec 26, 2005. SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian police patrolled Sydney's beaches in buggies and on horses decorated with tinsel and reindeer antlers Sunday, as fears of fresh racial violence dissolved into a quiet Christmas Day.
On Cronulla beach, where gangs of white surfers and ethnic Lebanese clashed in alcohol-fuelled riots two weeks ago, families spread out across the sand and children ran into the sea -- all under the watchful eye of dozens of armed, uniformed police.
Policewomen kept watch from two tinsel-trimmed mounts, horses named Hero and Hollywood, which plodded along the sand wearing fake antlers, while other police officers climbed life-guard towers or scooted along the beach in four-wheeled buggies.
"I think everybody has realized that violence is not the answer to all our problems," said Phil Wardman, sitting with his family on Cronulla's powdery sand, beneath a postcard-blue sky.
"I wanted to come down today to show I'm not afraid to come here."
Australia is trying hard to mend its image after the riots, which evoked old racist stereotypes and prompted police to throw a security cordon around Sydney's most popular beaches to head off threats of more violence from white supremacists.
Only a week ago, police made dozens of arrests and seized a frightening array of crude weapons, including petrol bombs, knuckle-dusters and wooden clubs studded with nails, from cars stopped and searched at seaside road-blocks.
World publicity of the riots and the police crackdown had sparked fears of a drop in tourism to Australia this summer, but Sydney's beaches appeared to have returned to near normal Sunday despite the heavy police presence.
BONDI PILGRIMAGE
Hundreds of British and European backpackers and thousands of other sun-worshippers made their annual Christmas Day pilgrimage to Sydney's most famous summer playground, Bondi Beach, while police patrolled its esplanade in cars and on foot.
Private security guards checked all beachgoers' bags before allowing them on to the hallowed sand -- but this was not a precaution against racial violence. After years of trouble with drunken louts, Bondi is now an alcohol-free zone at Christmas.
No glass and no alcohol," security guard Yahia Haddad yelled as people approached his check-point. "Oh yeah," he added jokingly, "and no weapons!"
Bondi, a cosmopolitan community and a magnet for international tourists, is a world away from Cronulla where residents are mainly white and there are long-standing tensions between territorial surfers and newer immigrant communities.
While police and surf life-savers at Cronulla declined to talk to Reuters, and an immigrant shop-owner there complained of poor business, the mood at Bondi was as hedonistic as always.
Wearing Santa hats and playing soccer among topless bathers, young tourists from the southern English seaside town of Portsmouth were just pleased to be out in the sun at Christmas.
"We've gone from rain and stones to sand and hot weather," said a delighted Daniel Turner, 21.
Asked to reflect on the state of Australian race relations, his friend Louis Cross, 20, was more thoughtful.
"Racism in England is a lot worse that it is here," he said. "Stuff like that can happen in Birmingham all the time."
The peaceful scenes on Sydney's beaches seemed to answer the Christmas prayers of Australian religious leaders.
"There are pockets of racists among us but criminal racism is rare and therefore untypical," Sydney Catholic Cardinal George Pell said on national television.
"During this holiday summer season, let's show the world what Australia is really like -- fundamentally decent, tolerant and law-abiding."
© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.
