Beats are often skanky, unsafe  places. Although this may well be part of the attraction for some men, I do not find them particularly pleasant places to have sex. I do not encourage you to go to one, particularly if you are younger and less experienced.

Beats are public places where men go for male-male sexual encounters; cruising a beat is similar to a heterosexual couple going dogging. Types of places include public toilets, parks, and nude beaches; they are widespread, and found throughout the city and in most towns. Here you can see maps of beats in inner Melbourne and outer Melbourne. In Victoria, depending on the circumstances this is apparently not necessarily illegal as such, although in most situations it would be. It is also extremely risky regardless of which state you live in. There are several kinds of risks asociated with this activity:
- legal sanction from the police if you overstep the law,
- the possibility of being 'outed' due to such activity,
- health issues resulting from unsafe sex with strangers, and
- physical safety issues to do with gay-bashers and other criminals.

Despite appearances, and what some cruisers might tell you, there is a complex set of etiquette to be followed at beats. A really easy-to-read resource on safe and healthy cruising, which will help you navigate this, can be found here. It's from the Victorian AIDS Council and the Gay Men's Health Centre. You must read this before cruising. You might also read my health and safety pages for our thoughts on safety and safer sex. Cruising a beat is similar to dogging and many of my thoughts on dogging apply to beats also.

If, after all of that, you still choose to engage in anonymous sex in public, then before cruising you should check on the current status of beats at squirt.org and cruisingforsex.com. These sites contain information about specific beats gathered from other cruisers, and can alert you to safety threats and police activity that others have found. This will help you to evaluate the level of safety at a particular beat and whether you are comfortable with that level of risk.

Having said all that, no matter what precautions you take cruising beats is still a high-risk activity and I do not encourage it. Cruising at a sauna or online is far safer and a lot  more pleasant. If you're going to do it, please do so safely and responsibly.

Cruising is a resource developed and designed for gay and homosexually active men that use beats, sex-on-premises venues and online chat for sexual and social purposes. The resource aims to develop the skills, knowledge and capacity of men who use these environments already, and for those who are planning to cruise for sex.

'The Age' article about a man who deliberately infected casual sex partners with HIV.