Swingers in Australia

A swingers' club is operating four nights a week out of a converted garage without planning approval.

Couples International, with four bedrooms and a bondage area, opened at 5 Holden St, Woolloongabba in August 2006.

In November last year club owners Bryan and Leesa Horn submitted an application for a BYO nightclub-style venue after a visit from Brisbane City Council.

If the council does approve the club, the Horns said it would be a first for Queensland.

Despite their failure to lodge a development application until November, the Horns said they would rather operate in a regulated environment: We’re keen to make a real success of the business and to do that you need the i’s dotted and the t’s crossed.

The Horns won’t face objections from their immediate neighbours, who said the club’s late-night hours helped reduce property damage at night and traffic congestion during the day.

The couple argued the club enhanced relationships for confident and self-assured couples by providing a spark.

A Brisbane swingers club has asked the City Council for official approval as a nightclub venue.

Couples International runs partner-swapping nights at an industrial estate in Woolloongabba.

The Brisbane City Council says the application is controversial, but Councillor Helen Abrahams says there have been no complaints lodged so far: Council cannot make a determination on the ethic grounds or the moral grounds of a swingers club . They have to make it on, this is a club, a nightclub, and what are the impacts of that nightclub ... on the local residents?

Club owner Brian Horn says he has met Council guidelines.

The lifestyle has become more accepted, he said.

If approved, the club would be Queensland's first official swingers club.

Renee Sankey is the owner of Utopia, the first adult swingers club that has had to make a development application on the Gold Coast.

With its mirror ball, UV lights and pool tables, Utopia is like any other nightclub on the Gold Coast.

Until you leave the dance floor and walk in to a room with a freshly made bed, lubricant in a dispenser on the wall, condoms on a side table and a giant hanging leather swing where adults' sexual fantasies are regularly carried out.

Utopia is based in Burleigh Heads and a few months ago was forced by a complaint to make a development application to the Gold Coast City Council.

Unsure what category to put it under -- it doesn't hold a liquor licence -- the application was eventually filed under indoor recreation and is sailing smoothly towards being approved.

Mrs Sankey said the club catered mostly to mature couples in their 30s or 40s who were comfortable enough to talk to each other about their fantasies and about 60 couples attended each weekend.