Following my previous Friends of Noosa article in which I highlighted the unique features that make Noosa so special, I have been inundated with emails from residents apprising me of what they find most attractive and unique about Noosa.  So I thought I would share with you some of the many emails received over the past few days.

‘Noosa simply is something we can’t buy or possess; it is a celebration of life itself.  ‘Noosa is the joy of a child playing in the swell, the serenity of the rainforest with night approaching, the majesty of Mt Tinbeerwah overlooking the Noosa coast like a faithful lighthouse, the power of a whale eating plankton along the coast, the colourful songs of the birds throughout the day and the contentment of fishermen waiting for their evening meal along the river or beach.’

A timely letter from one of our valued members vividly illustrates the damage being done to Noosa by a mob of people given the "right" to govern us without community endorsement, people who have no understanding of the unique naturalness differentiating Noosa from other like communities within Australia and other parts of the world.

The author of this letter is of French descent, immigrating to Australia in 2006 largely because he had discovered Noosa which very much reminded him of a place where he grew up, a town called La Baule in the south of Brittany which he described as a treasure just like Noosa before infrastructure development, politics and money transformed this little sea side town into a huge American style Riviera. In less than 10 years the population doubled from 15,000 to 30,000 and now accommodates 350,000 people during the peak summer months.  He goes on to say "it is now basically a suburb of Paris although 450 kms apart and to put it simply, it has become unbearable.  In this part of the world council amalgamation programs have also had terrible effects. Visually speaking Noosa is becoming more like a suburb of Brisbane than an exotic resort. But what is happening to Noosa is not uncommon, I would even say it’s very common and so sad that we human beings do not learn from one another and repeat the same mistakes time and time again".

After contracts had already been tendered for the repair of Park Road and replacement of the existing boardwalk, council belatedly arranged a ‘Reference Group’ meeting which included representation from most community groups and some residents in the affected area. Russell Green chaired the meeting which contained a presentation of what needed to be done and how it was proposed to do it.  On the positive side it appears a solution to the closing of Park Road for 22 weeks has been found as it may be possible to keep one lane open for the duration of the construction period which may be reduced to 18 weeks with the added bonus of saving up to $400,000 on the original estimate.

However, keeping the boardwalk at its present width seems to pose some difficulties as funding from the State Government for the replacement of the boardwalk is apparently contingent upon it becoming a dual purpose facility shared by walkers and cyclists which means doubling its width.

When the Regional Council was elected councillors described the Sunshine Coast as a “community of communities” yet two years on, their obsession with ‘harmonisation’ is gradually creating a same-ness across the Coast.  What makes this region so attractive are the vast differences between Caloundra, Maroochydore the Hinterland and Noosa.  Visitors and residents can experience an array of dissimilar sights, sounds and tastes all within an hour’s drive from wherever they are staying on the Coast. In a micro sense Noosa itself is a ‘community of communities’.   Sunshine Beach is very different from Hastings St. The Junction has its own distinct flavour as does Noosaville.  Cooroy is different from Kin Kin and so it goes.  The objective must be to retain these differences not merge them all into one blurred community.

In New York on the 16th of April I awoke to news of the Bligh government breaking another promise to residents of the Sunshine Coast with her announcement that the State Government will not be reimbursing our council for the cost of amalgamation. 

No surprise here as we have been predicting for some time she would worm her way out of meeting this commitment.  Remember, this was an amalgamation forced upon us after 96% of Noosa voters opposed it in the plebiscite provided by John Howard.  It’s also worth remembering and reminding Queensland voters right up until the next election, that this Labor government steamrolled through State Parliament one of the most undemocratic pieces of legislation ever put before an Australian Parliament.  It first of all dissolved a legally elected local government, then legalised forced amalgamation of local shires against the ‘will of the people’,  then added to this piece of legislation authority for the State to sack any local government and fine councillors who had the temerity to offer  constituents a vote on this life changing  issue.  I mean even a totalitarian government would have to pause before ramming a bill giving it such draconian power through a compliant Parliament.

Having now had time to fully absorb the wonderful news from John-Paul Langbroek on the LNP’s commitment to immediately put in motion the re-drawing of boundaries so as to create a ‘Greater Noosa Shire’ when elected to government, we realise there has to be a good deal of thought put into what our new council should look like.

Fortunately, there are other community groups thinking along similar lines with some amongst them coming from a background of local government with strong ideas on how a new council could be structured so as to give the community more ‘bang for their buck’ while at the same time improving services by using 21st Century methods.