Now that our peak holiday period has passed its worth spending a moment or two reflecting on how Noosa coped with this annual influx of holiday makers.

On any balanced assessment one would have to say, very well.  Most of the accommodation was full, restaurants had record numbers and retail seemed positive.  Importantly, visitors on the whole treated Noosa with the respect it deserves.  Traffic around Hastings St was heavy but compared with other coastal holiday centres at this time of year, it moved reasonably well.

Interestingly, from a one man survey of visitor demographics, Noosa has maintained or even enhanced its reputation as Australia’s foremost family holiday destination.  The beaches and streets were flooded with young families enjoying every moment of their Noosa stay.  Even the weather co-operated this year.

Having said that, we now need to embark on a cleanup blitz as some of our visitors returned home leaving their rubbish behind.  For someone who regularly runs along the streets of Noosa and its various beaches, I can’t help but notice discarded bottles, paper cups and a mishmash of other carelessly disposed items.  We can do our part by picking up the rubbish we encounter but the Regional Council also needs to quickly respond and kick off a cleanup campaign.

It’s also timely to reflect on recent research conducted by the Queensland University of Technology seachange researcher Nick Osbaldiston, which suggests Noosa and other life style destinations are no longer the havens for the seachange generation and are being shunned by those wanting to live away from it all.  He said “seachangers are rejecting cities as they seek less cluttered environment yet developers and councils have caught on to the seachange phenomenon and have set about providing city-style infrastructure to attract more of them”.  What irony?

All the same it’s a wakeup call for Noosa particularly as we no longer control our own destiny having but two of twelve councillors on the Sunshine Coast Council we are governed by outsiders.  Therefore we must as a community remain vigilant and ensure the natural beauty and lifestyle enjoyed by Noosa residents is preserved for future generations. The pressure of population growth is gaining momentum daily with the federal government forecasting Australia’s population will rise to 35 million over the next 40 years and some demographers suggesting the Sunshine Coast has the capacity to double its population over the same period.

The only way we can ensure our population cap is preserved in the medium to long term is for Noosa to re-establish its own council, responsive to its specific constituents.  As researcher Oliver Hartwick, from the Centre for Independent Studies reported, “the larger local government units are, the more removed they become from the people they are supposed to serve”. Wendell Cox, the American authority on urban planning noted, “the smaller the local government the more responsive it is to the needs of their constituents”.  The ideal size for a local government seems to range from 50,000 to 90,000. Presently the Sunshine Coast Regional Council represents nearly 300,000 people with only 12 councillors or roughly one councillor per 25,000 constituents.  An impossible situation impacting on councillor’s productivity as increasingly they are overburdened trying to respond to resident needs while absorbing massive reports from council staff, many requiring prompt decisions.  Frequently, there is insufficient time to thoroughly absorb reports which leads to poor and unformed decisions being made.  It also tends to shift policy control from elected councillors to council staff who end up running the show along the lines as depicted in the televisions series of ‘Yes Minister’.

In December we expressed great alarm over speculation the State appointed Tourism Transition Advisory Board was about to bring down a report recommending the ‘wind up’ of Tourism Noosa, one of the most effective tourist entities in Australia.  Subsequently, tourism identities have confidently predicted this won’t happen.  We are not so sure and won’t believe it until we see it as the ultimate decision is not made by TTAB but the Regional Council who we know has an obsession for ‘harmonising’ the coast including tourism. Noosa Tourism works which is much more than can be said for the majority of Australian Tourism entities.    ‘If it ain’t broke don’t fix it’.

Bob Ansett
Friends of Noosa