Seriously, if I hear “We don’t want to be another Gold Coast” one more time …
I don’t want to be the Gold Coast, either, although I wouldn’t mind a bit of what they have achieved at the Broadwater or the foreshore between Southport Spit and Surfers Paradise.
I can take or leave theme parks, but surely we do need something major for kids and families to do apart from Australia Zoo, SEA LIFE Sunshine Coast and Aussie World.
As a kid growing up, there was a lot more to do than there is now.
Mini golf, waterslides, the picture theatres and drive-ins were plentiful.
We always had plenty to do.
Whether it was sneaking into the drive-in in someone’s boot and getting a size 10 in the rear when caught, or rolling Jaffa lollies or Coke bottles down the cinema aisle and getting dragged out by our ear (that’s why mine are so big), there was always something going on.
Seriously, though, we had lots of stuff to do as kids.
Then, as young adults, there would be a choice of venues to see leading national touring bands, unlike these days.
I was devastated years ago at Mudjimba when Mal Pratt’s Surfing World project got scuttled because that would have been the perfect style of theme park the Coast needs.
It celebrated history, as well as entertaining the masses with wave pools and other attractions.
Let’s face it, surfing is one of our main sources of income and entertainment.
What better way to promote it than a state-of-the-art theme park?
Apparently, we didn’t want it.
A decade or so later, we have another chance to go down the surf park/water world route.
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Let’s hope the support is forthcoming.
Some of us here do have a habit of wanting to close the doors – “We’re here, we’re happy and the rest of you can bugger off” – and that’s a bit sad.
As I drive along the Bruce Highway just south of Caloundra turn-off, I always wonder why there couldn’t be a little less pine forest and a couple of theme parks, instead – maybe a chocolate factory and some big-box factory outlets.
But I suppose it would endanger hoop pine beetle or something similar.
Coffee and cake we have enough of.
I think we need another drawcard.
Ashley Robinson is the manager of Alex Surf Club and the chairman of the Sunshine Coast Falcons.
