Do you have an opinion to share? Submit a Letter to the Editor at Sunshine Coast News via news@sunshinecoastnews.com.au. You must include your name and suburb for accountability, credibility and transparency. Preference will be given to letters of 100 words or less.
- Read the stories: Urgent $20m package unveiled to ‘close gaps’ in island and Tidal breakthrough could close and First findings of breakthrough review releases
I suggest that the job be done before it’s too late – before there’s another breakthrough, making the job harder and more expensive.
They need to get it finished before the next cyclone season.
Rosie McDonnell, Pelican Waters
I have lived at Golden Beach for 20 years. I believe the breakthrough has been hugely exacerbated by the shipping channel being too close to the island.
The shipping channel was put there during the war, over 80 years ago. For the past two decades, the Port of Brisbane has been mining the shipping channel instead of distributing these spoils in the ocean at specific locations as before. The mining of the shipping channel for commercial gain of billions of dollars (selling overseas, expanding Brisbane Airport, the Port of Brisbane and Fisherman Islands) has resulted in sand no longer being put back in the ocean bed.
It is therefore not surprising that mining sand from the ocean bed, right next to Bribie Island, has resulted in the island itself losing its land.
Simply widening the other existing channel would be a much better idea – i.e. by refraining from using the shipping channel right next to Bribie Island.
Alison, Golden Beach
I totally agree with comments by Sandra Fietz of Beerwah on the debate regarding the North Bribie breakthrough.
I think she has covered the subject well.
Rudy Formigoni, Brisbane
- Read the story: Brewery launches court appeal to avoid shutdown
Council should support small local business and not hinder it through nitty gritty rule enforcement. They employ staff and cause no hinder to anyone.
Stop the red tape. Support local business.
Bart Stoelen, Mount Coolum
Shenanigans! Terella is not in a legitimate entertainment precinct and a nuisance to locals. A tavern was not approvable for the site when it was acquired in 2015 as a bare block of rural-zoned agricultural land, but a hydroponic salad leaf factory could be approved and was.
The next stage in the saga was to get approval for a brewery, ostensibly using feedstock grown on site, and a liquor licence.
The next step was to establish an enthusiastic clientele of weekend fun-seekers from across the Coast by expanding the offering to include food trucks, live entertainment, a petting zoo and boutique market stalls.
Things started to go pear-shaped in October 2024, when council issued its show cause notice in response to complaints about noise and traffic gridlock and its own discovery of operations outside the scope of the approved development, upon which Terella lodged a new development application for a tavern with dine-in facilities and a licence to serve wine and spirits.
Terella is a very popular recreational venue and a spectacularly successful entrepreneurial venture, but it is an unwelcome imposition on locals who chose a rural lifestyle over an urban one – and to not flagrantly disregard the planning scheme when making property improvements.
Peter Baulch, North Arm
- Read the story: Bone-afide progress: work starts on dog park
Forget the parking, this will be a $150K white elephant if large and small dogs are not segregated.
Were dog owners consulted? It would seem not. Parking and vegetation issues have prevailed. As a small dog owner and Pelican Waters resident, I will not be subjecting my two cavoodles to the dangers of an unsegregated dog park. Get your act together Sunshine Coast Council and take into account the prime concern of dog owners for this long-awaited piece of infrastructure.
Get the design fundamentals right and create a dog exercise area that focuses on the most important user: the dogs.
Ken King, Pelican Waters
- Read the story: Supermarket appeals decision over vegetation clearing
We certainly don’t need another supermarket in the area. There’s already a Woolworths in Chancellor Park and a Coles down the road.
No need to add to traffic congestion and dramas, it’s bad enough as it is.
Paul Best, Buderim
We, as residents, have more than enough with a Coles on Sippy Downs Drive, a Woolworths in Buderim, another Woolworths at Chancellor Park and another Coles at the bottom of Jones Road.
How many useless and duplicate shopping centres should we see invading some precious green space?
Yannick Gacoin, Buderim
- Read the story: Snake catcher’s fury over illegal act
The sad, totally unnecessary death of that red-bellied black snake demonstrates the appalling level of ignorance about snakes in our community.
First, there has never been a recorded human death from this very shy species, whose main diet is frogs (they also eat fish, lizards and other snakes): it’s an important player in the ecosystem. Second, almost all human deaths from snake bite occur in individuals who are trying to kill the snake, which naturally is triggered to defend itself.
The best way to deal with snakes is to leave them alone and let them escape in their own good time. If they must be moved, call a professional catcher. Of course it costs, but what doesn’t? These people are highly experienced, know the snakes well and are doing an important, potentially dangerous job.
Paul Prociv, Mount Mellum
- Read the story: Expert warms of ongoing harm from beach driving
What those idiots don’t realise, when they drive their $60,000-plus vehicles on beaches and through sea water, is the impact of salt on their vehicles.
Salt water is very corrosive and no amount of washing will remove 100 per cent of the salt. Within a couple of years, their expensive toy will be a rust bucket.
We also get idiots like this in South Australia.
Trevor Starke, Mt Gambier, SA
- Event success
I extend my heartfelt thanks and congratulations to the Coolum community for their participation and support of our 2025 Memory Walk and Jog.
It was wonderful to see the Coolum community rally in support of people living with dementia, their families and carers. To all those who walked, ran, jogged, donated and volunteered, thank you. This event would not have been possible without your support.
Our 2025 event on Saturday, June 7, at Lions and Norrie Job Park was a success, with the community helping to raise over $43,500. These funds will help us provide invaluable support services, education and resources for all Australians impacted by dementia.
It was also great to see everyone getting active for their brain health, one of the key things we can all do to help lower our risk of dementia.
I encourage any Coolum locals unable to participate this time to consider organising their own group or individual walk or jog, with a MyWay event. More details can be found here.
Professor Tanya Buchanan, Dementia Australia CEO
- Overdue school renewal
Our schools need to improve their cultures, curricula and teaching methods if they are to arrest declining educational performance and the risk of creating whiteboard jungles.
Governments should be backing principals in transforming the behavioural environment, so teachers have a better chance of stemming disruption. Consistent standards and expectations need to be reinforced in a spirit of mutual respect and accountability. When we hear of eight-year-olds trashing classrooms, the community needs to be heard insisting that each student has the right to learn in an atmosphere of predictability, order and calm. In the face of mounting community calls for overdue school renewal, educational authorities are rightly reassessing failing teaching fads.
Thankfully, schools are beginning to return to old-school values as a purposeful reaction to poor results and parental alarm at what has been happening to their sons and daughters, especially with an increasing onslaught of bullying and online intimidation. Open-plan learning is being questioned as landmark studies reveal Australian classrooms are among the noisiest and most unruly in the world. There is a movement to return to setting ground rules and boundaries with consequences for breaking them, without adult anger or malice. Low-level consistent penalties act like a parking ticket to reinforce responsible behaviour that is healthy for the student and fair to their classmates.
Students learn that order helps them to be successful. They like it and so do their parents, and the increasing number of stressed teachers struggling to avoid depression and burnout depleting the profession.
As a community, we should avoid throwing our hands up in surrender in the face of cloud-cuckoo new age social media influencers, but back schools genuinely renewing their educational approaches, requiring complementary responsible action by parents.
Garry Reynolds, Peregian Springs
Do you have an opinion to share? Submit a Letter to the Editor at Sunshine Coast News via news@sunshinecoastnews.com.au. You must include your name and suburb for accountability, credibility and transparency. Preference will be given to letters of 100 words or less.
