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 story: Major music festival and exhibition site approved
Chris Row: So looks like we are back in the 70s with ‘Joh’ (Jarrod) Bleijie (Bjelke-Petersen) going against all recommendations not to approve the site. The decision comes as no surprise.
I’m an avid live music lover but I also want to protect the area from more pressure on the Pumicestone Passage and surrounds. There are plenty of sites that meet the needs of the development on the western side of the Bruce Highway. Let’s hope the federal government will be able to review this decision and save the area.
Paul, Mooloolaba: It’s just such great news for everyone in southeast Queensland that the Coochin Fields festival site gets the green light and we don’t have to take our money over the border to Byron Bay anymore to see decent music artists at a festival. Three cheers for the mighty Jarrod. And now we wait for the Comiskey team to get this site up and running.
Read the story: Decades-old caravan park earmarked for expansion
Denise Murray: I think this is a brilliant idea. They have done something similar at Tinaroo caravan park, Atherton Tablelands. You don’t own the land, but you can build. It reminds me of tiny homes and having access to all the caravan amenities – no exit fees, stamp duty etc. If they go ahead with this, I would be very interested for myself.
Paul, Kawana: Sunseeker Village caravan park shows affordable, long-term caravan living is possible during a housing crisis. Yet Sunshine Coast Council’s “natural attrition” reduces permanent housing while council parks sit half empty after recent price hikes have pushed tourists away, despite TikTok ads. When housing for locals is removed, as sites remain empty, priorities matter.
Miles Hogan, Golden Beach: I wish to mention how amazing the expansion of Sunseeker Village caravan park is. I think all housing opportunities are really important.
Carma: It is so hard to find an over-50s village anymore that we can actually afford to rent. The vast majority of senior couples and single aged pensioners have been forced out of their rental accommodation because the rent has increased from around $360-a-week to between $600 and $900 dollars a week.
This in most cases is three-quarters of the weekly aged pension, making it beyond common sense so we and others were forced to leave our friends and church etc to move away to places we can afford. It’s heart breaking that in the last years of our life we cannot live in the place we love so much.
Hopefully this Sunseeker Village caravan park might keep the cost of rental accommodation to an affordable amount for those who will respect and appreciate the homes they build.
Read the story: Traffic change sparks councillor scrutiny
Name withheld: In relation to your article dated January 15, 2026 regarding council’s decision to remove the right-hand turn from Arthur Street onto Canberra Terrace, and the Sunshine Coast councillor seeking a review of this decision, I would like to challenge some of the statements made in the article.
I have lived in that neighbourhood since October 2024 and, despite what CARS data shows according to Cr Landsberg, I have seen or been aware of at least three collisions at this intersection in the last 12 months and have personally been involved in an additional accident.
My husband and I were riding a motorbike when a GWM ute left the stop sign at the top of Arthur Street and ran into us. We, that’s two of us – not one motorist requiring medical treatment as council suggests – were treated at hospital for a number of injuries.
The Arthur Street/Canberra Terrace (Maltman Street South) intersection has three stop signs. While observing the intersection on a regular basis, I have noted that the majority of traffic does not stop at those stop signs. Some vehicles slow to a crawl and others don’t bother stopping at all. This is the case at the eastern end of Arthur Street as well.
I also observe that despite signage for only left-hand turning, some vehicles continue to turn right or, even more astonishingly, move off the road onto the traffic island and turn right from there. The number of stop signs, when vehicles do stop, cause confusion and hesitation as to who has right of way. The existing stop signs and continual driver non-compliance (which, as far as I can tell, is not monitored) give rise to dangerous conditions to both motorists and pedestrians alike.
The intersection provides no pedestrian safety; there are no pedestrian crossings or walkways to guide pedestrians across the road. We literally take our own lives in our hands as we watch all four approaches to the intersection to walk to the opposite roadside.
I understand that council has taken relevant action in attempt to make the intersection safer (for which I am grateful) and that despite motorists’ reluctance to obey traffic signs, the speed of vehicles is generally low. However, the fact remains that the intersection is dangerous. It would be hugely beneficial to have some surveillance at the site, either by the installation of traffic cameras or even police presence on occasion. Something needs to be done to check non-compliance but also to clarify the confusion related to traffic rules when three stop signs exist at the one intersection.
Does a motorist have to die before more serious solutions, such as traffic lights or making the street one-way, are considered? I wonder looking back at our accident, as I recall laying underneath the motorbike I was on, underneath the GWM ute, after I regained consciousness and could not feel my leg under the bike, whether dying may have been the solution – the only solution – to getting this problem fixed. If this is indeed the case, it is a sad state of affairs.
Read the story: Highway bridge strike prompts review of penalties
Graham Lockey, Coolum: According to published information, in Queensland, the maximum total height for light and heavy vehicles (including loads) is generally
4.3m. Some specialised heavy vehicles, such as specific semitrailers or livestock carriers, may operate up to 4.6m under specific NHVR notices, so the truck that damaged the overpass (signed as a 5.4m clearance) clearly broke the law. Is the driver and owner to be charged and made to pay for the repairs? If not, why not?
- Read the story: Parking changes proposed for headland street after complaints
Anthony Robinson, Alexandra Parade: It would seem motorbikes are above the law? Regular dragging off the traffic lights and reaching excessive speeds along Alexandra Parade appears to be the norm as is their objectional noise. Why do the police tolerate this behaviour and are the owners immune from what we expect from them? Do they operate with a privileged road code? A crackdown is long overdue!
- Read the story: Work to start on upgrade of major road
David Hinks: Council spent $600,000 on widening the footpath at Ocean Drive from Mudjimba Beach through to Twin Waters for bicycles to use, but the ‘wheelheads’ won’t use it. They’d rather ride two abreast and cause traffic chaos.
- Read the story: Council acquires land to resolve road encroachment
Peter Bower: This should not be allowed to happen. Keep rural land as rural land. If the government wants to allow things for houses, then pull back some leases on the pine forest country. More people means more water, more food. We can live without houses, we can live without a car, we can live without developers, but we cannot live without food or water.
- Read the story: Govt to decide if interchange plan requires detailed review
Andrew Moran, Battery Hill: At the last state election, the LNP promised a Caloundra Congestion Busting Plan. Most elements came with major unknowns, complexities and risks to delivery. That’s exactly what has happened. The plan is busted.
Rail to Maroochydore has become The Wave”, but the vehicles, routes, construction timeline, cost and funding arrangements remain unclear. The same applies to the Caloundra Road–Kawana Way Link Road–Bells Creek Arterial intersection upgrade. The design isn’t finished, the start date is unknown, and no funding has been secured.
Meanwhile, population growth continues to push congestion, travel times and productivity losses higher. There will no doubt be excuses. But these issues were known before the election and the promises were made anyway. Our community deserves far better.
- Read the story: Starlink policy update sparks user concerns over AI
Graham Lockey, Coolum: Musk’s Starlink service to allow consumer data to train AI, but you can ‘opt out’ says the man who headed up DOGE in the USA and downloaded millions of American’s personal data without their consent! So, you’re going tick the ‘opt out’ box and trust this man? Also think about the fact that he’s just turned off Russian’s access the Starlink. What guarantee do you have that Trump won’t have a ‘hissy fit’ with us and Musk turns your connection off too? Until there is a stable administration in the USA, think long and hard before you trust our so-called ‘ally’.
- Increasing congestion
Gary Reynolds, Peregian Springs: Brisbane’s traffic jams might feel like a modern misery, but we’ve been wrestling with congestion for generations. Sixty years ago, the Gabba’s Five Ways intersection was already so chaotic it needed a man perched in a tram‑control box to stop trams, horses, cars, trucks, trolley buses, cyclists and pedestrians from colliding.
To add to the congestion, a railway employee waving a red flag and ringing a warning bell walked ahead of a steam locomotive as it crawled through the intersection with a string of wagons full of logs.
During cricket broadcasts from the Gabba, the whole country heard this racket. Perhaps that soundtrack rattled Don Bradman in 1931 when Queensland’s Eddie Gilbert bowled him for a duck. Something had to distract him. After all, in his previous innings against Queensland at the SCG, he scored 452 not out.
Fast‑forward to today, and Brisbane is once again rehearsing for a major event, the 2032 Olympics, with roads already groaning. The Bruce Highway barely crawls at times and on some routes, an e‑bike or scooter will beat a car.
With 600 new arrivals each week and a population heading toward 4.5 million, the pressure is already there. Despite the glossy brochures and computer‑generated dreams, the reality is blunt: our transport network is puffing like that old steam engine at Five Ways.
If Brisbane wants to host the world, it needs more than renderings. It needs road and rail construction now, or we’ll be waving red flags all over again.
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.
