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. Some of the opinions below are comments from SCN’s Facebook page.
- Read the story: Maleny Dairies responds to questions over interstate milk
Sarah Phillips, Maleny: I purchase Maleny Milk products with an expectation of a commitment to local supply. Local production ticks a lot of boxes, such as value adding and a prosperous community, employment opportunities, low food miles and transparency around the means of production. In return, such producers can expect product loyalty. The Sunshine Coast is a fast-growing region: the increase of this loyal customer base and land values should also add a degree of economic security to farmers in the area.
Suzanne Nielsen, Maryborough: My last chance to buy Queensland farmers’ milk is to buy Maleny milk, which I’m very happy with. However, I now find that sometimes I am buying milk from another state, labelled Maleny. Then please explain to me why I am forced to accept milk from another state while Queensland farmers are having their contracts terminated! What a total load of rot.
Wendy Bresca, North Lakes: Thank you for bringing to our attention the reality of Maleny Dairies. We were very happy to buy this milk because we thought we were supporting local dairy farmers. I’ll be looking closer into this and will look at supporting a genuine local business if possible.
Frank Geode: We buy Maleny Dairies milk because it supports the local farmers. If Maleny Dairies withdraws its support from the farmers, the same could easily happen to it.
Jeffrey Harris: Do you enjoy the high quality of product from Maleny Dairies? If so, to keep standards as high as they are, it will only source milk that meets its standards within its means for your benefit. It’s the only milk I buy.
Debra Leah Gabriel: My question still remains, why take milk supply from Victoria or other states when this farmer is just down the road? There’s definitely some part of the story we are not being told. I’m a Queenslander. I want Queensland supplied milk.
- Read the story: Feedback opens on The Wave station designs
John Hinton, Golden Beach: There is no safe controlled (traffic lights) pedestrian crossings of Caloundra Rd between Latcham Drive (near Bunnings) and Baldwin Street. These are 1.7km apart. The Baldwin Street crossing can lead to a very dangerous uncontrolled crossing of Nicklin Way immediately north of the huge roundabout.
I am asking the design team to investigate including a dual pathway for active transport, on the proposed rail overpass over Caloundra Rd. Strictly, the overpass is in Stage 2 but, as it is the immediate extension of Stage 1, both stages must take this into account in their designs. The pathway would connect to the north side of Caloundra Rd, and possibly continue further toward Sugarbag Road pathways.
I am a keen cyclist.
Bob Higgs, Caloundra: The Wave architectural render is impressive. Caloundra station looks very much and deliberately like a large terminus. This does makes sense as Stage 1 is the only part that can be delivered for the Olympics (unless the Chinese build it) with just a shuttlebus service up the Nicklin Way to Maroochydore for the Games. After 2032, Stage 2 and 3 will be mothballed and won’t be completed for 50-plus years, based on Queensland political and transport history.
- Read the story: New pickleball facility set to open
Katrina McCubbin: Councillor Christian Dickson – Division 6, how is parking being addressed here for the additional facilities that will attract more people to a place that is already under resourced for parking? How can any premises grow its footprint and client base without being able to accommodate extra parking requirements? There isn’t enough parking available there now.
Chris Parkinson: Some here (SCN Facebook page) have raised concerns about parking. I play at this club a lot. For those who aren’t aware, it’s right next to a school. There’s no more room for parking to be added anywhere. I’ve also never seen anyone park over anyone’s driveways. The clients are pretty respectful as far as I’m aware. Although I don’t play pickleball I think it’s a great addition for the club.
Ciaran Watt: I had to park in Caloundra to get to the courts the other day. Where will they park? Also, soon the new Mountain Creek Wave station is going to be behind here. Soon 100 buses will go down past here for the new university to Mooloolaba bus route.
Read the story: Holiday park changes spark petition
George & Pam Sinclair: We have used this excellent park on numerous occasions over the years and have tried to book a site facing the water to be told these sites are usually automatically rebooked for the year following the year they the same people are currently using the site and therefore there is never an opportunity for any other visitor to book one of these exclusive sites with a fabulous water view. No matter how early you are allowed to book sites!
This, I believe this unfair practice at this council park, which to my knowledge has being operating at the park for as long as I can remember?
We have and still own a property in Maroochydore and would dearly love to have the opportunity to book one of the above-mentioned sites at some time in the future. The only way we see this happening is if the your booking system was changed giving other visitors the opportunity to enjoy these particular sites.
- Read the story: Council rejects shark link to sand pumping
Philip Frazee: As per the sand nourishment solution for beach erosion, use the Australian Geodetic Survey, for those interested in the immense amount of data that they may store, related to resolving the beach erosion crisis. Unfortunately, the horse is out of the barn. Allowing construction of buildings within immediate proximity to the waterline was a massive oversight. Multi-millions have been spent nationwide, hauling sand back to reclaim beaches. This generally costs all ratepayers – not the just the individuals whose property is threatened by the ocean. Rather than re-inventing the wheel, it would be prudent to search the world for possible for long-term solutions. For example, the Japanese have built several incredibly effective, attractive and creative erosion barriers. The one that comes to mind has a permanent vertical wall, that is in turn, topped off with a continuous line of appropriate trees (this should be an important selection process), followed by a parallel footpath. Without a doubt, this design deserves consideration. If you were quantify the cost, in the long-run, it would be the least expensive.
- Read the story: Data centre survey puts $35,000 figure on buyer reluctance
Sam, Maroochydore: The hand wringing over data centres on the Sunshine Coast is becoming difficult to understand.
We have an international submarine cable, a once in a lifetime opportunity to build a brand-new CBD from scratch, and an opportunity to attract exactly the kind of high-tech, capital-intensive investment that regional cities across Australia would be desperate to secure. Yet, when a $200 million, state-of-the-art AI data centre is actually being built here, the response from some quarters seems to be fear, uncertainty and another round of ‘NIMBY’ opposition.
For decades we have talked about diversifying the Sunshine Coast economy beyond tourism and servicing an ageing population. Well, this is what economic diversification actually looks like. It gives younger people a reason to build careers and raise families here rather than leaving.
At some point we have to decide whether we want to become a genuine alternative to Brisbane or condemn it indefinitely to being nothing more than a pleasant retirement backwater.
- Read the story: Housing land warning over data centres
Gail Bateman: Australia, the driest continent on Earth (maybe excluding Antarctica) so why would we risk reducing our water supply? I hope they use recycled water from sewerage plants.
Simon Jacques: A Google search now automatically includes an AI overview, which uses 10 times the data requirements of an ordinary search. Turn off the AI, use your brain, quit posting random videos and we won’t need so many data centres.
- Read the story: Plans unveiled for Sunshine Coast’s tallest building
Peter Birt, Sunshine Cove: We have been so careful over decades not to emulate the Gold Coast with high buildings, so why are we considering it now? The pretext of a shortage housing/units is not good enough. Me and many others, are dead against building higher than the current level allowed. Once you allow one, you have set a precedent and very tall buildings will mushroom all over the Coast and condemn the Coast to skyscraper mediocrity. Absolutely don’t allow it, and I am not a greedy!
Richard Mellor, Palmwoods: The tallest building for Maroochydore CBD should be iconic and inspiring. Looking at the proposed artist impression picture it looks nothing more than ‘same-old’ ‘seen-it-before’. Some of the finest and awe-inspiring buildings around the world are clad in glass and ‘reflect’ the beauty around them. The London Shard is one such iconic building in so many ways. If the Sunshine Coast’s new city wants an iconic centrepiece, how about making a ‘glass wave breaking on a beach’, what an image that could create? Waves seem to be a popular theme at the moment.
- Femicide
Margaret Wilkie, Peregian Beach: How many more will it take till they know that too many women have died at the hands of their “intimate partners, boyfriends, brothers, sons, fathers, husbands et al”? Good character references, name suppression, community service, mental health reports all to assist… the murderers. Please explain.
- Patient flamingo
Gary Reynolds, Peregian Springs: There’s a particular kind of madness that comes with a 5am phone alarm. Last Thursday, I sat on the edge of the bed in the pre‑dawn gloom, contemplating bus timetables, obligations and a laundry basket that had become a textile swamp after days of rain.
On a whim, I checked the community noticeboard, perhaps trying to avoid the reality of my day. Among the usual parade of lost cats, stray dogs, mysterious noises and bin‑night confusion, one post stopped me cold. It was from someone calling themselves PatientFlamingo – a name that practically begs to be clicked – and it read like a message in a bottle tossed into the digital sea.
“I’m looking for a woman who was next to me at the self‑service checkout at Woollies… burgundy pants, black top, blonde ponytail. We looked at each other a couple of times, and I swear there was a little moment… I’m kicking myself for not saying hello. You bought lettuce, avocados and strawberries. You were absolutely gorgeous and I completely lost my ability to form a sentence. If this was you… please say hi.”
I forgot hanging the washing. There was something tender about his plea – a flare of hope launched at dawn, fragile but determined. A missed connection in an age where we’re told everything is instant, efficient, frictionless. Yet here was someone admitting that even with all our modern conveniences, courage can still fail us at the checkout.
In a world that often feels loud, rushed and transactional, these tiny human moments matter. They remind us that connection still flickers – even between the avocados and the barcode scanner. So, here’s to the people who still believe in sparks, in second chances, in speaking up even after the moment has passed. And here’s hoping PatientFlamingo won’t be left standing… on one leg.
- Stars
Phil Broad, Nambour:
I write this poem for you at night
With the star i call you shining so bright
It leads me to a path above
Which my heart does follow to find my love
And what a journey to begin
I fight through conflict thick and thin
But know it well when this trip will end
Our destined souls will finally blend
And two stars will exist where once was one
Each brighter than our own near sun
And when true lovers look to the skies
They will know for certain the magic of love survives.
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. Some of the opinions above are comments from SCN’s Facebook page.
