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: Developer seeks 70m hotel, offers to pay for foreshore
Gary Taylor, Bli Bli: I note the proposal will increase the number of units but reduce the number of car parking spaces. Car parking in Mooloolaba is hard enough as it is. Increase the number of car parking spaces in line with the number of units, not decrease them.
Richard Williams, Moffat Beach: We have had a stream of developers wanting to go ‘just a bit beyond’ planning limits. They know the limits when they are planning but deliberately plan to exceed limits on the assumption council will yield. Council should enforce the existing rules for everyone or take revised rules to ratepayers at the next election.
Darren Munday, Mooloolaba: Reading your piece on the developer submitting an extension to the already-approved units. All I am reading is developer speak for ‘we want to make more money at any cost’ – never has a developer cared for the Coast. They claim Mooloolaba needs a five-star hotel and therefore put pressure on council to complete the foreshore project under their terms. How about the council not let the developer dictate to them what they think is best for Mooloolaba? This is not the Gold Coast, never was and never will be. Ever been to Mooloolaba in the middle of the year? It’s dead. Hopefully council declines the request and stands its ground.
Sylvie Chelin: So, the council started the revitalisation of Mooloolaba beach and didn’t have enough money to see it finished? They now need help for Aria to finish it, so Aria can increase the height of their project? Do they really think that we are that stupid? Come on council, we are not that silly to believe that.
- Read the story: Fresh push for new laws to curb caravan parking
Janice Boys: I am sick to death of having to drive on the wrong side of the road and almost being hit by oncoming traffic because of a caravan parked on the curve of the road and that has been not used for eight months. It’s an absolute eyesore to the street – collecting cobwebs and blocking views. Why can’t they park it on their property?
Peter Craven: If developers would only design their blocks to be a reasonable size, rather than with three feet between buildings. This would provide a sideway to park vehicles beside the house. Also, if the developer would create streets wide enough for a car to park opposite each other and leave enough room to drive an emergency vehicle or even a garbage truck.
- Read the story: Councils unite for action on long-term parked vehicles
Victoria Nocevski, Nambour: This could set a terrible precedent for parks all over. I’ve lived in a holiday park when I couldn’t afford anywhere else. As an aged care worker, I’ve assisted clients who lived there when nowhere else was affordable, or simply because they’ve lived there for 40 years. In a time when we’re seeing more homeless than ever, it seems to be not only a heartless but short-sighted move to evict people from one of the last places they may be able to afford to live. Those people need to live somewhere, let’s not make more encampments in parks than we have already. I can’t imagine my small female client who’s more than 80 years old would have coped with that well.
Kerry Southall, Nambour: Where is the compassion, insight, empathy and give-a-damn that the Sunshine Coast’s voters deserve? Get out of your second ivory tower and go and actually get in touch, listen to and hear what the people are saying – they need just to survive.
- Read the story: ‘Coalition’ urges minister to reject festival site proposal
Ann Knight, Parrearra: Anyone thinking the Coochin Fields festival site development would bring jobs, frequent events and benefits to the community should read up on the North Byron Parklands festival site between Tweed Heads and Byron Bay, which used to host the popular Splendour in the Grass festivals from 2013 until a couple of years ago.
This 224-hectare site could not make the owners enough money to keep the festivals or occasional other events going and will likely end up being sold for luxury residential development. We lived near North Byron Parklands for some years and the noise used to carry for kilometres, all the local roads would be completely clogged with vehicles and many people were trespassing over farmer’s paddocks, and sleeping in their illegally parked cars while the event was on. No one should imagine that there will be lots of jobs created from making a festival site at Coochin Fields. The infrequent events would provide only sporadic temporary employment.
Consider too that the long-running Bluesfest held at Tyagarah just north of Byron Bay also has financial problems and is only continuing in 2026 with its festival because it got state government and community funding. The live festival event world is changing and Australia does not have the population to attract world-renowned bands to multiple locations, which charge very expensive ticket prices, as can happen in the US and Europe.
Rick Albert, Maleny (member of TAPP – Take Action for Pumicestone Passage): It seems likely that Jarrod Bleijie will ignore his own department and give the green light to the development proposal adjacent to Pumicestone Passage by the Comiskey family. Sadly, this follows a trend by both sides of politics ever since the late 1970s when an interdepartmental committee of the Queensland Government during the Bjelke-Petersen era conducted extensive scientific studies and concluded that the passage needed special protection.
Maybe the decision to do these studies more than 40 years ago was sparked by the international conference in Iran in 1971, which recognised that wetlands such as Pumicestone Passage needed special protection (Ramsar heritage sites). The Queensland committee concluded in 1982 that there needed to be a limit on the urban development in the catchment.
It was not until 1993 that the passage was formally recognised as a Ramsar heritage site by which time Pelican Waters was being constructed. Then in 2010, the then Labor Government seized control of planning from Sunshine Coast Council and gave the approval for the development of Aura with an eventual population of 50,000 people – way in excess of the recommendations of the 1982 report.
The previous (Labor) member for Caloundra Jason Hunt was lobbied by local environment groups to set up a proper government management authority for the passage but Mr Hunt did not give much support to this idea. He also supported the Comiskey proposal.
So, the last four decades until now has seen very little support for the passage and recent studies by University of Queensland (2018) have found a very large increase in silt. It is time serious protection is given by politicians.
- Read the story: ‘Tragedy’: historic bridges set to be dismantled
Peter Baulch, North Arm: Both structures are local heritage places listed for preservation in the Sunshine Coast Planning Scheme. In recent correspondence, the council told the Yandina and District Community Association “the problem we faced was that they were heritage listed, but following consultation with our legal team it has been established that we may now remove them”. The Queensland Heritage Act 1992 places an obligation on local governments to identify places of cultural heritage significance and to protect them for the benefit of present and future generations. Council’s actions must be consistent with its planning scheme, which mandates a conservation management plan for local heritage places. Council has neglected its obligation to protect and manage these two local heritage places that are in its care. As the oldest Maroochy town, Yandina’s built heritage is part of its unique character that is valued by residents and visitors alike.
A town walking circuit that includes the conversion of the old rail bridge to pedestrian use and the extension of the path network is notionally in council’s capital works program as part of a Yandina Town Centre Master Plan approved by Maroochy Shire Council in 2003. As a community bucket-list item, it goes back to the Yandina Communities Creating Vision project of the 1990s. Council is obliged to pursue outcomes that are more acceptable than demolition – such as the preservation of the railway bridge’s steel truss span as well as the pylons as a pedestrian-accessible viewing platform or as a cross-river link in a town walking circuit, and retention of the centre span of Old Rattly for its aesthetic appeal. As the photo with your story shows, its setting adjacent to the new bridge creates a pleasing context that evokes earlier modes of travel.
Louise Phillips: Please don’t tear down this bridge, it’s iconic.
- Read the story: Do we have the nation’s worst drivers?
John Leal, Caloundra: The most dangerous driving habits are when motorists use their indicators incorrectly on roundabouts. A lot of drivers, as soon as they enter a roundabout, immediately turn on their left indicator, even though they intend to drive through the roundabout to the second exit. So, the driver waiting at the first exit thinks they’re turning left and pulls onto the roundabout. Bang. Another thoughtless habit is not using indicators at all. I often wonder if Sunshine Coast motorists get enough sleep? They seem to be too tired to move their arms to use an indicator. I asked one chap at the lights how old his car was. He said it was brand new. I said I thought it would have been built with indicators. His reply was unprintable.
- Read the story: Coastal Pathway to be extended through creekside parks
Sue Parfitt: They have put a new path through the park on the esplanade south of the Military Jetty. Instead of building it properly, digging out the soil and laying a path that meets the land around it, they simply dumped some gravel quite high above the surrounds. Then laid bitumen on top, creating a hazard for anyone who placed their feet on the edge. Then they put up ‘pedestrian beware’ signs, so I assume someone fell. Now, they’ve placed more gravel along the edge and grass, which is being watered. All of course at even more expense to the ratepayer. A shoddy job, instead of digging and forming a proper bath.
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.
