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: ‘Relentless pressure’: brewery announces closure, Brewery asks for review as CEO defends council and Council defends action against brewery after open letter appeal
Sue, Buderim: It is very sad that Terella Brewing is having to shut their doors. We have no place on the Coast that has a venue that is family oriented: kids running around playing, laughing and have a wonderful time, parents able to relax and watch their children playing and making new friends, and also having different events that allows people feel apart of a community. I hope the council and Terella can find a way to keep this special place open.
Karen Beckett, Yandina: Like many local residents of Yandina and beyond, it is disappointing to hear that Terella Brewing is closing its doors. I have been both a patron and a stall holder at their premises and have always found the atmosphere to relaxed and family friendly.
When I heard of the imminent closing I contacted the local councillor to see if I could get some plain facts as to what has transpired between council and Terella as I didn’t want to base my opinion on others’ opinions and hearsay. The response from both councillor Law and mayor Natoli was that as the matter is before the courts, they can not comment. Mmm.
So where is the truth in all this and how do the ratepayers find out what the council is doing, along with the Terella proprietors’ actions? As the community feels very involved in this matter perhaps a public meeting where all the facts can be presented (from both sides) would be warranted. Or at the very least a mediated discussion between both council and Terella. That could go a long way in saving ratepayers’ money being spent on expensive legal costs.
Bart Stoelen, Mount Coolum: It is very sad news, especially for young families with small kids. Where else can you have a quiet drink, while the little ones interact with the farm animals or have a run around in a safe paddock? All for the sake of some noise to neighbours. Council, support local business and locals!
Anthony, Coes Creek: Terella, such an amazing place for the community and visitors to be shut down by council red tape etc. So many jobs gone. They were a community business so why didn’t council help?
Grace Stotschek, Mooloolaba: Terella – a wonderful, open area where families can go, children can run and play safely and enjoy the open air. What does our council do? Close it down. They have again shown they have no idea how to preserve our unique and vibrant rural community.
John Howard, Mooloolaba: So a viable business and the livelihoods of 40 employees are being sacrificed at the whim of a few residents because of supposed noise and traffic issues, which can, at most, be occasional and predictable. Madness! What are our priorities? Is there no room for compromise?
John Leigh, Mooloolaba: Absolute disgrace. Council should hang their head in shame. A local asset and tourism draw card needlessly lost. This is council acting against the community, not for it.
Jurij Mark, 4556: I grew up in a socialist country under the full control of the Soviet Union. The way Aussies’ councils behave is an exact copy of the communist ones. In the past 41 years I have lived in Australia I don’t understand how anyone can stand up to them. We Aussies have no pride. We Aussies behave like a flock of sheep!
Cynthia Dornelles, Mountain Creek: Whilst I totally understand your need and duty to enforce legislation, I have been seeing very essential community businesses being shut down/breaking lately such as The Station (in Birtinya), the iconic Solbar and now Terella Brewery. Whilst I understand your role in reinforcing the law to protect Sunshine Coast citizens, I wonder what can the council do to support and promote business feasibility and work with businesses who are willing and able to allow financial sustainability and availability to community members? We have only few options available and I wonder if the council cannot be doing more?
Danny Warren, Bli Bli: Terella was a nice venue for a family or group gathering, drinks, food and petting yards for the children, but when it came to live music and bands plus the extra traffic, (it was) a bit over the top (I can understand why they had problems).
J Hudson, Caloundra: It is inconceivable that in the time of global uncertainty local councils don’t bend over backwards to support local businesses instead of regulating them out of existence.
Name withheld, Currimundi: This council is worse than the last. Their short-sighted controls on tourist sites and housing options for ordinary people is completely deplorable. Come next election I’ll be assisting anyone who stands against these little dictators. Enough is enough.
Graeme Aitken, Rosemount: I am saddened and angered by the forced closure of this pillar of the hinterland community. With vision, hard work and investment, the crew have created one of the essentials of our community, and at no cost to council. It is a vibrant hub for multi-generational connection and community cohesion.
It’s a pity council doesn’t recognise the huge asset to our community that this establishment is, and do everything in its power to support it, and improve the social cohesion that has sprung up around this much loved enterprise.
- Read the story: Wises Farm development plan approved unanimously
John Howard, Mooloolaba: So, we do need more homes but not alongside a busy motorway, amongst established homes, creating more chaos in an already saturated area. Surely a park, gardens or some sort of learning facility make far more sense.
M Thomas, Pomona: Mmm, closures of Wises Farm, Solbar and The Station all within a short period of time – all venues catering to the public with events/music platforms since that other venue has been given the go-ahead. Anyone out there think this is just coincidence? This is local, this is community that is being demolished before us for something that none of us had a say in. Where was Sunshine Coast Council in all of this? What part are they playing, mmm?
- Read the story: Palming off a problem
Paul Prociv, Mount Mellum: I’m fully onside with Ashley Robinson’s hatred of cocos palms, for all the reasons he mentions, especially as they are an invasive weed, whose seeds are spread avidly by a variety of native animals.
But I’d like to forward Ashley just one little piece of information from my discoveries while working on flying foxes many years ago, trying to establish if their parasites cause human disease. Cocos palm fruit is toxic to bats, even though they love it (very sweet, compared to native food), and it’s gooey consistency gums up their guts, explaining the yucky kind of diarrhoea they develop. The fruit might also make possums sick. People will be doing a big favour to not only to Ashley, but also our wildlife, by removing these nasty trees from their gardens and parks.
- Act of kindness
Phillip, Caloundra: I would like to tell a little tale of an act of kindness I witnessed yesterday on the 600 bus.
I, along with several others, were alighting the bus southbound at Kawana Station when an elderly lady was having trouble maneuvering her slightly overloaded walker onto the bus, when a young man in the queue made it his business to help this lady. He lifted her walker onto the bus, then gently helped her on board, guided her to a vacant seat, secured her walker, got off the bus and went to the back of the queue. When he made it on the bus he sat opposite the lady and engaged her in friendly, polite conversation. He asked how far she was going and assured her he would help her off again. It was clear the lady was deeply touched, as was I. After he had finished helping her off the bus he asked the bus driver to give him a few seconds to make sure the lady was okay, before hopping back on and resuming our journey. I would like to give a ‘shout out’ to this young man, whose name I later found out is Kaden.
- Management of tourist town’s growth
Garry Reynolds, Peregian Springs: Noosa faces increasing lifestyle pressures as the tempo of preparations for the Brisbane Olympics grows. Taking a stance of “no change at all in Noosa” is really not viable. The core question is: how do we prepare now to manage change before it overwhelms us and steals our chance for choice? If we want to retain Noosa’s essence, support its precinct communities, strengthen its economy and protect its unique natural and built environment to keep them special, now is the time.
I was intrigued when I read that councillor Amelia Lorentson successfully moved that the Noosa Council approach the state government to investigate the feasibility of building quality low-rise apartments for essential workers in the airspace over carparks next to hospitals, schools, hospitality venues and aged care facilities. I sat back and thought about how Noosa depends so much on essential workers and how hard it is for them to find accommodation with rising rents and shrinking vacancy rates. Implementing this airspace housing strategy would help our police, paramedics, teachers, nurses, aged‑care and hospitality workers keep this community safe, healthy and welcoming. The closer they are to work, the better, to avoid adding to traffic congestion and urban sprawl into our beautiful hinterland.
The Noosa community is pro‑identity and wants growth managed cost-effectively. Using the essential services carparks airspaces would be a smart step in retaining that identity by harnessing land we already own to solve a problem we can no longer ignore.
Current market-based approaches are obviously struggling. Whereas this is a modest, community‑minded solution that deserves careful, place‑sensitive exploration if we are going to continue to be a community that looks after the people that look after us.
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.
