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: Overnight parking banned in bid to end behaviour issues
Kathy Caswell, Alexandra Headland: The action by the Sunshine Coast Council to restrict parking on Marina Walk, Alexandra Headland, from 8pm to 4am is not in the interests of ratepayers who live in the area. They need somewhere to park their vehicle overnight due to council allowing developers to only have to provide one car space per apartment, and many apartments have more than one vehicle per apartment. The surrounding streets are already choked at night with vehicles taking up available car parks.
So rather than deal with the bad behaviour of a few people who congregate in the area that do not live there, the local residents are being persecuted. Where is the justice in this? We pay very high rates to the council and should have street parking available 24/7 close to our home. We should not have to park streets away and then put our safety at risk walking to our homes. Council and police need to deal with the issue of bad behaviour as well as all the hooning and drag racing by cars and motorbikes in the area rather than continue to punish the innocent ratepayers.
How difficult would it be for the police and council to install a camera with sound in the area? They could then have all the vehicle registration plate numbers and CCTV footage of the people causing the issue. With this data, the police can then pay these culprits a visit and issue them with a warning and, if ignored, follow it up with fines for disturbing the peace. Maybe a night in jail in a soundproof cell with a very loud soundtrack of noises of hooning, yelling, bad language etc played for the entire night may then make them understand the noise and disturbance they make is not acceptable to anyone. Punish the guilty, not the innocent.
Tina Ward, Mooloolaba: We notice a lot of overnight and day parking on the top of Alexandra Parade Hill at the lookout: backpackers over the last few weeks and longer, in groups of four to six vans. We go to work at 6.30am and they are not moving, so stay for days. It’s not good for locals who want to enjoy view and can’t use the barbecues. They are not homeless, just tourists. Other parts of Mooloolaba also have hidden vans, like down Sixth Avenue next to the caravan park along the front, fully parked up. We need rangers moving them along. It’s not a good look.
Virginia Foster and Chris Leadley, Alexandra Headland: We own a unit on Buderim Avenue, Alexandra Headland. We were involved in this process when the rule was made over the Christmas holidays a few years ago. We thought it had been resolved but the issue has arisen again. The noise problem has not been between 8pm and 4am, but from 4pm to 8pm on some days, with young people gathering to drink after work and watch the sunset. Police have only attended when called and have not monitored those times.
We experience more noise from hooning cars every night, yet nothing is done about that. Instead, the solution restricts parking that residents badly need. Removing parking for residents and visitors has caused great hardship for many surrounding units. An elderly gentleman sold his unit after being repeatedly fined for parking his car the last time parking was restricted in front of his building. We offered a solution but it was dismissed.
Our solution was for the council to issue owners and managers two parking permits. This would allow overnight parking without fines. Why has the council not adopted this more economical approach instead of spending ratepayers’ money to change all the signs again? The council is not working for ratepayers. The council also removed our car parks in front of our building, leaving 28 units with only two car parks total, despite families and visitors. How does this make sense?
- Read the story: International recognition sought for hinterland’s night skies
Marie Durie, Black Mountain: I am in absolute full favour of protecting our hinterland night skies and would love to see this pursued. We live in the hinterland of Noosa at Black Mountain with wonderful uninterrupted night skies. We hope Noosa Council will adopt the same strategy. I’m reading about dusking, where a lot is achieved mentally to quietly sit outside at dusk and watch the light fade and the stars shine, listen to the night sounds and just fully relax and enjoy a different world. Definitely no screens or other distractions allowed. Let’s keep what we have left away from the bright lights of today’s world.
- Read the story: Brewery announces closure
Name withheld, Yandina: I have not been there personally but drive past frequently, and it was so nice just to see families sitting on picnic rugs and children running around having so much fun on the weekends. What a loss to so many people of all ages. Also, what a loss to those who worked there, losing there livelihood, and I really feel for the owner as he has worked so hard to get this place to where it is today.
- Trees disappear
John McKenzie, Baringa: As a local resident in the Aura community, I have watched for many years the progress of the fauna and flora flourish in our parks and kerbsides. But recently, since the widening has progressed on Bellvista Boulevard, many of these well-established trees have disappeared and will continue to do so. In theory, I understand why the government seems fit to spend tens of millions of taxpayers’ money on this project but the final outcome is going to be the same. It won’t alleviate the main problem, which is merging on to Caloundra Road. The final outcome is you will probably get to the roadblock a bit quicker and have to wait longer.
- Anger is easier to sell
Garry Reynolds, Peregian Springs: Everywhere you turn, someone is outraged, betrayed or disrespected. And while genuine hardship is real enough, we’re drifting into something more corrosive: a culture of permanent indignation. Grievance politics thrives on this. It doesn’t offer solutions; it offers someone to blame. It tells us we’re the “real people” and someone else – elites, outsiders, institutions – is the problem. It’s politics as a therapy session, not nation‑building. And it’s spreading because anger is easier to sell than nuance, and resentment is easier to stoke than responsibility.
My grandfather had a saying: “Holding onto unforgiveness is like drinking poison and then expecting the other person to get sick.” That’s exactly what grievance politics asks us to do – swallow bitterness and hope it hurts someone else. But most Australians are still decent, practical, fair‑minded people who’d rather fix a problem than shout about it. We don’t need outrage merchants telling us the sky is falling and we’re a failed state. We can demand better: leaders who solve problems instead of inflaming them, and conversations that build community instead of dividing it.
Outrage may be loud, but it’s not leadership. And it’s certainly no foundation for the Australia we want to leave our grandchildren.
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.
