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: Council defends tiered seawall amid heat, safety concerns
Jenni Hesse, Pelican Waters: This looks great, and as someone said, take a towel to sit on as it will be hot! You’d probably have one with you anyway. The seating on Bulcock Beach in Caloundra did eventually have umbrellas installed and is now a perfect place to have picnics or just people watch. But please could railings be put up as elderly people, me included, would not find it easy to navigate without help. Well done for the foreshore improvements.
Paul Seymour, Sippy Downs: In regard to the new seawall, there has been a lack of thought put into it. For a start, it doesn’t matter what age you are. The steps are too high. Even young adults could have trouble trying to walk up them – and the lack of a fence. Who designed it? A three-year-old? The overall look from a distance looks quite spectacular.
Keith McRobie: I just wanted to say what a fantastic job Sunshine Coast Regional Council is doing on the Mooloolaba seawall, seating steps, ramps and boardwalk. I have been involved with significant landscape projects in Queenstown and Wanaka back in New Zealand and think the work being undertaken in Mooloolaba is to a better standard. The designers have really thought through all the options, with the light colour of the concrete, mixing beach access options with ramps, boardwalk, small steps and the larger seat/step options. Hats off to all involved. I look forward to coming back again to see the finished project.
Lorraine Moore: You can’t put handrails on every step because people don’t watch where they are going. Every rock wall on the Sunshine Coast would need a handrail, every cliff top – that would be ridiculous. So many complainers! Sit on it if you want. If it’s too hot for you, sit somewhere else.
Margaret Wade: The hotter months, like summer, will be the true test of just how hot the concrete is.
- Read the story: Liability claim follows pensioner’s fall from seawall
Brad Plint: It was only a matter of time! Wtf? Council and it’s so-called engineering specialists need to rethink logical planning and design. Be prepared for more claims! Oh, a sign will fix that won’t it?
Karl Reis: A step is a step. It should be a step height riser, not a 2.5 standard step height riser. The architect council planer should definitely be held responsible. Not only a black non slip-tread, it’s not a step, it’s a cliff.
Jeff Taylor, Currimundi: The legally blind gentleman who was recently injured after falling from the newly opened Golden Beach seawall without him having any disabled person assistance devices in use, was an accident waiting to happen. It’s similar to sky diving without a parachute, both activities can only end in disaster.
Obviously, Sunshine Coast Regional Council needs to lift its game by ensuring this safety compliance matter is addressed correctly and quickly while also identifying any other sites in need of similar attention. However, surely a person has a basic responsibility for their own welfare and safety by ensuring a few practical steps are undertaken when out and about. If a little common sense was displayed by the gentleman, then perhaps the accident, or the need for anticipated legal action, could have been avoided. I sincerely wish the gentleman a speedy recovery.
- Read the story: Properties face costly flood risk as hotspots identified
Kim Bulwinkel, Birtinya: I am in my 70s and have lived on or near the coast of Queensland or in major coastal river valleys for all but five of these years. My memory of high tides, storm surges and riverine flooding events is very good. There have been some spectacular floods – 1970s in Brisbane and Rockhampton in the 1990s. There have been some interesting cyclone-driven storm surges also during that time. But the major hightide marks have not changed at all in those 70-odd years that I can see (and I have some very consistent reference points that I can point to prove this). What has changed is where people have built and how many people have built, especially in areas that even just the slightest bit of intelligent research of earth timeframes and geography would reveal, are prone to inundation such as the Hawksbury River, Wilson River and Clarence River in NSW.
I really do wish that editors, writers and commentators stopped using the words ’sea level rise’ and ‘climate change’ in such uneducated and unnecessarily alarmist ways.
Now if one wants to be serious about ‘climate change’ and sea level rises, use the terminology where it really means something, such as the Younger Dryas event some 12,000 years ago, or the dramatic sea level rise of 7000 to 8000 years ago, which occurred over about a thousand years, and inundated the North Sea, the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, the Arafura Sea, the South China Sea and even Torres Strait and Bass Strait. The land bridges that our First Nations peoples walked across from Asia and the unique Tasmanian Aboriginals walked across to settle Tasmania, were ‘inundated’ by serious climatic changes!
It is really about time that so-called modern and educated commentators started using intelligently educated perspectives rather than outlandishly stupid alarmism. Don’t start me on ‘greenhouse gases’, especially water vapour. We live in both amazing and idiotic times.
D Jacks, Forest Glen: Now, I’m no environmental scientist or engineer, but I can’t help but think if council and the state government stopped approving developments on well-documented floodplains, that might help with reducing the risk of flooding.
- Read the story: Call for action over hooning concerns
Grant Boydell, Birtinya: My congratulations and support to the ‘Enough is Enough’ petitioners. Whilst their petition is focused on Mooloolaba, motor noise pollution is rife up and down the Sunshine Coast and not limited to hooning. It seems like a status symbol to have a motor vehicle which is loud and attention grabbing even when idling and, worse, when leaving from red lights. Surely. these vehicles are in breach of noise regulations and should be tackled by police and/or council.
- Read the story: Leave the time (and cows) alone
Phil Jordan, Gympie: Every year the do-good media has to have a rant about Queensland (and) daylight saving. We in Queensland don’t need to be told by the government to get out of bed earlier because it’s hot, we can think for ourselves and make it work, ie have a meeting with your employer and colleagues and start earlier if you choose. There is more than enough time zones to confuse the southerners. If you don’t like it, leave.
- Read the story: Petition opposes proposed bushland industrial expansion
Michelle, Pomona: Council cannot guarantee that native wildlife and bushland will not be affected by such a large project. A proposal by Gemlife was rejected for the same site due to catchment pollution. Infrastructure would not be able to cope with such a large project. The amount of cars, engineering and construction equipment, as well as increased human movement and environmental and wildlife impact, would be monumental. Every day we see this impact. Council cannot justify such impact just for jobs. It seems there is nothing but construction on the Sunshine Coast. Will we have any bushland or native animals left in 5-10 years? It doesn’t really seem to factor in, as it’s all about the Olympics.
- Read the story: Brewery court battle goes another round
Andrew Schultz, Wonga Beach: How typical of council to give a business a hard time for operating outside of its designated hours. I had the same issue in South Australia all instigated by four neighbours, the closest of who was 500m away. Who are council protecting here? Definitely NOT the business.
- Read the story: Survey shows demand for full-service regional banking
Paul Seymour, Sippy Downs: The public is letting the banks dictate everything. It is shameful that the banks are closing branches. There are a lot of people who still use banks. A lot of senior citizens don’t use computers, which as far as I am concerned, is discrimination. Why can’t banks have a multi-user network and the banks share the costs of running it?
- Read the story: Pet treat plant approved with conditions
Burfein, Landsborough: I read with interest about the approval of the pet food facility going in at Corbould Park, Caloundra with the conditions council outlined. So, what about the Landsborough one? Right in the township, right in high residential areas. I have recently contacted council with my own and many other people’s concerns. We have to put up with the odour and the constant truck disturbance daily and some late at night going past our home. The bottom line is council can’t do a thing about it? So, in my opinion, what council looks at is its only Landsborough, it’s far enough away from the coast not to bother us, so let’s not worry about it.
- Reckless e-bikers
Baden Lane: Around 6.30pm Saturday my husband and I drove along Alex Esplanade into Aerodrome Road. At least four unlit electric bikes were riding through a red light as our car was turning from Okinja Road. The riders frequently changed lanes and travelled on one wheel. This was very distressing.
- Happy teachers, better futures
Garry Reynolds, Peregian Springs: Every few months another report tells us what teachers have been saying for years: the profession is running on fumes. One-in-three plan to leave early. Seven-in-ten say their workload is unmanageable.
None of this shocks anyone who’s ever stood in front of 30 teenagers and one wheezing air conditioner. I did it with no air‑conditioner – character building, apparently. The usual fixes get trotted out: better pay, smaller workloads, clearer career paths. But new research points to something deeper – something we’ve ignored for far too long.
When teachers are happy, students learn more. Not in a fluffy, “good vibes help” way. Properly. Measurably.
Higher teacher confidence, motivation, job satisfaction, even just a positive mood leads to better grades, stronger student motivation and greater belief in their own ability. And when teachers are stressed, burnt out or running on empty, student outcomes slide. It’s hardly surprising.
A supported teacher has patience to spare. Creativity to draw on. Enough emotional oxygen to laugh when the projector dies for the third time before recess. They can notice the quiet kid who suddenly shines, or the struggling one who needs a gentle nudge. Their wellbeing becomes part of the classroom’s emotional climate – invisible, but powerful.
So, let’s stop framing teacher support as charity or crisis management. It’s an investment in the kids in those classrooms – the ones who notice far more than we adults think. If we want students to thrive, we need teachers who can breathe. Who can cope. Who can remember why they loved teaching in the first place. Happy teachers don’t just make better days. They make better futures.
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.
