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 give to letters of 100 words or less.
- Read the story: Wild summer weather ‘could play havoc’ at island and waterway
Regarding the movement of the bar and the breakthrough of Bribie Island, we have been constantly told about how Golden Beach is going to be washed away or become a surf beach.
Last time I checked the bar has moved but there has been no major catastrophe regarding flooding or waves breaking in the passage.
Just maybe the root of the problem is that mass destruction of the mangroves and tea-tree swamps at Pelican Waters and Bellvista, plus all the stormwater off the roofs of all the homes, have attributed to the silting up of the passage.
The area used to act as a slow leaching filter with the rainwater, now it goes into drains that are incapable of taking the volume of water, hence manhole lids popping and flooding.
Bribie Island is a sand island that is regularly changing and I think that nature is and will do what it wants.
As for the water temperature, it has risen dramatically over the past decade or so. We were lucky if it got to 22 degrees in summer and down to 18 in winter.
Chris Leon
- Read the story: Car park in tourist strip to be drop-off only in peak season
Just another wrong decision by Noosa Council, closing a car park during the Christmas holiday period.
Too bad for the people of the area that park there most mornings to go for an early morning swim etc. No amount of closures or buses will stop vehicles from driving into Hastings Street to access the national park, Spit area and Noosa Main Beach year-round.
One of the main causes of traffic congestion when you drive into Hastings Street is the three pedestrian crossings where motorists stop to give way to pedestrians, which are not shared zones. Get rid of these crossings as there are five shared zone crossings for pedestrians to cross safely.
A lot of tourists who drive into Hastings Street don’t realise access out is the same way you come in, causing more traffic problems.
M. Langley, Sunrise Beach
- Read the story: Up to $53m of projects delayed as council looks for funds
Mayor Rosanna Natoli and her councillors have shelved $40 million worth of public projects vital to the Sunshine Coast community.
They have not cancelled the millions in handouts to some of the wealthiest private hotel owners and developers in the world.
The Marriott, for example, has shown interest in the council’s hotels policy. Marriott’s 2023 gross profit was $5.1 billion. Its property portfolio is worth $US8 billion. Three weeks ago it was reported Marriott shares had gone up 26.6 per cent in the past three months.
These are the people Cr Natoli and the council think need our charity.
During the local government campaign in March, I warned that electing a new council would not be enough to fix the anti-public culture inside the council and that before any positive change could take place we would need a full and open inquiry into council’s decision-making.
Nothing has changed. The Natoli hotels policy empties our wallets to further enrich and entertain the 1 per cent, at the same time our councillors are throwing local people out of their tiny homes.
Homelessness Australia says homelessness is increasing by 10,000 people per month. The opportunity cost of subsidising one luxury hotel unit is exactly one more Australian family not housed.
Bemusedly, we read that council’s chief financial officer, Michael Costello, told councillors that a drop in developer contributions had affected the operating result and reduced council’s cash balance.
Yes, and at least 15 per cent of the $40 million shortfall in the capital works budget can be attributed directly to the waiving of developer fees as per the hotels policy alone.
Privatise the profits. Socialise the losses. Feed the rich, cancel the fireworks for the kiddies. This is the mayor who was all about community when she wanted our votes. What fools we were to buy the pup.
It is disappointing to think that not one councillor thought to ask this one simple question: What is the trade-off if we give away millions to developers? Who loses? The answer was always: public infrastructure and the public good.
Incredibly, council staff chose not to canvass this question to help guide councillors’ decision-making. Perhaps they did and our councillors just don’t care. Who knows?
From a ratepayer’s perspective, there is still something very, very wrong inside the council and whatever it is, it is becoming very, very expensive.
Ken Fisher, Yaroomba
- Read the story: ‘Hybrid’ seawall design aims to save beloved pine trees
It’s a great opportunity to get rid of the non-native Norfolk pines and plant some of the rich varieties of Australian native pandanus, gums, wattles, sheoaks and banksia that were once in abundance along the foreshore.
Ruth Fiechtner
- Read the story: Survey indicates end of feral horses on island
“Horses can cause significant damage to the coastal foredunes, natural waterways and grassed camping areas, resulting in erosion and changes in vegetation due to selective grazing.”
What about the damage caused by the big horses that continually swarm the beaches and dunes with their four-wheel drive vehicles and then leave without all their rubbish?
If you can’t make K’gari by boat or foot and remove your rubbish, leave it alone.
Rudy Formigoni, Ellen Grove
Congratulations to the rangers of Fraser Island for eliminating the destructive feral horses.
Though the area is small, this points the way for the removal of pests from other national parks. The destruction caused by feral horses in the Kosciuszko National Park and other areas of the southern high country is well documented, and in addition to pigs, foxes, rabbits and now deer, any means of destroying what are essentially vermin is warranted to protect the environment.
Ken Baker
- Read the story: Proposal to widen and deepen shipping channel detailed
This project is deemed necessary to permit access to the Port of Brisbane by increasingly larger container ships.
It would appear from this report that environmental impact reports have not been completed but that dumping sites for dredged sediment (spoil) will be carefully considered due to possible sediment plumes, sediment damage to reef structures etc and also, of course, cost to transport spoil to dump sites. This dredging plan is proposed to be staged over 25 years and will require Commonwealth and state government approvals.
My fears are that any significant further dredging of the shipping channel in the Fairway Channel and the channel adjacent to the north end of Bribie Island will further exacerbate the erosion of North Bribie ocean beaches, and this entire section of island protecting Pumicestone Passage will slip towards the deepened and widened channel, potentially leaving Golden Beach fully exposed to ocean surf waves and heightened storm tide levels.
I hope that full environmental impact reports are sourced and delivered from several world leaders in their fields of expertise. True public consultation and participation would also be seen as a vital component of this Port of Brisbane plan.
Gary Ryan, Caloundra
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 give to letters of 100 words or less.
