Mayor Tony Wellington went into damage control after media reports which he branded a “beat up” suggested Noosa was “trying to stop tourism and putting out the full sign”.
“We’re not putting up stop signs. We’re not at crisis point,” Noosa Mayor Tony Wellington told ABC radio’s Steve Austin last Thursday.On Monday Cr Wellington posted a message to Tourism Noosa members to explain how “the Courier Mail had cherry-picked a few quotes from my interview and run it as a front page story along with an hysterical headline”.
He told Noosa Today his comment Noosa was on “the cusp” of over tourism was in reference to the anticipated population boom on our doorstep.
“The State Government’s South East Queensland Regional Plan suggests that South East Queensland will have to make room for an additional 2 million people by 2041. Our immediate neighbour to the south, the Sunshine Coast Council, is predicted to accomodate an additional 200,000 people,” he said.
“All of this will increase the pressure on Noosa, particularly with regard to the number of day visitors who want to drive into the shire, and to Main Beach in particular, just for the day.
“The point that I was making is that we need to get our collective heads around this looming issue now, before it becomes a big problem. That seems the sensible thing to do, to work towards future scenarios – to be proactive rather than simply reactive to looming issues facing Noosa.”
Cr Wellington said when he did a live interview on Channel 7’s Sunrise it was conducted to get his message across that the story was a “media beat-up”, he said.
“At no stage did I ever suggest that we need to put up a “full” sign now, as the Courier-Mail’s headline suggests,” he said.
Cr Wellington did admit to ABC Noosa Council would probably do an acceptable limit study, looking at the ideal number of people in each locale.
