Boat blaze treated as non-suspicious

Four boats from a Noosa business were destroyed in a fire at 1am.

Four boats from a Noosa business were destroyed in a fire in the early morning of Thursday 23 March.

Emergency services were called to attend the fire along Gympie Terrace in Noosaville, which is not being treated as suspicious.

Police arrived shortly after 1am, finding several vessels well alight and assisted firefighters to extinguish the flames and save other nearby boats.

Local business Pelican Boat Hire confirmed it owned the four destroyed boats in a post on its Facebook page.

“They say to beware the ides of March,“ the owners wrote.

“In March 2020, it was Covid lockdown. In March 2021, it was nearly floods. In March 2022, we had big floods. In March 2023, an unexplained boat fire at 1am destroyed four of our boats.

“Our team are amazing and had cleared the mess and had us open for business as usual (with a slightly smaller fleet) by 8am.

“We are open as usual and still smiling so come down and enjoy the incredible Noosa River.“

Along with the Pelican Boats, party boat M-V Catalina was damaged, as well as a plastic jetty.

Plastic Free Noosa Ambassador and Waste Warrior Jarrah Small shared her concern online of the plastic pollution affecting marine life after the fires.

“I contacted Noosa Council last night to explain that there is still a lot of styrofoam on the banks of the Noosa River and they said they would get down there in the morning and have a look,“ she said while down at the Noosa River picking up styrofoam balls.

“Hopefully they have a strategy to get all the plastic pollution out from between the rocks.“

The investigation to identify the cause of the fire is ongoing, however, it is not thought to be suspicious.

Anyone with information is urged to contact police.