MAY
ROADSIDE DELIVERY
Delivering her baby in the middle of the highway at night in the pouring rain wasn’t what Jessica Amato-Ali had in mind for the birth of her first child but luckily her mum, Noosa Today’s former sales manager Simone Bell, was there to catch her when Nora Grace came into the world. “It was pretty intense while it was happening,“ Jess said of giving birth on the side of the road on the way to hospital. “It’s one of those things you think; I wouldn’t do that again.”
STAs MOVE TO PERMANENT RENTALS
Noosa Mayor Clare Stewart welcomed the transfer of more than 60 Noosa short-stay properties to the permanent rental market since late February. “Of the 488 properties on the permanent rental market in Noosa between February 23 and May 9, 64 were previously short-stay properties,” Cr Stewart said. The Mayor wrote to hundreds of holiday home and short-stay property owners in early February asking them to consider leasing their homes to long-term tenants to help tackle the housing crisis.
BLUE DAY FOR GLOSSY HABITAT
Despite a 76,000 signature petition, countless letters to politicians and years of campaigning to protect a wallum habitat identified as a priority feed area for endangered Glossy Black Cockatoos, BlueCare this week informed Sunrise Beach residents they would begin clearing the site for development on Monday 5 June – World Environment Day.
JUNE
NOOSA MALIBU CLUB RECEIVES APOLOGY
Noosa Malibu club president Glen Gower accepted Surfing Australia’s apology after the club was wrongly accused of breaching prize money equality. The apology followed a series of articles in the Courier Mail, slamming the club with the headline ‘Surfing Australia threaten Noosa Malibu club with expulsion over pay parity furore’. Glen reiterated their commitment to promoting women in the sport. “Our club was thrown under the bus for a week with these stories, and Surfing Australia has apologised, which we will fully accept,” he said. “We have more females surf in our events than any other event, bar the Noosa Festival, which is also owned by the club. We are a leader in equal rights for women and trying to promote women in surfing.”
INTRUSION TACKLED
When an eastern beaches audit found 90 per cent of properties had encroached on to council land it sparked alarm bells, leading to the creation of an Encroachments Policy and operational procedures which was delivered in draft form to Council’s General Meeting. Council heard the policy had its background in the Coastal Hazards Adaptation Plan (CHAP) and the environmental strategy as well as the Coastal Management Plan before becoming a shire-wide policy.
WALK FOR JOHN
A week after 87-year-old Noosa man John Kerr was brutally attacked and died on Hastings Street boardwalk, 400-500 residents came together to remember John and instil courage in the community. The family urged members of the community to come forward with any information about the attack.
SAND NOT SO SOFT
“Most people think the sand is soft, but it’s pretty hard when you’re sleeping on it every night”, was a sentiment that stuck with Sunshine Coast leaders at Vinnies CEO Sleepout. The 2023 Vinnies CEO Sleepout, including the Sunshine Coast team sleeping on the beach at Maroochy Surf Club, raised more than $1.8 million across the state for homelessness support.
JULY
OUR LIL IS IN THE LOGIES
Noosa surf queen and blossoming TV star Lilliana Bowrey was nominated for a Logie in the prestigious Graham Kennedy award for most popular new talent. The 18-year-old former Sunshine Beach High student and winner of multiple junior titles in longboard and shortboard events, plus ambassador for the Noosa World Surfing Reserve, recently finished filming of the second season of the Netflix hit series Surviving Summer, due to go to air next summer.
HOTEL PLAN HOLTED
Noosa councillors said no to a development application for a $50m, 106-room hotel at Noosa Springs in a motion unanimously supported. Inconsistencies with the Noosa Plan 2020 that included the clearing of vegetation in a known koala and glossy black cockatoo habitat, inconsistent zoning, noise concerns and odour concerns, being only 200m from a sewerage treatment plant (STP), were among the reasons given for the refusal.
FOUR MURDER CHARGES
FATAL CRASH: The only survivor of a fatal three-vehicle crash at Federal was charged with three counts of murder. Rafferty Rolfe, 25, of Yandina, was accused of following and ramming a Nissan Navara, which spun before weaving through oncoming traffic on the Bruce Highway, south of Gympie, and into the path of an oncoming Great Wall utility.
JOHN KERR: A 27-year-old Gympie man was charged with the murder of John Kerr at Noosa Heads on 18 June. Investigations indicate at about 6am that Sunday morning, the 87-year-old Noosa man was found unconscious on a path along the beachfront at the northern end of Hastings Street boardwalk after sustaining serious head injuries consistent with an alleged assault.
AUGUST
POPULATION GROWTH CONCERN
Noosa Mayor Clare Stewart and Council’s Strategy and Environment director Kim Rawlings flagged serious concerns over the state’s ‘unrealistic’ population growth targets for Noosa at a meeting with state planning officials in Brisbane. Mayor Stewart said the state’s plan to pack another 19,100 people into the shire over the next 23 years with its draft changes to the SEQ Regional Plan raised huge concerns. “We understand that the state expects us to accommodate more than half of that growth – a whopping 10,000 people – in the next twoto-three years, which is very concerning and unrealistic,” she said.
CASHED UP FOR A CAUSE
The Noosa Prostate Association raised an incredible $270,000 at their recent Prostate Cancer Awareness and Fundraising Lunch. Noosa Prostate Association secretary and treasurer Richard Bennet said, “Not only is prostate cancer the most commonly diagnosed cancer in Australia, but the incidence of prostate cancer being diagnosed in the Noosa region is higher than the national average. This is why the Noosa Prostate Association is so focused on raising awareness in the local community, and raising funds for vital research into finding a solution for this insidious disease, which claims the lives of more than 3500 men in Australia each year.”
DEBUT FOR SONGBIRD LAYLA
Noosa local Layla Havana is an artist to watch. At only 14 years of age, the Sunshine Coast First Nations songbird released her debut EP, Beneath The Surface, followed by a performance at Sunshine Sounds Festival in Eumundi the next day.
