Noosa Heads Surf Club looks set for a revamp with plans to likely include another level on top of its existing two and extra car parking underneath after club president Ross Fisher announced at a sponsors’ breakfast last Friday that plans on its renovation project began 18 months ago.
“This surf club is probably the oldest building on Hastings Street. It’s like 60 years old,“ Mr FIsher said.
“It’s got a lot of history. It looks fantastic, but above the ceiling and below the floor it’s not so good. It’s at its end of life so things need to be attended to.“
Mr Fisher said design options were to be presented to members last weekend with a decision on plans to be made at a special general meeting.
“Over the past 18 months we’ve had a building working group,“ he said.
“A team of professional people that are lifesavers have been looking at plans after dealing with nine or ten various independent consultants. We’ve had a dilapidation report on the building, we’ve had building inspectors, we’ve had structural engineers, electrical, fire, We’ve been right through the building to ascertain what condition the building is in. There’s quite a few options available. We’ve also kept Noosa Council informed, we’ve kept Hastings Street Association informed, we’ve kept Tourism Noosa informed as to our major plans so that we try to dispel rumours.“
Mr Fisher said there were no plans to the rumour they would include a function centre on the roof.
“We do want to go up another level, but it will be a training area for members and areas for members and maybe administration. It will not be a function centre like you think a function centre would be,“ he said.
“The rest of the redevelopment if approved by the members is to have training area, members area up top, extend the car park so if they come on patrol they can park underneath.“
The meeting also heard about recent competition successes from individual life savers, junior surf club’s Andrea Baker presented an update on nipper activities and was introduced to nipper captains and SLSQ president Gerard O’Brien, who was recently elected into his second term as president, delivered and overview of Queensland surf life saving.
“SLSQ was formally formed in 1930,“ Mr O’Brien said.
“It’s an extraordinary organisation. Traditionally it’s been a military-like structure and traded on the bronzed Aussi image. However after 90 years there have been significant changes, the admission of nippers in 1970s and admission of females as full members in the 1980s. Those two things really unleashed a revolution in the organisation and we are far better for it.
“At our core SLSQ is 58 community clubs, 314 nationally and united in a common purpose to save lives. In doing that we build better communities and create brave Australians. We are unique in our scope. We’re an emergency service dedicated to saving lives, we’re part of Australia’s largest volunteer organisation with over 36,000 members in Queensland and 200,000 nationally.
“We’re part of Australia’s largest youth movement. We are a large registered training organisation (RTO) overseeing education of members and public and we conduct one of the country’s most iconic sports. In Queensland we also operate some significant profit for purpose businesses aligned with our mission to save lives.
“We have a substantial and expanding aviation business. We have two red and yellow helicopters. The Westpac Rescue helicopter service that’s been running in Queensland for 49 years and four police helicopters. They operate in SEQ and most recently we’ve added one on the Sunshine Coast in Wide Bay.
We have a professional lifeguard service that operates across the state including Noosa lifeguards. We have an unmanned aerial vehicle service that’s focused on trained and mission related contracts including shark spotting. We have an IRB business. We’re a very complex organisation and over time we’ve tended to make life complex for our volunteers.
“Some of the key initiatives we’re working on we’re trying to transform our member education system to make it simpler and more flexible to suit our members needs. We’ve also increased our focus on our smaller clubs. You may have noticed Noosa is not a small club.
“We’ve done a lot of surveying of our members and we’ve invested significantly in leadership development and there’s a vast array of camps, pathways and mentorships available. We are providing a welcoming culture at all of our clubs.
“The core of that is our equity and inclusion strategy that focuses on five core causes – gender equity in our leadership, people with disability, culturally and linguistically diverse, LGBTIQ plus and First Nations.
“e recently hosted the World Life Saving Championships on the Gold Coast. It was an incredibly successful event and it was the precursor to our bid to have life saving included in the 2032 Olympics. Hopefully everyone supports that. It would be a great promotion for the state.“
