Day 30, 27 February
CORFLUTE CHAOS
CD’s correspondent first noticed the concentration of candidate corflute signs along the roadside at Tinbeerwah while driving home from the Sunday “roast”. Apparently CD wasn’t the only one, with a tsunami of Snap/Send/Solves fired off to council staff over that weekend.
It didn’t take long for the corflute to hit the fan come Monday, when acting CEO Larry Sengstock expressed his displeasure. The following morning staffer Alinda van der Harst emailed all candidates: “We have received advice of quite a lot of election signage that is not compliant and being placed on Road Reserves including Cooroy-Noosa Rd, Eumundi-Noosa Road, Emu Mountain Rd (Noosa Shire Boundary) and McKinnon Drive.
Please note that this is a breach of Council’s Local Laws which restricts election signage on Council controlled roads and State controlled roads and we kindly request that all signage is removed by 5pm today. If the signs are not removed they will be impounded by our Compliance Officers.”
Many of them were still there well after the deadline had passed and compliance officers were kept busy removing them for the rest of the week. Meanwhile, some corflute-concerned citizens took matters into their own hands, overstepping the mark and removing signs from private land, with Cr Tom Wegener and candidate Mat Bankes both losing signs at the Busstop Espresso in West Cooroy. Nicking corflutes is, of course, not a new sport. At the last election in 2020, then-mayor Tony Wellington had his signs stolen from a couple of key points on private property as fast as he could replace them.
Candidate Bankes perhaps had his tongue firmly in cheek when he posted on social media: “So grateful for the hard working residents policing our streets enduring that all Candidates and Constituents alike are upholding their duties as a Law Abiding Citizen. The streets would be chaos without them!”
Day 33, 1 March
RIVER RAT RATTLED
As the election draws ever nearer, signs that the Noosa River mob are turning on each other under the pressure. First Fleeter and frequent social media poster Trevor Clarey appeared to be giving fellow riverman Andrew Macca McCarthy a bit of a broadside with the following on the Noosa River FB page: “I just spent half an hour posting up on your thread and it immediately got declined. FFS mate, we are all on the ropes here. Your captains n crew n river lovers lifestyle are under threat BIG TIME. Please tell me why my post is declined???? NOT HAPPY ANDREW.” Hopefully peace has been restored around the mangroves.
BETTER LATE THAN NEVER
Meanwhile, supporters of councillor candidate Chris Darwen, who seems to have been hiding his light under a bushel for most of the campaign thus far, will be relieved to hear that he is downing tools and entering the fray, posting on social media: “Finished work on Friday to kick the campaign into top gear over the next couple of weeks. Has been difficult to juggle work and get out and about.” Perhaps cutting it fine just a couple of days before the start of pre-polling, but at least the electorate can be sure that Chris takes his job seriously.
Day 35, 3 March
HUNTER’S BIG IDEA
Okay, it was Vivien Griffin’s idea in the first place, but Tom Wegener grabbed hold of it and now a little surf grom called Hunter has given it one hell of a shake. We’re talking about Cr Wegener’s Noosa Contest of Ideas, which played to a good crowd at the Land and Sea Brewery in Noosaville last Sunday.
The idea behind the idea was that young local entrepreneurs would present their one big idea for Noosa’s future and have it judged by the audience and a panel of future citizens, known collectively as The Future. And some excellent ideas were thrown into the ring. Campaign Diary particularly liked Javier Leon’s idea for a junior council which would debate the issues of the day internally before throwing out some solutions to the grownup council, and Joel McPherson of Joel’s Journeys idea for a transport network getting people to and from the shire’s many adventure tracks and trails.
But then tiny 10-year-old surfer Hunter Williams, who was supposed to be on The Future judging panel but couldn’t resist, stepped up and revealed from 10 pages of prepared notes, his detailed plan for a surfboard lending library, which would enable junior surfers to try out boards from the past and learn about the history of the sport in our region. Hunter brought the house down and was a clear winner in the Contest of Ideas.
CD understands that representatives of Noosa Surf Museum are very interested in pursuing the idea with Noosa’s newest entrepreneur.
