Rummaging through old archive boxes from 30 years ago in a vain search for an article may not be as exciting as the release of some juicy cabinet papers a generation on, but last week I found myself whiling away an entire afternoon remembering Noosa the way it was.
The vehicle that transported me back to Christmas 1993 was Noosa’s first true lifestyle magazine which debuted in 1991, lasted a decade and owned the market for the first half of it. Propelled by the enthusiasm of a young entrepreneur named Matthew Rees Jones, a group of us started Noosa Tatler in the middle of winter in the middle of a recession. It was 48 pages of gossip, profiles and local info, with Sean the Magician on the cover, launched with considerable fanfare by Premier Wayne Goss at a Sunday afternoon soiree at Palmer’s Tapas Bar and Grill. The Premier noted that the original Tatler was produced by and for London scalliwags and ne’er-do-wells, so he hoped this one would appeal to higher instincts. Mmm.
Adjacent to the article about the launch in our next issue was a two-column apology to the Tatler Publishing Company of London “for unauthorised use of the trademark”, so we were looking for a new name before No 3 hit the newsstands for Christmas. Someone suggested Noosa Blue, which we all liked but it was a rather blatant steal from the very successful Billy Blue in Sydney. After the Tatler fiasco – a case of the right hand thinking the left hand had secured the permission, and vice versa – I was taking no chances. Fortunately I knew the founder of Billy Blue, the late Ross Renwick, who thundered down the phone line: “Go for your life, mate. In fact, I’m honoured.”
You’d think that with so many things going wrong in our first few months, we would have adopted a low profile. Wrong. We went the other way, celebrating the arrival of each new edition with a launch party. Fortunately we had a generous beer sponsor in Eumundi Lager. The first launch was the Premier at Palmer’s, at the second we announced we were changing our name, the third unveiled our new headquarters, a falling-down fishing shack and one-time surfboard factory at the Tewantin end of riverfront Hilton Esplanade, which we painted blue and named The Blue House. We loved our proximity to the river, but unfortunately 1992 brought the worst floods in 25 years and the river broke its banks and came straight through our office, taking two filing cabinets of advertising information with it.
Speaking of which, the first Tatler had no real estate advertising, and only Alan Emblin represented the building trades with a back-page act of good faith. This was a bit strange, but the country was in a deep recession, although you would never have known it in Noosa. And in our second issue, Ray White Noosa took the back page to market The Emerald “luxury unit development” on Hastings Street, with apartments starting at $285,000. By the fifth issue we had so many ads we had to add an advertiser index, and we had hooked our biggest fish so far, the new (and empty) canal estate of Noosa Waters. “Noosa’s last waterfront land … the ultimate lifestyle … can you afford to wait?”
By the summer of 1993, our developer client base had expanded to cover the entire Sunshine Coast and beyond, so we launched a second title specifically for them, Casa Sunshine Coast Homes and Gardens, with not one but two parties, with Skyhook and TV host Shirl Strachan hosting the “paddock pissup” at Noosa Waters, and Lady Sonia McMahon cutting the ribbon at the posh one at the Hyatt Regency Coolum.
Ah, they were heady times, but despite its rapid growth Noosa remained a town where everyone in business knew everyone else on a first-name basis. Let me walk you around our town, through the pages of our 88-page Christmas edition from 30 years ago, starting from the back where the interesting ads often hide.
On the back cover Noosa Waters trumpeted itself as “Australia’s fastest selling waterfront estate”, and with two advertising managers now on our payroll, we hoped they were right. (Although at the time Noosa Waters was shy about publishing prices, a year or so later dry blocks started at $89,000 and waterfronts $165,000.)
Inside back of our Christmas number was Tom and Di Cross’s Cross Classics on Hastings Street, the place to go for your mandatory Ralph Lauren polo shirt. A few pages in, zany hairdresser Col Smyth had his whole team pictured under hair dryers that looked like space helmets with the line, “The crew from Smyth’s have landed”.
New Hastings Street arrivals Aroma’s featured in the food and bev section, The Good Life, for the first time, along with old faithfuls like Gilligan’s, Grenny’s, Aqua Bar, The Appolonian, Coco’s, Eduardo’s, Dilozo’s, Sails, Palmer’s and The Jetty. Supporting advertisers with a feature on “Chrissie Cuisine”, we revealed that the McKenzie Grill at the Hyatt was offering a traditional three-course Christmas dinner for $25 a head, while the Sheraton Noosa Resort’s Laguna Bay Beach Club had an “Aussie-style BBQ” for $65 a head. Coco’s at the National Park gates, had a bargain three-course family lunch for $30, while Edi Brunetti’s Jetty at Boreen Point had seven courses for $55.
Looking at “Best Bubbly Under $30”, the Blue crew found plenty of takers (you’d hope so, 30 years ago!) and gave the flavour for money gong to Yellowglen Cuvee Victoria 1990 at $25.
Moving to the news section at the front of the mag, we revealed that Noosa Council has invested $50,000 in a Film Services Unit, designed to attract national advertisers to shoot their commercials in Noosa. Enterprise Group boss Stephen Clark says if one commercial is shot each month, $250,000 a year will flow to the community. Never happened.
In a feature called “All I Want For Christmas”, revered writer, and Noosa resident since the ‘60s, Nancy Cato says she just wants a new parasol ($9.50), while Noosa Blue publisher Matt Rees Jones wants a car audio system ($279) from Noosa Hi Fi, and then-mayor Noel Playford wants a copy of Home: The Evonne Goolagong Story. This can be easily arranged since by this time Goolagong Productions was sharing office space at The Blue House. Oh, and Evonne herself said she just wanted some new lures ($18.50) from Davo’s Bait and Tackle.
Finally, the special Christmas cover was the 3-D miracle of veteran cartoonist Graham “Knuckles” Wall who was our newly appointed art director and resident comedian. Okay, it’s not high art but if you look closely you’ll see a bloke leering at a near-naked woman, a signature of a genuine Knuckles.
