By Phil Jarratt
When the old Noosa Lakes Motel beside Lake Doonella was demolished a quarter of a century ago to make way for an ambitious resort village and conference centre, Noosa was on the cusp of a tourism explosion that would take it from seaside village to international visitor magnet.
Although for almost a decade Noosa Council had followed a controlled development line in keeping with the “village atmosphere”, the more general view amongst tourism and business boosters was that without a Gold Coast-style conference centre we would miss out on the lucrative and fast-growing business travel market. And so in February 1997 council approved a 94-dwelling resort and “small conference centre”.
Within six months developers the Peter Kurts Group had come on board to underwrite a $23.5 million resort and conference facility. By April 1998, when an amended Town Planning consent permit was issued, the conference facility had grown to a monolithic two-storey multi-use space to accommodate 250 delegates on one level and more than 300 on another. The permit, “for resort, indoor entertainment/function room (conference centre) and ancillary facilities”, allowed just about any indoor entertainment to operate there except a late hours nightclub. In other words, Noosa got its conference centre and the operator was given every opportunity to make it work financially.
And in its novelty phase, it worked quite well, especially after the resort and centre was badged by the Australis group. But within a handful of years it had become Noosa’s biggest white elephant. Nothing seemed to work, despite the best intentions of a string of lessees, the most recent of them being Noosa Boardroom founder Steve Lawrence in 2018.
“The Noosa Convention Centre in Tewantin was abuzz with social activity and speculation on Thursday evening,” wrote journalist Alan Lander. “The first Tourism Noosa Networking Night [of the year] was happening – but importantly, it was happening at the reopened conference and convention centre … which received its official blessing courtesy of Noosa MP Sandy Bolton. The centre has had a chequered few years but now under the management of Noosa entrepreneur … Steve Lawrence, its future looks dazzling. Not only will it host business conventions for local and other businesses, it will star as a new venue for dinner/cabaret-style shows with live music – and further down the track a new restaurant, the Marina Bar and Grill, will open on the premises too.”
But none of this happened and the Noosa Convention Centre went back to quietly rotting by the river.
About a year ago, Keith Grisman, business entrepreneur, surf tragic and new owner of the Noosa Convention Centre, walked me through the neglected building while he talked me through his dream for it, a dream that took root when he visited one of Australia’s leading surfboard collectors. “He took me down to a climate-controlled room under the house where the most collectible surfboards you’d ever wish to see were locked away inside board bags where no one ever saw them,” Keith said. “So as wonderful as it was to see them, I left feeling a bit hollow. I decided then and there to put mine on display. Of course, no museums make money, least of all surf museums, but maybe a combination of the uses of the space can make this one work.” (A prescient call, given that this was the exact business model of the original permit for the space.)
Keith’s own surfboard collection, now one of the largest in Australia, numbering over 1000, started as a kind of therapy when the successful young property developer got wiped out in the global financial crisis. He started buying $25 beater boards at garage sales and restoring them, and as his fortunes improved, so did the quality of his purchases, which now include some of the most sought-after and historic boards in the world.
Combining his growing property portfolio with a need to find display space for his surfboards, Keith conceived the Boarding House concept, in which historic surfboard displays became the centrepiece of shared office space “hubs” in buildings in Nambour, Mooloolaba and Caloundra, targeting casual workers in the gig economy, short term contractors and long-stay tourists who needed a space to work while the family holidayed.
Says Keith: “The model was successful straight away, and it soon became obvious that none of our clients was interested in taking a lease on a conventional office. We were providing home-based or holidaying workers with a short-term solution that enabled them to mix with like-minded professionals.”
When the opportunity arose to buy the disused convention centre in Tewantin, Keith saw a chance to create the only surf museum in Australia that would not be dependent on local, state or Federal government funding. He also saw that including a small commercial component within the building would allow the free-entry museum, meeting rooms and extensive reading room to flourish as a community-based centre of research and creativity.
Within a month of my first visit, Keith had offered the Noosa World Surfing Reserve stewardship council free and unrestricted use of a meeting room and the research and reading room. A local mentoring group received the same largesse. As the museum opens up to the public, other surfing and marine environmental groups and schools will be able to use its resources.
After Noosa Council approved the museum application last Monday, Keith Grisman, who normally plays his cards close to his chest, was visibly emotional. He told Noosa Today: “I listened to the live streaming of the meeting, and I could tell that the councillors had not only listened to my dream, they had shared it. Now we can go forward on this together.”
