“In the time of Covid your geography shrinks and matters regarding the health and needs of your local community and environment come into sharp focus.”
Jessica Lewis is talking about the fight she and her neighbours in and around Shields Street, Tewantin have taken up to ensure public access to a special part of their world that they want to restore and preserve.
The overgrown and neglected wetlands that make up their lakeside backyard are actually a vital part of the Doonella Wetlands Nature Reserve which drains into one of the most important fish breeding grounds on the Noosa River. Somehow, while other lake and creek fronts around Noosa have been maintained and provided with walkways, the lake frontage adjacent to Shields and Werin Streets seems to have slipped through the cracks.
To add insult to injury, local residents who like to watch the sunset over the lake from vantage points above the wetlands, discovered last week that a private landowner at the end of Werin Street had blocked off access to the wetlands through the public reserve, and “trespassers” were warned off. But when community spirit is as strong as it is in this historic part of Tewantin, you should never poke the bear.
They came in their dozens, an hour or so before sunset, all with masks, some with dogs or children, to defend their right to public space, however small it might seem to the outside world. Just before dark they were joined by Councillors Amelia Lorentson and Joe Jurisevic who listened to the reasoned pleas to restore vegetation and provide access for all to this special pocket of Tewantin.
Cr Lorentson later told Noosa Today: “When a community cares, I care. I love the collaborative attitude of this residents’ group. They’re not asking for a handout, they’re asking us to help them clean up the wetlands and preserve this precious asset, just as we’ve done elsewhere in the shire.”
The Shields Street group’s documentation references the Creek Rd Foreshore Walk and Mangrove Boardwalk in Noosaville and the Lake Weyba Foreshore Walkway at Weyba Downs as examples of council’s foreshore restoration and asks them to commit resources for their area before it is too late.
Says Jessica: “What’s happening at the moment with the weeds and lack of public access around the lake directly impinges on efforts to safeguard Lake Doonella, its environs and circumference as a publicly-owned nature reserve. Left unchallenged, the integrity of this public asset will be compromised by land-grabs and the eternal loss of a beautiful space for the public to enjoy.
“In addition to the matter of setting up a community bushcare group and ensuring public access, the local community has long advocated in submissions to council for a pathway within the bush reserve extending around the lake from Cranks Creek to Doonella St.
Long-time locals within the communities of Shields, Irene and Werin Streets remember when children were able to play by the lake.
“We want everyone to continue to enjoy the same experience.”
During last year’s long lockdown, Jessica’s husband, planning consultant Jack Lewis turned foreshore restoration into a Covid project, blazing a path through the overhead weeds.
“But it’s more than a one-man job,” he says, carefully guiding this geriatric reporter along the rotting walkway to the edge of the lake.
Says Jessica: “We would like to urgently work with council to regenerate the areas above the mangrove line, which includes the magnificent Rhizophora stylosa (spotted mangrove) that flourishes around the north-western shoreline, while providing for appropriate public access along the existing sewer infrastructure, and make a scenic amenity of this area of outstanding natural beauty. We want this matter to stop being put in the too hard basket by council officers. By doing nothing, council is effectively providing public foreshore areas to private landowners, rather than the Tewantin community.”
Councillors Jurisevic and Lorentson aim to change that to ensure a win for the community and the environment – something that Noosa Shire residents and elected officials have built their reputations on.
At the time of writing, councillors were studying a proposed timeline for a shared community and council restoration program to finally erase the “missing link” in Lake Doonella’s foreshore parklands.
