By Margaret Maccoll
Representatives from five community organisations have been invited to come together on Saturday 10 March to participate in a professionally-run community consultation session on the future of the Peregian Beach Surf Club.
Organised by the recently formed Peregian Family and Friends Association (PFFA) and led by a contracted consultation firm Lisa Prowse consulting the meeting is seeking agreement on a method to move toward establishing “a fully operational, family friendly surf club at Peregian Beach”.
PFFA spokeswoman Leigh McCready said Peregian Beach’s Community Association, Business Association, Community House, PFFA and Peregian Springs Residents Association had been sent invitations.
“We’re open to whatever happens,” she said. “We just want to move forward.
“Interest in re-establishing the Peregian Surf Club is very strong, we have over 1,300 members on our Facebook page and we are constantly inundated with offers of support from locals who want to see a viable club reinstated within their community.
“The vast majority of people who have personally contacted us or who have posted on our Facebook page are very keen to ensure their children can join a local nippers club to learn how to be safe in the water. Teaching the next generation the importance of contributing back to the local community by learning how to rescue others and contribute towards keeping our beaches safe is also vitally important to our local residents.”
The group also hopes to raise $10,000 through a crowdfunding campaign to fund further community consultation.
Peregian Beach Community Association president Barry Cotterell said his association would attend “with some trepidation” but wanted more stakeholders including Noosa Council and Noosa Heads SLSC invited and a later meeting time set to enable a newly formed group Peregian Beach Surf Club, composed of senior lifesavers, to attend.
“Some sectors of the community are of the view that, rather than attempting to get a fully functioning surf club up and operational again, the objective seems to have been to work with Noosa Heads SLSC to persuade the community that a costly new building on the Coastal Protection Zone for a supporters club is the only viable option. This would require significant capital funding and on-going costs, the funding of which has not been identified,” the group wrote to the consultant and posted on Facebook.
“There is much support for a PB run surf lifesaving club but the issue of a supporters club and its funding is a significant cause of conflict in the community.”
Barry said the Peregian Beach Surf Club group aimed to run the club from the existing building using an identified budget which would include about $80,000 per year the Peregian Markets injects into the surf club.
Noosa Heads SLSC president Ross Fisher said after initiating consultation last July and providing “a vision for the future” they were stepping back to enable Peregian Beach to decide the club’s future.
“To be sustainable they need to build income and members,” he said.
“The existing club has failed three times. It’s too far from the beach,” he said. “When the club was built you could see the surf. Now we have to drive across a public park. It’s right next to a kid’s playground. It’s dangerous.”
NHSLSC last year renovated the existing building’s kitchen, showers and upstairs rooms to make it “inhabitable” and more comfortable for members and they maintain running costs while being on a year to year lease.
Ross said to maintain a sustainable club you need to attract people and keep them which required a diverse range of programs and activities.
For more information on the PFFA crowdfunding campaign visit: pozible.com/project/save-our-surfie
