By Margaret Maccoll
For many years Pat and Ben Johns have provided campsites at Johns Landing for people wanting affordable holidays and those with nowhere else to go.
Last month Noosa Council announced they were negotiating to buy the property for environmental habitat that could later become recreational land.
When council approached the couple to buy the 49-hectare property which borders Noosa River, Ben said it gave him “an option he didn’t know (he) had.”
“The council initiated the idea. They wanted to buy the place. I didn’t know what I was going to do,” he said.
Son Ian said the family could no longer maintain the campsite, which last week had 20-30 sites rented with mostly long-term residents and numbers in the hundreds during holiday periods.
“We can’t keep going the way it is,” Ian said. “We have to let it go. Easter and Christmas are good times. If it was like that all the time it’d be good.”
Pat and Ben want to retire but don’t really want to leave the quiet and picturesque property or the friends they have made there.
No-one will miss the property more than Ben, who has called it home his entire life.
“Age is the problem,” Ben said. “Time gets away.”
The Johnses would retain about a hectare of land and Ben thinks it a good idea that council creates a recreation area “for people to have access to the river”.
None of the long-term residents Noosa Today spoke to this week want to leave and most have no place to go, but all understood the Johnses’ situation and had nothing but praise for them.
Emma McCrone has lived at the Johns Landing campsite on and off for the past 12 months.
“If it wasn’t for Ben and Pat letting us stay, we’d be homeless,” she said.
“We do understand they want to retire. We’re grateful for being here. Everyone is pretty sad it’s going to go.”
She has put her name down for social housing and hopes something turns up, but doesn’t expect it be in the expensive Noosa area.
