Friday, 19 November, 2021
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Art revives travel dreams
Celebrating business award success
NZ star to coach Spartans
48-page liftout Property Guide
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INSIDE
Community spirit awards Rising young Tewantin longboarder Lennix Currie learnt from a very early age that when you pay it forward, the good vibes come right back. He was just nine years old when he and brother Zade collected so much rubbish during a beach clean-up in Canggu, Bali that they were awarded a “beater” surfboard. Now, beach cleanups have become the “new normal” for Lennix, now 12, and his surf-mad family. He says: “It’s so important for us young ones to become well educated in caring for the environment.” Lennix, who is one of the Noosa Malibu Club’s leading junior competitors, is
a worthy nominee for the Junior Male Community Surfer Award at the inaugural Noosa World Surfing Reserve Community Surfing Awards on 27 November at the Noosa Surf Museum. “We’re drowning in nominations!” NWSR president Kirra Molnar told Noosa Today. “The entire surfing community and beyond has really gotten behind the concept of an awards system that rewards community spirit as well as surfing ability. Read more about the nominees and how to get tickets to Noosa surfing’s big night in Life Of Brine, page 47
Lennix and Zade lend a hand for a beach clean. Picture: SUPPLIED
Lennix styling in a longboard comp.
Picture: FENNA DE KING
Free buses roll By Margie Maccoll
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Free weekend buses look set to be trialled for 18 months from the end of the Christmas holidays but not all areas of the shire will have access to free trips and consultation on the initiative was limited. The free weekend bus trial was raised at Noosa Council’s General Meeting on Monday as a matter of urgency. When asked what contributed to the urgency of the initiative that has previously been discussed, a council officer told the meeting the opportunity presented itself and was prompted by a dialogue with Hastings Street Association at a meeting attended by 40 members. At the HSA meeting the lack of parking was cited as the key barrier to attracting and retaining staff and voiced as “the number one barrier to broader local engagement with the Hastings Street precinct”.
A report prepared on the free bus initiative described its benefits as being habit-changing in reducing car usage and freeing staff from the need to drive. It would reduce parking issues (particularly during peak season when Hastings Street employs 2800 people), it resonates with council’s “different by nature” vision and would break the local mindset that Noosa Heads is ‘out of bounds’ due to parking issues. It would also alleviate traffic issues during a six month upgrade of Noosa Parade, expected to begin in early 2022, the report said. The free bus proposal will include services that operate within the shire - 626, 627, 628, 629 and 632 running from Sunrise Beach through Noosa Junction and Noosa Heads to Tewantin as well as Parklands to the Junction via Noosa Civic and Noosa to Cooran via Cooroy and Pomona. It will not include Translink services to
Peregian Beach or Cooroy that extend beyond the shire or provide connections to Kin Kin and Boreen Point. The officer told the meeting Council had tried for years to negotiate with Translink to fund the Noosa portions of services travelling through Peregian Beach to Noosa Heads but had failed. He said Sunshine Coast Council had operated free buses in the past but they had not collaborated with them in this instance on the potential of combining services, though it was something they could do in the future. Cr Karen Finkel said, in terms of equity, she had to stand up for people in the hinterland who shared the same issues of employment and transport as those in Hastings Street. “Areas of our shire are missing out,” Cr Joe Jurisevic said. “Everybody pays the transport levy.”
“People in Kin Kin have been subsidising transport services for others for many years,” Cr Brian Stockwell said. Councillors voted to support the trial at a cost of $286,000 with $86,000 to cover the 2021-2022 costs to be funded by the Sustainable Transport Levy, which currently holds $978,000 in reserve, and the rest to be reviewed as part of the 2022-23 budget process. Councillors included measures in the initiative to address the inequity. These included delegating the chief executive officer to negotiate with Translink to include free bus services 630, 631 and 620 to the remainder of the shire, reviewing alternate transport solutions across the shire and engaging the community for input. A final decision will be made at Council’s Ordinary Meeting on Thursday.