Friday, 15 April, 2022
12545058-SN15-22
Thinking of selling? You know who to call
Oyster project on notice
An extraordinary life
A swell Easter holiday
56-page liftout Property Guide
PAGE 5
PAGES 30-31
PAGE 46
INSIDE
PR OP ER TY
It’s all fun and games The much-awaited Hinterland Adventure Playground at Cooroy opened to the community on Wednesday, ahead of the official opening and community day on Friday 6 May. The playground offers all abilities play and fully accessible amenities. The inclusive flying fox and inclusive swing play equipment provide movement and social interaction for users of all abilities and are key features of the playground. There is a changing places room with height-adjustable adult-sized change table, a constant-charging ceiling track hoist system, a centrallylocated peninsula toilet and an automatic door and privacy screen. Continued page 2
Kids give the thumbs up to the new adventure playground.
Wave of closures 12497020-DL22-21
The Pomona and District Chamber of Commerce (PDCC) will seek an explanation from Sunshine Coast Community Financial Services Ltd – until recently operators of four Bendigo Bank branches serving Noosa and the northern Sunshine Coast areas – about the sudden closure of its Pomona Bendigo Community Bank. Bendigo Bank’s automatic teller machine at Pomona will be withdrawn also. The town serving a district population of 9000 people has been left without any traditional banking service since 1 April 2022. It is a case of deja vu for local residents, forced to
seek out a new bank after the last of the ‘big four’ banks, the ANZ, left town in late 2014, to be replaced by Bendigo Bank operating three days a week from premises in Station Street. “Bendigo Bank is a member of the Chamber, so I am surprised that the PDCC did not get prior warning of Bendigo’s closure decision, nor any formal request to seek more business support,” PDCC president Phil Moran said. “The bank was a vital component of business life, allowing retailers to bank takings overnight rather than keeping them locked in drawers and safes in backrooms of cafes and
shops,” Mr Moran said. However, he said his biggest concern was for ordinary bank customers who used to transact business at the Pomona branch, particularly older residents. Mr Moran described mobile phone coverage in parts of the hinterland as ‘dodgy’, saying the use of a bank app for electronic banking was less than ideal for many rural residents. “Web banking is not much use if you have an unreliable service provider and your internet keeps going down.”
“From a Chamber perspective, we fear that if people travel to places outside Pomona for their banking, they will shop in those towns and buy petrol there, further eroding a local economy that has fared fairly well during the Covid pandemic. “In managing Covid-19, the banks remained open as an essential service because they are. We were just coming out of those times and now we are hit with this. At the very least, the town and district are owed an explanation from an organisation that says it puts ‘community’ into personal banking,” Mr Moran said.