Friday, 14 October, 2022
Thinking of selling? You know who to call
12572204-SN41-22
Community house opens
Remembering Bali
A tap in time
36-page liftout Property Guide
PAGE 7
PAGES 14-15
PAGE 32
INSIDE
PR OP ER TY
World surf title comes home By Phil Jarratt It’s been a long time coming – 16 years in fact – but that only made the moment sweeter when Noosa’s Harrison Roach held the World Surf League Longboard trophy aloft at Malibu in California last week.
I got it! Harry brings the trophy home.
Picture: WORLD SURF LEAGUE/ BEATRIX RYDER
In one of the most exciting days of longboard competition ever seen, in near-perfect small waves at Malibu’s First Point, Harrison surfed four long heats against the world’s best, including old rival and threetimes world champion Taylor Jensen and new Hawaiian sensation Kaniela Stewart, to hit the beach victorious but exhausted, where he was chaired to the podium by longtime friend and his surfboard shaper Thomas Bexon, of Noosaville’s Thomas Surfboards. While there was a strong Noosa contingent on the sand at Malibu, there was a much bigger one glued to TV screens from the very early hours of Thursday as the Noosa-born surfer calmly and methodically produced his career-best performances to claim the title. A longboarding superstar since his teen years, Harrison seemed destined more than a decade ago to succeed 2006 ASP longboard world champion Josh Constable as Noosa’s next world surfing champ, but there were some twists and turns in the road, and at one point he actually walked away from professional competition to focus on making adventure films at remote surfing locations. Even when he returned to the competitive fold for the first event of the first season of the new-look WSL longboard tour, held at his home break just before Covid, he looked the goods but failed to deliver. And the heartbreak continued when he finished a very close second last year. At 31, he may have started to think the dream would never be realised, but no victory ever tastes as sweet as one you’ve had to wait for. Full report in Life of Brine on page 51
River pain flows By Phil Jarratt
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Peter Hunnam may have retired after a 50-year career as an ecologist and environmental scientist, but he is certainly not the retiring type, and remains passionate about conserving and sustaining the natural world. In fact, the 73-year-old Tewantin resident currently spends his spare time working to improve the ways we use and care for the Noosa River, which is the major objective of a report that he and associate Alex Western have just released. “A subtle wake-up call,” is Peter’s description, which perhaps understates his conviction
to build a brighter future for our estuary, which he regards as the vital but damaged heart of the Noosa region and Biosphere Reserve. The ecologists’ report, Wetlands In Noosa River Estuary – Assessment of Urban Land-Use Pressures, is the initial stage of the Getting Our Wetlands project, prepared with the support of Noosa Integrated Catchment Association (NICA) and OzFish Noosa. It aims to provide a fresh perspective on the special nature of Noosa River estuary and the management and conservation issues that need to be addressed. Peter explained the rationale to Noosa Today.
“The best way to conserve the Noosa River is to work out what and where the problems are and address them directly. “Our survey adds to the ample information available on what needs to be done to adequately protect and sustainably use the Noosa River. The work strongly complements the major initiatives to Keep it in Kin Kin upstream and Bring Back the Fish downstream. “All are parts of building a coherent ecobased management system to do what’s needed for the long-term health and amenity of our special river and its catchment.” Peter and Alex used existing mapping data
and ground-truthing to survey the whole estuary from Cooroibah to Weyba and across Tewantin, Noosaville, Noosa Heads and North Shore. They identified and mapped the main pressures on the estuary’s ecology from urban development and land-use in the catchment and along the shoreline and creeks. “We have mapped the main types of pressure from urban land-use, including buildings, roads, drains, jetties and other infrastructure, which can damage the ecosystem by a combination of direct habitat destruction, edge encroachments and increased inputs, and altered water flows,” Peter said. Continued page 5