Friday, 10 February, 2023
Thinking of selling? You know who to call
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Natasha’s ultra challenge
Rally for Kidney Kids
Hozier hits out
28-page liftout Property Guide
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INSIDE
PR OP ER TY
Clear paths for hatchlings By Margie Maccoll
Lindsay, Jo, Lisa, Debbie and Melissa led the clean up on Saturday.
Tiny pieces of plastic and polystyrene balls made up the bulk of rubbish collected by volunteers at Peregian Beach last Saturday, removing those threats to the survival of turtle hatchlings that are expected to make their way to the ocean this nesting season. The clean up that attracted about 40 volunteers was the first time Noosa Council had joined in the annual event, run by Sunshine Coast Council in partnership with TurtleCare Sunshine Coast, Reef Check Australia, Unitywater and SEA LIFE Sunshine Coast Aquarium. “It’s a long running and successful event – now in its ninth year - and we’re thrilled to become part of it,” Mayor Clare Stewart said. “It’s an incredibly important cause. Ensuring the beach is free of litter helps to give turtle hatchlings a clear passage as they make their way from the dunes to the water after hatching during February. Volunteers braved a hot and hazy morning to collect rubbish from across the dunes and shoreline at north Peregian Beach access 50, a known turtle nesting area. Continue page 8
Value blue space While we await an outcomes report from this summer’s Maritime Safety Queensland river management community consultation survey, which proposed a raft of changes to anchoring, mooring and speed limit regulations, Noosa Today’s A River For All will offer an ongoing forum of expert, community and reader opinion. This week PHIL JARRATT talks to Noosa Shire resident Neil Patchett, general manager (policy and advocacy) of the Boating Industry Association about his submission to the MSQ survey.
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When Kin Kin resident Neil Patchett thinks about Noosa’s natural assets, he sees them in band of green and blue. “The way I look at it is we place a really high
social value on green space,” he says. “We should do the same with blue space. We won’t stand for degradation of our green space parks and we shouldn’t stand for it in our blue space waterways either. You can’t park your van in one of Noosa’s parks and live in it, and you can’t drop your human waste there either. “If you go to a park and behave correctly you’ll leave only footprints. If you watch a well-managed boat pass responsibly along a waterway, within 40 seconds there’s no sign it was ever there.” It’s an interesting way of looking at our waterways problems, because it’s all about personal responsibility. In the green space most of us would not
dream of trashing a park or a beach, but in the blue waters a significant minority still seem to believe there are no rules and therefore no responsibility, that it’s OK to dump your waste over the side of your illegally anchored, unlit liveaboard, or to head full-throttle through a narrow channel past paddlers and swimmers. It’s a viewpoint possibly derived from an adventurous life lived around waterways and the ocean as a yachtsman, paddler, canoeist and surfer, and a professional life that has seen him morph from boating journalist to regulator to his current role at boating’s peak industry body. As general manager of the powerful Boating Industry Association, charged with creating policy across three states and a territory, you would expect Neil’s primary motivation
to be increasing the demand for boats in order to drive the industry, and in a way it is, but he takes such a holistic view of how that objective might be achieved, that many people who want to see a quieter river with fewer boats, might find themselves agreeing with many of the points he raises in his BIA submission to the Maritime Safety Queensland survey. I know I did. In fact, while I didn’t agree with everything he wrote, I regard his submission as the most well-crafted and thought-provoking of the dozen or so I’ve been able to read, offering solutions rather than just random ideas. So I invited him to come and sit by the river with me and expand on the thinking that informed his submission. Continued page 4