The never-ending story of Noosa’s traffic woes

This is the story of how since 2000 Noosa Council has been paying for free holiday buses and then – after extensive work, expense, public consultation and approval of a comprehensive strategy to address traffic, parking and transport issues – the Council continues to mainly offer free buses.

After the 2016 Noosa Council elections at which Tony Wellington replaced Noel Playford as mayor, it was with great enthusiasm that I joined a project control group overseeing the development of the 10-year ‘Noosa Transport Strategy 2017-2027’. There was a lot on the group’s agenda: alleviating traffic congestion; tackling parking issues; augmenting and connecting bike pathways; improving public transport to hinterland townships; and preparing for exponential population growth on the Sunshine Coast.

The goal was to plan and execute projects that would make Noosa an easier, safer and more pleasant place to get around with less dependency on cars.

The agenda was too big and complex to attack piecemeal, so I advocated a holistic, integrated, long-term strategy, not ad hoc projects. But, while there seemed to be agreement that was required, it got no traction. And my suggestion to build barely discernible multi-level underground car parks to replace hectares of tarmac was rejected, although to me it was environmentally superior.

During councillor workshops behind closed doors, then mayor Wellington periodically reiterated former mayor Playford’s homily that traffic congestion had the positive effect of discouraging visitors. So it was not a big surprise to me that, when the final version of the strategy was unfurled and agreed by the Council, it was conditioned with words like ‘investigate’, ‘study’ and ‘consider’ which seemed purpose-designed to cast a shadow over implementation.

The recommendations included big ticket items like Park-and-Ride hubs on main arterial roads serviced by frequent buses, ‘Noosa-style’ shuttle buses to link parking hubs to tourist spots, time limited car parking, paid parking, priority lanes for buses / cycles / scooters, as well as re-activating a previous ‘Walk & Ride to School’ program.

There was much else and public consultation also brought forward suggestions worthy of attention. The list included linked off-road bike and scooter pathways, electric charging stations, designated car free streets, public use of existing community buses, a bike hire scheme, end of trip facilities (showers, lockers etc), a public river ferry service, and alternative access roads to Noosa Woods and Little Cove.

These latter suggestions were in the final strategy albeit noted as “to be reviewed over the next few years”, presumably an attempt to soothe those proponents whose suggestions would be ignored.

It was at about this time that a Council officer showed me a 1997 transport strategy that identified the same issues and advanced similar proposals as those we were recommending 20 years on. It seemed that major lasting initiatives rarely got off the ground.

Then in came the consultants to conduct a review for a fee of $500,000 after which it was well and truly decision time and Councillors kicked around every idea and every opinion and reservation and eventually approved a much diminished ‘traffic strategy’ badged ‘Go Noosa’, comprising the usual free holiday buses with existing parking spaces (from then called ‘park and ride’), traffic controllers, a loop bus route via Weyba Drive and Noosa Parade, and ancillary signs and apps.

It was the usual staple – free buses with some bells and whistles. The focus was mainly on addressing peak period traffic congestion around Hastings Street.

This completely sidestepped more permanent solutions, the needs of the hinterland, and the impact of long term population growth down the coast. There was nothing visionary, substantive or long-lasting in spite of the strategy we had spent nearly two years putting together. When the time came to transition from plan to action, aspiration was crushed. Noosa Council had again demonstrated its reluctance to address important issues in good faith.

Former mayor Playford’s 6-month electric bus trial – approved at a cost of $500,000 to lease overseas custom manufactured buses – also bit the dust twice, in 2015 and again in 2017. It was as if electric buses were a Noosa invention, so had to be built from scratch and imported.

In 2019, with an eye to a potential grant in the run-up to a federal election, then mayor Wellington had staff prepare an ‘e-Noosa’ proposal comprising electric buses, electric bikes, charging stations, park and ride stations, transit hubs, duplication of the Garth Prowd Bridge, Noosa Parade transit lanes, and paid parking technology. The grant never eventuated.

At the same time, much to my surprise, councillors were informed that the council was advocating against proposed additional two lanes for the heavily trafficked Sunshine Coast motorway reaching all the way to Noosa Shire. At a Sunshine Coast Business Council conference, Cr Wellington made a presentation boasting that Noosa was not party to a number of State road infrastructure improvements, thereby precluding ease of visitor access to Noosa and maintaining its ‘different by nature’ style.

In October 2019, in response to expressions of community dissatisfaction about transport and traffic issues, I moved that the Council investigate options for constructing park and ride facilities on key transport corridors (as had a been recommended in both the Transport Strategy and the e-Noosa proposal). The other councillors spoke vehemently as a bloc against this and asked a staff member leading questions which were dutifully responded to with prepared answers.

So after a full term of Council, and so much preparatory work, elections came around in 2020 with little being done beyond the existing free holiday buses. Traffic, parking and transport problems continued to impact residents and visitors and there were people who liked it that way.

Against this history, it’s encouraging to see Mayor Clare Stewart collaborating with the South East Queensland Council of Mayors (a group Playford and Wellington refused to be part of) to build road and transport projects in time for the 2032 Olympics.

Meanwhile, the free buses continue. Recently the Council approved $588,000 for free Christmas and Easter buses and traffic management, and a further $286,000 for an 18-month trial of free weekend buses.

In February, Noosa Today quoted Cr Brian Stockwell (one of three re-elected councillors who had approved the 2017 transport strategy) on whether more should be done to find a solution to traffic issues. “Have we become complacent?” he asked. “Have we stopped pushing hard enough to get a solution?” They appeared to be rhetorical questions, to which the main answer seems to be ‘free buses’.

And residents took to social media to express their frustration. “Is it just me but we are now out of tourist season and we seem to have all day traffic jams in Tewantin and Noosa?” one asked. “I want to go back in time and fire all previous councils for getting us here.”