A Vision of Noosa 2040

The ‘Boys Club’ environmentalists and the NPA were finally run out of town by business interests back in the early 2020’s as a new libertarian, pro-development mayor put the Noosa Plan away in a bottom drawer and made decisions that favoured exceptions rather than the rule.

Under her watch the Noosa Spit became a giant three storey carpark (“people only use the edges anyway”) connected by a four lane bridge to Munna Point where a new casino now caters for the hordes of cashed up Asians arriving by bus from the Sunshine Coast airport.

Many new tourism businesses have sprung up, along with a sea of flashing neon signs and sandwich boards, and to facilitate the boom in day trippers Council reversed an earlier backward looking decision to preserve public land and brought in new laws that allowed McDonalds, Kentucky Fried and a myriad of small businesses providing wedding, food and hire services to build on riverside land at Gympie Terrace. There is now an entrance fee to enter the precinct and access the water.

Noosa National Park is a shadow of its former natural self with a paved road into the Alexandria Bay nudist beach which is popular for transgender and gay weddings; and a 5 metre wide running zone right along the coast. There is talk of making the Tanglewood Track a designated roadway, and there are concession food and coffee stands at strategic points on the coastal track.

In a ‘Big Brother’ style transparency policy all Council offices and officers are now under surveillance 24 hours a day, along with meetings of every community group. Cameras on paths and roadways check activity and feed information back to the mayor’s tourism planning group and councillors wear surveillance devices to ensure they are not talking to each other in secret.

All low density housing in the coastal sector has disappeared behind two metre high fences as the remnant population of permanent residents battles to survive amongst the plethora of mini- resort, short term accommodation businesses and the empty investment houses owned by wealthy national and international investors. Council has had to raise rates to pay for the myriad of tasks that were once undertaken by community minded volunteers because there is now no ‘community’. The tourism sector has labelled this as a ‘revenue grab’.

Successive terms of the Palazczuk Labor Government in the 2020’s saw massive coal fields established across most of north Queensland with attendant port facilities. Several massive oil spills in the Great Barrier Reef have severely affected sea water quality and the reef is mostly dead. The Federal Government has promised massive job creation from another new coal mine will overcome the loss of tourism.

In a deliberate snub for consistently voting independent, Noosa has been left out of all the new fast train and transport services in SE Qld. and there are now increasing calls for re-amalgamation with the forward thinking Sunshine Coast Council where A-frame signage is not only allowed but obligatory. The Lobb Foundation was set up in 2035 specifically to promote and fund the re-amalgamation process.

Climate Change has become a reality. Australia now imports most of its food in cans from South America and Asia; meat is a prohibited substance and dog and cat ownership is now illegal.

Behind the 2 metre walls residents grow greens, keep illegal chooks (and sometimes guinea pigs) to supplement their diets and swelter in the heat. For a short while in the late 2020’s residents were able to supplement their diets by raiding the newly established oyster reefs, but rising pollution and water temperatures have  now killed all life in the Noosa River.

In Noosa power, television coverage, mobile phone and internet availability are intermittent and there are constant cries for any tier of government to fix this, but nothing is done. The neighbouring  Sunshine Coast enjoys limitless power from its solar farms  and the fastest internet connections in Australia.

Almost all Australian insurance companies have gone into receivership and the population is now on its own facing severe storms and inundation from rising seas. Properties that were approved in the 2020’s are suing Council for the loss of their homes saying that having declared a climate emergency in 2019 Council should not have approved their buildings.

The Great Artesian Basin is now dry, as are all our inland rivers. Refugees from the parched towns and landscapes west of the Great Divide have settled in Noosa’s hinterland and inland townships and are demanding Council improve infrastructure and services (Is anything new here?).

The adventure playground at Cooroy has brought attendant problems and much of the township is now locked in traffic gridlock. Businesses are demanding a multi-storey parking lot, traffic lights, unlimited A frame signs to attract more business, and a relaxation of height restrictions on buildings to provide low cost accommodation.

The Sunrise Beach aged care facility went into receivership around 2030 and, like many others, left the Federal Government to return the deposits of residents. Bankruptcies in the aged sector across Australia have left frail aged people sleeping on the streets and the Federal budget responsible for finding billions of dollars to return deposits that were guaranteed by the government. It’s just not possible. Those dollars have gone to large overseas companies like Bupa.

Thankfully compulsory euthanasia was introduced in 2035 and Noosa has not had to find homes for those displaced. The Coast Guard is being almost entirely funded from revenue derived by spreading ashes at sea, and the success of the Weathervane crematorium has ensured its owner is one of the leading lights in Noosa’s business community.

The effects of Australia’s ageing population have finally hit home and the ripples have been felt strongly in Noosa. Baby Boomer retirees who boarded themselves up behind two metre walls in the early 2020’s, were forced to eat their way through their houses by changes in pension entitlements and have now largely disappeared from Noosa, having taken advantage of new euthanasia laws. Their properties, once the mainstay of a booming Noosa property market are now owned by the banks and have been auctioned off to overseas investors who couldn’t give a stuff about whether the koalas they cuddle are in captivity or in the wild; they’ll pay for the selfie regardless. At least the real estate agents are still smiling.

Younger generations who railed against the wealth and conservatism of the baby boomers will inherit nothing and will never have the opportunity to own a home. They cannot compete with international students for places in Australian universities. They provide low paid services to the tourists and overseas investors, and live in substandard shop-top accommodation in the decaying Noosa Junction precinct. Retail is dead.

In 2034 a still young long term councillor proved that a chameleon has all the right qualities to succeed in Noosa local government. He raised his head a little from staring at his phone and stood for Mayor. His subsequent election has seen him remain in office until today in 2040 he is one of Noosa’s most popular mayors. His current pet project is turning the disused retirement village at Sunrise into a Disney style resort, with the adjacent bushland resumed to create an artificial snowfield. The venture is being financed by a fellow councillor elected in 2020, a multi- millionaire septuagenarian who made his fortune managing the transformation of Gympie Terrace into a tourist business paradise.

I am thankful I am no longer here. Noosa can be whatever it wants to be.

About Noosa 2040

Noosa 2040 is a rolling project inviting the community to contribute future scenarios for Noosa from any viewpoint – wishful, realistic or a poetic flight of fancy. Send your vision to editor@opennoosa.org. As always contributions do not necessarily reflect the view of the editorial team.