2016-01-11 General Committee Agenda

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ATTACHMENT 1

Noosa River
Community Jury
Final Report
December 2015

The randomly selected Noosa River Community Jury was charged with providing recommendations on the following
topic:

    e   How can we manage the Noosa River better?
    e   What role should Council play and what resources should Council apply?

Issues within the Jury’s scope were:

    e   Anchoring, mooring and living on board watercraft in the Noosa River.
    e   Commercial use of the river and commercial Jetty Leases occupying the Noosaville foreshore.

Issues outside the Jury’s scope were:

    e   Commercial and recreational fishing (this is a separate issue with the State Government currently running a
        State-wide review process).
    e   Riverbank erosion.
    e   Riverbank restoration.

The 24-member Jury met five times from August-December 2015, and at their final meeting reached the following
conclusion and recommendations.

The Jury considered the proposition that Council should take over the authority and finances from the State
Government for managing the moorings, anchoring, living on board and commercial use of the river on that basis
that it would be a user pays system funded through alternative means to rates.

The Jury did not reach a consensus on this proposition, with 18 members in support the proposition and six
members not in support of the proposition.

Those who supported the proposition viewed that:

    e   The State Government had been unable to do a good job managing the River.

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