Further concerns regarding prosed development - Phil Dauphin 28.02.2023

4. Evacuation routes

a) Evacuation route – Eastern district

Links Drive and Resort Drive are the only access/egress routes for the eastern district and will be
subject to enormous pressure from vehicles and people trying to evacuate from the area in an
emergency. The volume of traffic will add considerably to the risks likely to be experienced by those
evacuating. The Links Drive/ Resort Drive/ Oasis Drive roundabout is likely to be a serious bottleneck
for evacuating vehicles.
The use of Links Drive as an evacuation route from the eastern district of Noosa Springs was the
subject of discussions with Council and the Emergency Services in 2019 which did not result in clarity
about the use of Links Drive. However, it is noted that in 2020 and in 2022 the Council cleared the fuel
load for approximately 15m from the eastern side of Links Drive. Whether this is to improve access
under emergency conditions for the Emergency Services, or to enable evacuation of residents and
users from the area has never been made clear to the residents who would be directly affected by any
decisions regarding the emergency use of Links Drive.

b) Evacuation route – Western district

Noosa Springs Drive is the only entry/exit road for the western district (5 Noosa Springs precincts and
the Elysium community). A worst-case scenario will occur when the western district is required to
evacuate at the same time as the eastern district. This will create another bottleneck at the
roundabout by the bridge over Eenie Creek Road where vehicles evacuating along Noosa Springs Drive
will meet those evacuating along Links Drive.

It should be noted that the potential number of residents’ vehicles evacuating will be increased by
non-resident vehicles evacuating from the western district (Noosa Springs and Elysium). The memo
from the Noosa Springs Community Body Corporate (Attachment B), issued in April 2022, provides
relevant information about the volume of non-resident traffic, and is summarised below.

• Over 81,000 vehicles were recorded on the Gatehouse Entry Tracking System as entering the
western district of Noosa Springs in the year to April 2022. This system records all non-resident
vehicles e.g. guests, tradesmen, and deliveries). Resident vehicles are not recorded as the residents are
all issued with remotes (now number plate recognition) to open the entry gates.
• Therefore, there were over 162,000 non-resident vehicles arriving and leaving using Noosa Springs
Drive, at least to the point of the roundabout with Links Drive. This equates to an average of
approximately 450 vehicle movements per day, in addition to any residents’ vehicles from the five
Noosa Springs precincts and all the vehicles from Elysium.
• The 162,000 vehicle movements relate only to the 5 Noosa Springs precincts and do not include
Elysium traffic whose residents, visitors, tradies etc. also use this stretch of road on every journey.
Residents in Elysium are predominantly of a non-retiree demographic doing the work commute, school
runs etc. daily.
• Importantly, the above vehicle movement numbers relate to the 12-month period where
activity/traffic would have been considerably lower than normal due to COVID restrictions (mandated
and self-imposed precautions) throughout.




   MCU21_0110 Proposed hotel - Noosa Springs - Bushfire_evacuation concerns              Page 11 of 31