Final-community Guide 03 04

  NOOSA
                 NATURALLY...
                                           O      ver many decades Noosa residents have
                                                  valiantly battled to protect the Shire
                                           and its natural environment. Many of those
                                           battles were won - and as a result Noosans are
                                           blessed to live in one of the last bastions of
                                           natural beauty, with skies unsmogged, traffic
                                           unclogged, river unpolluted - river actually        available and planned infrastructure.         The
                                           rated as the very best non-wilderness waterway.     Noosa Plan : Choosing Futures town planning
                                           It’s not too difficult to live, work and play in    process has introduced a highly successful
                                           the place other people yearn to visit on their      system of community governance, with the
             There may be no such
                                           holidays : millionaire lifestyle on beer income,    establishment of Community Sector Boards
             thing as a free lunch, but    or champagne income if you fancy.                   (Tourism,     Arts     &     Heritage,     Social,
                                                                                               Environment, Economic) to ensure that
    Council does have free Welcome         In March 2002 the prestigious New York
                                                                                               visions within the planning scheme can be
    Folders. To help new residents         Times travel supplement devoted two pages to
                                                                                               achieved.
                                           the place “that appreciates nature and the good
    settle in and enjoy all Noosa has
                                           life”. In May 2003 amidst much media hype           High-rise, traffic lights, parking meters - all are
    to offer, the folder is crammed        Virgin Blue boss Sir Richard Branson                big city, big stress symbols foreign to Noosa.
    with maps and information on           announced he had purchased Makepeace                Successive Councils have resisted developer
                                           Island on the upper Noosa River for a “staff        pressure to introduce high-rise and current
    local services. To obtain a copy,
                                           retreat and training centre”.                       legislation prohibits buildings over four
    telephone 5449 5200.                                                                       storeys. Parking meters are also unwelcome.
                                           Of Noosa’s 875 square kilometres, almost 35
                                                                                               We may have more than our fair share of
                                           per   cent    comprises         National   Parks,
                                                                                               roundabouts, but in compensation only two
                                           Conservation Parks, State Forests, Vacant
                                                                                               sets of traffic lights : both at school crossings
                                           Crown Land, lakes and streams. Its once
                                                                                               which traverse highways.
                                           contentious “population cap” is now warmly
                                           embraced by Shire citizens and envisages a
                                           future resident population of 56,600, based on
                                           land’s capability to support development - and




Previous page: Gondola on the Noosa

River, Fishing the Noosa River.


Opposite page: Rainbow Bea-eater; Mt

Tinbeerwah Lookout; Noosa River &

surrounds;


This page: Christmas Beetles; the source

of the Noosa River in the Great Sandy

National Park.


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