Noosa Livin'

Many words have been written about that natural jewel we know as Noosa Heads. How Noosa is a magical place, was a magical place, is ruined, loved to death, overrated, up itself, paradise lost, the latest of many beach towns to be overrun by the wealthy etc. etc.

What can I add that is new about the waves, the national park, Hastings Street,  the history and why am I even trying?

Well because I, like so many, love Noosa despite all its contradictions and petty annoyances. In some ways the place has really tested my love recently and of course when I say Noosa I don’t really mean the place itself but more what we have done to it, what we expect from it and the reality of Noosa today. I am just trying to decide whether the place, like a favourite band or writer still deserves the same level of my affection.

The good news is that in a lot of ways the place has not changed as much as many other coastal areas on the East Coast of Australia. There is development, both residential and commercial out the back of Noosa Heads but that is generally out of sight of the holiday maker or the wave chaser. The national park entrance and the manmade infrastructure that leads to it have changed a lot but there has been restraint and respect and and largely it has been a needed response to demand.  The height limit around Noosa has kept the resort construction muted and I know some of you will disagree as to the visual aspect but can you imagine if those restrictions had not been in place over the last forty odd years? I am sure we would have 15 story + towers through the Junction, Hastings Street and over to Noosaville. So yeah it’s not virgin wilderness but nor is it Burleigh Heads and it very easily could have been.

Of course these restrictions create unsatisfied demand especially as Australia has changed and grown over the last fifty years so Noosa, always expensive is now bordering on elite whether to holiday or to live. But this has not stopped people coming, to the point where at certain times of the year Noosa is basically overwhelmed.

For the older surfer the rise of surfing, the publicity and the sheer delight of the user friendly waves means that good Noosa or recently exceptional Noosa is in my eyes no longer a good experience. It is not just the size of the crowd but also the makeup of those in the water that now makes it very difficult to enjoy the waves at Noosa. The mix of short and longboards, the relatively low level of ability needed to just be out there, the mix of the frothing and the occasional and the outlook of many out there have turned pleasure into frustration or even pain. Of course if like me, you have had your fill in the past decades and can walk past it, even if it is with regret and gritted teeth this is academic. I guess for those newer on the scene it is what it is and with nothing to compare to….

The more interesting thing is the hold that Noosa can have is both wide and deep hence the sheer number of people who visit and revisit for the variety of reasons other than the surf. Let’s face it Bells Beach, great wave that it is is not a general public dream location. North Narrabeen is Sydney suburbia, South Straddie is a bunch of scrub but Noosa has something for everyone. Victorians, the wealthy of course, backpackers, triathletes and weirdly, young parents celebrating surviving the first year of parenthood seem to be the main visitors.  Recently schoolies on their annual ritual have also decided to join the party. The price to come doesn’t appear to put anyone off.  Then you add locals whose numbers are being boosted by the rapid residential development around the Sunshine Coast. Throw in the day trippers and surfers if the swell is up and the place can be nuts.

But to me only Noosa seems to bring the the natural and the commercial together in a beach setting and make it feel if not perfect then acceptable from both camps. That is actually what Noosa does better than anywhere else I can think of. Perhaps it is because we all know what it is costing us but everyone seems to be very accepting of everyone else. It is a little like Byron in that respect, the different groups of the people all bring something that helps makes the whole what it is.

Yes Noosa is the opposite of the sleepy country town by the beach. Once it was one of those but like many of them it has been swallowed by our never ending advance. And if you want that kind of beach town you better get a wriggle on and head south because time is running out. But like I said before, it could have been worse.

We still have the national park, the bush turkeys, all the birds in fact, the pandanus, the afternoon walkers in their expensive resort wear pushing prams, dining early before going back to the unit and maybe conceiving another child, backpackers in crappy vans, frothing groms with their boardies falling off them, cruisers in Maseratis and Mercedes, longboarders on Vespas and even though I do miss the old takeaway shop and the flats at the national park’s entrance now long gone and when the Reef was a busy pub and the unkempt fountain/pond beside the Tommy Bahama’s shop only  recently removed in the Netanya renovation you know what?

I am not rich but I feel rich whenever I am at Noosa and I think that is the same for everyone.

Six Songs that fit the Noosa mood

Mercedes Benz – Janis Joplin

Baby, you’re a Rich Man – The Beatles

Money Changes Everything – Cyndi Lauper

Big Yellow Taxi – Joni Mitchell

Dreamworld – Midnight Oil

Somewhere Over the Rainbow - Israel "Iz" Kamakawiwoʻole

Photo by Ghiffari Haris on Unsplash