When Kelly thinks about what is being done in his
name and looks in the mirror, does he still see an environmentalist
looking back at him?
(Editor’s note: Last month, the WSL
announced a billion-dollar development on 510-hectares, or
1200 acres, of “highly constrained land” near the Queensland beach
town of Coolum. The proposal includes a Surf Ranch
wrapped in a 20,000-person stadium, a six-star eco-resort,
restaurants, bars, a retail village and “an environmental education
centre based on the site’s wetlands and nearby waterways.” The
WSL’s Andrew Stark said the local surfing community was “ecstatic
and excited.” Over the course of the next week, the writer Steve
“Longtom” Shearer will investigate these claims as well as the mood
on the ground.)
I got into Coolum, proposed site of a massive Surf Ranch
development last night. It’s not foreign territory.
I lived up the road for a few years, hustling up grub stakes in
between overseas trips. I drove around looking for the old
bottle-shop I worked at. Gone. Under the bulldozer’s plough. The
town of Coolum, compared to how I remember it from twenty years
ago, has been gussied up, impeccably landscaped, with a
Stepford
Wives feel about it.
For those unfamiliar with the area it’s a sub-tropical surf
town, nestled against a series of headlands that are mostly crap
but have golden moments and miles and miles of serviceable
beachbreak in either direction.
To the south, the coastline breaks at the Maroochy River. To the
north, the beachbreaks end at the vast headland complex with
world-class pointbreaks of Noosa Heads. It has flat spells but
no-one is angsting about being a surfer. A couple of hundred days
per year of easy, warm water go-outs are on offer.
It’s prosperous.
Like most of coastal Australia it’s upgraded to Surf Cafe
living, which is an actual book
you can buy. The carpark outside my budget
accomodation, chosen for it’s proximity to the best beachbreak in
town is full of new four-wheel-drives.
Tradies and contractors are killing it. You’ll get change from
nine hundred grand for a house and land just off the beach, but not
much. One-point-nine million will get you a ten-bed ranch on
acreage with deep-water access to the river abutting the wavepool
land.
I surf that beachie at dawn, trying to get a read on the
temperature of the local surfing populace on the KSWC proposal.
Then head for a second surf down the road to a beachie filled with
punchy wedges. Enthusiasts were thin on the ground.
So, what do you think of the Kelly pool proposed for Coolum?
Salt and pepper beard, late-forties on Lost Rocket:
Shrugs shoulders. “Not much, it’s already so crowded. That’ll just
bring more people here. They won’t get their fill there.”
Early-thirties shredder on stubby four-fin: “It’s
fucken BS, we won’t get to surf it. Taxpayers subsidising the
privileged.”
Early twenties on a twinny: “Sick if we got to surf it.
But how much is it going to cost and where do they get the water
from? Already too much development around here.”
Mid-forties on a thruster: “I’m suss on it eh. Taxpayer
funded and locals will have to pay big time to play.”
By mid-morning I’d racked up a small cricket score of super fun
waves; probably the best I’d had for a month. It was crowded, few
grumbles in the carpark but the vibe in the water was sound. Free
people enjoying nature’s gifts and all that. I showered off next to
a sign: Please help us conserve water. Every drop is
precious.
I had to drive to Noosa, twenty kilometres away, to find a true
believer. On the way I drove around looking for the beach shacks I
used to live in. Gone. Like the bottle-shop, they’d been
bulldozed.
My existence here had been erased from history. In their place
were architect-designed homes, tacky mansions; the spoils of
wealth. A secret little beach track down to a reliable rip bowl
left was the only piece of archaeological evidence of previous
habitation I could find.
The two kids in the Rip Curl shop were non-plussed on the pool.
Bring crowds, too expensive etc.
The manager, former pro longboarder Dane Wilson, thought:
awesome. His take was it was as an amazing opportunity for the
local kids to step up to the elite level and an interesting posit
that the price of Mentawai travel might come down because people
might come to the pool instead and the decreased demand for Indo
might put downward pressure on prices.
Also, of course, a golden opportunity for surf retail inside the
complex.
Coolum surf shop owner Genevieve Kendall was more
ambivalent.
Her first response to the pool was “where will the water come
from?” She described the mood at the initial community
“consultation” meeting* with Andrew Stark as “frothing” but that as
time had passed the vibe had become more subdued.
How much will it cost and how often will I be able to access it
were unanswered questions.
A little strange, when they propose turning soil next year.
“I want my kids to have jobs in the area and the Sunshine coast
does need jobs,” she said. “I’m broadly for it, I think a wavepool
is a good fit for the area but there’s still a lot of unanswered
questions.”
Husband Chris was concerned about the development outpacing
infrastructure and the effect that would have on the lifestyle of
the area.
Glancing left at the site which is bordered by the road the
presence of water on the ground, despite the drought, is startling.
Fifteen hundred residential lots, commercial, retail, hotels plus
the wavepool on some of the lowest lying floodplain in south-east
Queensland. What, as they say, could go wrong?
She mentioned the traffic and how gnarly it was around the site.
I road-tested the gnarl and can confirm. Trying to enter the
roundabout where Sunshine Motorway and Coolum-Yandina road converge
was as fucking frightening as a three-am tweaker.
Drive-time from the airport is fourteen-minutes at a hundred k’s
heading due north up the Sunshine Motorway. Glancing left at the
site which is bordered by the road the presence of water on the
ground, despite the drought, is startling. Fifteen hundred
residential lots, commercial, retail, hotels plus the wavepool on
some of the lowest lying floodplain in south-east Queensland.
What, as they say, could go wrong?
The developer’s eye eludes me. I see trees and bush. Birds,
insects, frogs. I feel sad that surfers will be the ones behind the
bull-dozers, erasing this wildlife, this bush from history. From
what I can see though, although there is ambivalence, distrust and
even hostility to the Coolum wave pool development, that is
unlikely to stop the bulldozers.
I put boots on the ground at the site. I know this country very
well. It’s in my blood. My people come from the Queensland cane
swamps. They are Danes, Swedes, Sicilians.
Practical people.
They would understand the necessity of bulldozing the bush to
make way for jobs. But I do not. The developer’s eye eludes me. I
see trees and bush. Birds, insects, frogs. I feel sad that surfers
will be the ones behind the bull-dozers, erasing this wildlife,
this bush from history.
From what I can see though, although there is ambivalence,
distrust and even hostility to the Coolum wave pool development,
that is unlikely to stop the bulldozers.
The greenwashing on the project will be immense. Next level.
But I wonder, when Kelly thinks about what is being done in his
name and looks in the mirror, does he still see an environmentalist
looking back at him?
Next: Australia’s Chinatown?
*Described by upcoming state government election candidate Maria
Suarez as “more of a sales pitch than true consultation”.