“The time is ripe to demolish!”
A pretty little timber beach shack facing the “maddeningly inconsistent” but wildly perfect points of Noosa Heads a couple of hours drive north of Brisbane has sold at auction for almost six million dollars.
Built in 1972, and with a thousand square feet or so of living space on six thousand square feet of dirt backing straight onto the Noosa National Park Reserve, the joint at 74 Upper Hastings Street drew seven serious bidders and one hundred and fifty spectators.
“Finally, after fifty years of multi-generational family celebrations,” the promo-lit went, “the modest little green and cream cottage with frangipanis out the front, and a rear garden melding with the Noosa National Park reserve, the time is ripe to demolish, develop and make the move to first class… From the street, imagine perched trophy-like amongst the trees, embracing the full width of the 686m2 land, a masterpiece of contemporary design, perhaps residence, apartments or duplex, all subject to Noosa Shire Council approval, and within high density zoning of a twelve-metre height allowance. Expect views of the Noosa River and beyond to the Coloured Sands and Mt Cooroy from the upper levels. “
Ain’t nobody gonna be happy with a modest two-bedder surrounded by grass to gambol on and shaded by Frangipani, of course, when a lavish cubist box of concrete can be built that eats up the entire hunk of land and engulfs its master in concrete and chlorinated water.
Whenever I see a beach shack on its death bed, vultures circling, it always reminds me of the famous Frank Lloyd Wright quote:
“As we live and as we are, Simplicity – with a capital “S” – is difficult to comprehend nowadays. We are no longer truly simple. We no longer live in simple terms or places. Life is a more complex struggle now. It is now valiant to be simple: a courageous thing to even want to be simple. It is a spiritual thing to comprehend what simplicity means.”
The family of ol Dr Haz Spiro, who died last June, says they’re real sad, end of an era etc, although six-mill to divvy between the kids is a balm for the soul, one imagines.