It was around the time Noosa Council was coming back into its own after some five years absorbed into Sunshine Coast Council, that a bright new motto for Noosa Council 2.0 was dreamed up.

It’s a small but hugely meaningful statement, very neat and tidy for some – but what if it means different things to some residents, especially those who didn’t even know the Noosa Council that existed prior to 2008, as they didn’t live here then?

After all, it is said that about one fifth of Noosa’s population will undergo ‘churn’, ie residents leaving and being replaced with new arrivals, along with natural attrition and new births, every five years or so – and 2008 was 17 years ago.

As a Noosa News journalist back in 2018, I can recall having a conversation with a then-18-year-old Noosan about the place she’d grown up in.

What was striking, if understandable, was the apparent indifference to the beauty and uniqueness of Noosa Shire to this young resident – fair enough, for someone yet to travel and experience other places close-up for more than a holiday visit.

When I mentioned to her the outstanding urban planning that was special to me (a ‘newbie’ who had only been in Noosa for 17 years by then), that came to her as a bit of a surprise; like having only three sets of traffic lights in the entire shire, and then only at school crossings; building heights no higher than tree-top level; and (particularly for her) no outsized advertising signage in evidence, all as identified in my colleague Tony Wellington’s recent piece.

I also mentioned the significance of planning regulations that ensured the landscaping and visual amenity of our streets and suburbs was paramount, and suggested as a contrasting comparison she might take a good look at the likes of Kawana’s part-residential, part-commercial Nicklin Way next time she was down in that area.

So many visitors, holidaymakers, and others considering a new life here see a beautiful place to live – and somewhere often quite different to where they currently reside.

But are they able to describe the details of why it is beautiful? 

A few possibly can – but surely it would be hard for most to recall the exact nature and essence of these features, especially in such a short time as a holiday.

Is it enough to just say ‘we are different?’

Sadly, due to longstanding tabloid media bias, Noosa Shire is regarded negatively by many outside because they are led to believe our ‘difference’ is through being elitist, snobby and mega-rich – all completely inaccurate.

Equally sadly, some local people buy into that negativity as they regard being ‘different’ as being ‘green’, and they conflate environmental concern with being politically ‘Green’.

But in Noosa Shire, being ‘green’ is as much an economic statement as it is environmental. 

In fact, our whole tourism industry depends upon being green, because while the clumsy term ‘eco-tourism’ may have fallen from the tourism marketing lexicon, the fact of it reflects Noosa to this day.

That Noosa “must never become the Gold Coast” is much more than a NIMBY catchphrase. It is essential to our continued economic and social survival.

The Gold Coast is a very successful tourism endeavour, particularly for families, younger thrill-seekers, and certain overseas demographics. 

Unlike Noosa, it has the space and design to include large theme parks and Disney-like experiences, and sufficient matching tourism accommodation.

Even if Noosa sought to compete against the Gold Coast, for these reasons it would fail dramatically.

There’s nothing wrong with the Gold Coast; it’s just that Noosa is a different place, with its own – different – tourist attractions.

If our council is to continue subsidising the marketing of our tourism sector, perhaps there can be a greater role for Tourism Noosa to spell out some of these very specific broad historical, award-winning infrastructure and planning initiatives that have made Noosa what it is today: different.

By doing so, not only is the visitor better-informed and appreciative of this, it can be a gentle education for those already living here or considering so.

Noosa has a recent history to be proud of in creating a liveable, sustainable economy and community, and the more that sentiment is shared, surely the better our future will be.