As a man who has worked his whole adult life in the development industry, I think I have a unique perspective on the Sunshine Coast over the past few decades. As the Sunny Coast officially celebrates 50 years of identity, it’s a good time to look back and reflect on the changes. Unfortunately, I can’t comment on the whole 50 years, because, despite the greying hair, I’m not old enough to remember anymore than 40 or so years.
I lived here as a kid in the 1970s and 1980s. I moved away to go to university, started my career, and then came back to the Sunny Coast. I’m now raising my own family just a few hundred metres from my childhood home.
I was reading the other day that a typical adult in the USA lives only 30km from his or her mother. Meanwhile, in Great Britain, a staggering 47% of people have stayed or returned to the area they were brought up. I guess my life reflects those trends too.
Back in the day, we lived on Alexandra Parade. As kids, we used to surf at “Geriatrics Reef” (opposite Katoa St in Alexandra Headland) and ride our bikes to Mooloolaba on the weekends. We would go to the waterslide at Alex on Okinja Road, or the Black Hole at Currimundi. We’d save our pocket money all week to buy hotcakes from McDonald’s at Maroochydore! As teenagers, our rite of passage was forged at live music gigs at Tomo’s Pub at Mooloolaba, the Galaxy Nitespot and Chifleys Hotel at Alex. I remember Lady Di and Prince Charles at the Big Pineapple, throwing money in the moat at the Bli Bli Castle and going inside The Big Cow.
Fast forward 40 years, and despite the passage of time, many of those childhood elements are still there. We still surf at Geriatrics (not as well as we used to, but we still do it). Stewarts Hotel is gone, but the Blue Bar is one of my preferred watering holes, in virtually the same spot. We still go to Mooloolaba on the weekends, but now we walk with Molly the Spoodle, rather than riding a BMX! And while the old waterslide is gone, I drive past the elegant apartment building that now stands in its place, everyday, because it’s right next door to my office.
But have I just gravitated back to where I was raised, or is there a deeper, more hypnotic appeal tied to the beauty, the sand and the surf that is the Sunshine Coast?
I know a lot of people yearn for the Sunny Coast of old, before the tourists, the traffic and the apartments. But I love the change that has happened on the Sunshine Coast. We now have a thriving café culture, and we have restaurants that are open after 8:30 at night! We have music festivals, an airport with international flights, a national sporting team, a brand-new state-of-the-art hospital and venues with live music. Plus we still have the enviable lifestyle, the sun, the surf and outstanding weather.
Yes, there are ‘growing pains’, but as we grow and change, there are opportunities to prosper as a community. The growth brings jobs and opportunity for our youth, the tourism dollar bolsters our prosperity, and our population growth makes things like public transport, a stadium, conference facilities, a cultural centre, and 5 star hotels, increasingly viable in the future.
But despite all of this change, we are still the quintessential seaside community. We are friendly, laid-back, loyal and proud. We love to call ourselves “local” (not like those blow-ins from somewhere else – every Sunny Coaster knows that you don’t get to call yourself a local until you’ve lived here for at least 30 years). I’m a local, and proud of it. I left for a little while, but I’m back now, and I’ll probably never leave. I’m proud to celebrate 50 years of Sunshine Coast identity, and in another 50 years, I hope to still be here, surfing at Geriatrics, or maybe, just being one instead.