The Story of Noosa Bush Beach and Creek Care

A bit of background info.

Noosa Spit was filled in 1978 as part of a major river alignment with rock walls and fill. Before that it really ended at a Caravan Park at the end of Hastings St.

Different community groups, Noosa Parks Association was one,Residents and Ratepayers were another, were each given responsibility for a specificarea. NPA area is between access tracks on the LH side pf Claude Batten Drive. There is still an area called ‘Noosa Parks’ park. They had a core group of 20 or so, called Greening Noosa, and they did a great job, except for some of the plant choices which have now become weedy.

It was a massive, massive undertaking.They planted their allocated area, running watering systems and maintaining it for years. They did it, in part because “Club Med” were jockeying for approval to build a resort on the spit.  Council used to bring a truck with all their gear one Sunday a month. As the plants grew over the years, many of their group dropped-off, many others drifted off.

Council started a Bushland Care program in 2003 and our bushcare group, originally called Sunshine Beach Bushland Care started in 2004 with 8 local dog walkers, one Sunday monthly.

Greening Noosa volunteers decided that several times a year, for variety and to help other groups. They came to us on a couple of occasions with active and very knowledgeable volunteers who taught us a great deal about native plants.  GN provided morning tea and a BBQ lunch. We loved it.

About that time 2008, I learnt about new Federal Environmental grants and met with Tony/NICA who agreed to be an Auspice Partner, to enable us to apply.  Somewhere in there, we came under the Sunshine Coast Council umbrella and then helped train their Council field officers.

They asked us to become‘ independent’ as they didn’t have funds for enough field officers for new groups. So, we did.  We worked solely on the dunes till 2011 when we added Seaview Creek to our project sites.

Seaview Creek is special – a peat creek and wildlife corridor linking the National Park with the Sunshine Beach Foreshore Reserve. In effect it connects the headland section of Noosa National Park with the Coolum section.  It has 4 endangered frog species, endangered fish and shrimp, eels.  There are 4-9 springs, depending on the season. Water percolates down through the peat in a large perched lake in the park (usually surface dry),to keep the creek running even in the driest of seasons. It has 4 distinct vegetation types. Over three years, we had 3 grants which paid for materials and Landcare contractors to assist us.

Because of the springs, Seaview Creek has the only permanent freshwater for 7 km (except Burgess Creek).  It was a massive and major rehabilitation. We began working weekly to remove,quite literally, tons and tons of weeds.

As you walk down the boardwalk now, from Dolphin Bay Drive to Surfside Court and then down BA 27 to the beach the majority of the thousands of plants you see, we planted and watered with a submersible pump from the creek. Locals assisted by watering for many months over summer, with buckets we left near the showers.

Next. In  2013, two of our volunteers discovered that the Doggy Beach triangular area on the LH side or Claude Batten Drive Noosa Spit, was covered in weeds, including the dreaded Gloriosa Lily with flowers and pods hanging like chandeliers from dead trees.  We got a grant so we could pay contractors to cut down the dead trees and woody weed trees, before we began weeding in earnest. We still work there.

Morning tea at Alexandria Bay

Cutting Bana grass at Cooloosa

Eenie Creek

We started a native plant nursery, because at the beginning of our activities, Community Nurseries didn’t exist or have what we needed, so we have propagated thousands of plants.  Apart from some large eucalyptus, the rest of the vegetation there, we planted and watered.

As well, we have kept working on 1 km of high dunes, needing more grants, thousands more plants. We ran PVC pipe all over the dunes with connectors to hand water.

In 2013, we began to rehabilitate the 1km Road Reserve and the National Park perimeter at Sunshine Beach.  NICA volunteers and hundreds of school children assisted us.

Noosa then de-amalgamated and the wheels fell off the Council environment dept…many good people didn’t come back.  But we kept on keeping on. There was another section of the Doggy Beach area which used to fill with water on high tides and we had planned to plant it with site specific plants and, as well provide shade along the beach for children and dogs, but a cyclone came and Council decided to get reports. You know what happened… more reports!  There is a conference in that story.

Anyway, we learnt that Greening Noosa were struggling for numbers, and, as they’d helped us years before, we returned the favour.

Next, Sonia MacDonald, one of the authors of NICA’s books, coordinated a group to weed the tracks in the National Park out from the info hut.  She only had 4 others helping her at the time, so some of us joined her once a month. Noosa Parks now refer to that group, run by our own Amanda. It is a very worthwhile and enjoyable project area – Info Hut to Dolphin Point.

Apart from auspicing us, we didn’t have much to do with NICA.  While we were amalgamated, NICA received enough funds to pay a part time Project Officer – she and another from Landcare wrote a grant called “Fall of Singapore” which was to remove Singapore Daisy from 4 areas. 1km long Girraween Wildlife Refuge on Cooyar St; entire Sunshine Creek – the boundary between Sunshine and Sunrise Beaches; an area along Eenie Creek behind the Industrial Buildings on Renee St; area between Beach Accesses 33-32 in-front of the Sunshine Beach Surf Club.

NICA got the grant- $100, 000 over 3 years and I was invited to a meeting with NICA and Landcare because (I had no idea about it) Sunshine Beach Bushland Care had been named as a partner to assist with the Surf Club area. They sent me a copy of the application to read ahead of the meeting… and I was horrified. The proposed area would have been impossible to do in the time for the dollars.

I offered to rework the activities, to hopefully make them doable and run the project, provided that the NICA Project Officer ran the Community Working bees. Sadly, she didn’t follow through. Another problem was that NICA’s volunteers were very limited for major undertakings like this project.  So! Sunshine Beach Bushland Care volunteers became the NICA ‘crew’ throughout the entire project.  Weeding, planting, watering, maintaining for 3 years.

‘Fall of Singapore’ at Cooyar Street

‘Fall of Singapore’ morning tea

Weeding at Cooloosa

To add to NICA’s project funds, I wrote another grant for $20,000 for Sunshine Creek, another then one from the Biosphere for $10,000.  One more for tools from SEQ Catchment.

Justin and I did the maintenance on Cooyar St on our weekends, until a NICA member took over.  When he moved to Brisbane Bruce stepped in and became the excellent “incharger” of NICA’s bushcare group, called Girraween Bushcare, and he still is. I wrote another 3 grants, so the Girraween group could keep working around the 75 ha. It has been and continues to be a highly successful project.

In 2019, National Parks were doing a ‘controlled’ burn in Girraween, which frighteningly, became a wild fire and burnt the entire corner near the roundabout so severely that everything died. The remainder of the perimeter was burnt too.  NBBCC (changed our name from SBBC) and the Girraween volunteers worked together, again, to replant and water, and have continued to do so. There have been thousands of plants put in the ground.

On big projects, NBBCC, Girraween Bushcare and NICA volunteers work together, supporting each other. It is important to keep separate identities, especially for grants.

Between 2008 and March 2026, NBBCC has, with NICA as Auspice partner, had 22 grants to the value of $575,800 and successfully completed all variety of projects in budget and on time.  At the same time our volunteers worked on 22 project areas, for 32,000 hours, with a value to Noosa of $1,440,000.

By Jill Campbell – Coordinator NBBCC

If you are interested in being part of the team, now and again or as a regular, join us and give it a go. 

Its good physically, blows the cobwebs away, morning teas are good and there are plenty of laughs.

Email: admin@noosariver.com.au