Rag Review

BY THE RUSTY FORK

I DECIDED to take Mrs Fork for a Sunday lunch at Copperhead Brewery. This place is very popular, but luckily I called ahead to make a booking.

Copperhead prides itself on being a small batch bespoke brewery. They have seven regular batch beers on tap and an additional seven experimental beers which change with the seasons. If you can’t decide on which ale to have, they offer a tasting paddle of five beers.

My mouth was watering at the prospect of which one I might choose, but Mrs Fork is also very fond of their margaritas (she’s had a few in her time and reckons Copperhead’s is the best she’s tasted) and she promptly decided she was going to have a few with her lunch! Being the ultimate gentleman, I soon realised I must have been the designated driver and opted for a Virgin Mary, which was very tasty.

I started my lunch with an entrée of prawn and crab cannelloni with a saffron lemon butter sauce. A perfectly portioned size with generous filling of seafood and a silky, tangy sauce. Delicious.

Not one to go past a parmy, I decided to stick with a winner and ordered the chicken parmigiana for my main. This was served with chips and a salad. This is no ordinary pub parmy – a free range chicken breast with smoked ham, napoli sauce and mozzarella – a real pleaser. Chips were crispy and the salad was fresh.

Mrs Fork chose the confit duck with cumquat jelly, potato galette and grilled witlof. On the smaller size, but perfectly cooked and beautifully seasoned. She seemed to like it. She washed it down with another margarita.

We were tempted to have one of the delicious desserts on offer. They include French vanilla slice, chocolate tart and a very indulgent sounding chocolate croissant bread and butter pudding. Instead, I enjoyed a well brewed coffee and Mrs Fork ordered another margarita!

The space itself has a great vibe. Exposed bricks and timber beams are the perfect backdrop to show off the stainless steel beer making equipment. Diners are seated at timber tables with coloured glasses and earthy crockery. Staff are friendly and knowledgeable.

Drive past Copperhead any day of the week and it will be filled with people. And rightly so. It may be a little bit more pricey than your average pub, but there’s nothing average about this place. Next time I’ll make sure Mrs Fork is the designated driver!

Covid Clinics

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Short term accommodation is not the enemy

WE need to stop blaming and punishing mum and dad investors with mortgages, families and life plans, who are providing short term visitor accommodation. They are not the enemy nor the reason we have a housing crisis. The issues to do with Short Term Accommodation (STA) are about their management and control. These issues have always been there and are present in every tourist town. Party houses are the issue, not STAs.

There is no question that some holiday homes have a significant impact on the residential amenity, particularly the party houses, homes that accommodate large numbers of guests, those homes remotely managed and those poorly managed, without a local person responsible for the action of guests or managing the property. These types of STAs are destroying the culture and character of our neighbourhoods and community. And they must be stopped. By responsible management, limiting numbers of people in each home, enforcing noise restrictions, three strikes and you’re out. A mandatory code of conduct with teeth.

Blaming STAs for depletion in housing supply as the only reason must stop and limiting the number of STAs will not solve the housing crisis. All it will do is risk severely damaging the tourist accommodation/ tourism sector that is our primary employer, and risk taking away employment from the very people we are trying to help.

We need to be honest with ourselves as a community and work together to achieve long term solutions that don’t pit one sector of our community against another. And that means accepting the truth that properties in a tourist town are never going to be affordable.

Limiting the number of STAs will not solve the housing crisis because the crisis is about different kinds of accommodation. It’s about affordable housing and social housing, and this is not a Noosa problem. It is an Australia wide problem and it is not within Council’s remit to come up with a solution.

We must work together and demand that the government responsible for the issue steps up and works with housing providers committed to providing affordable safe and appropriate homes to community.

Council must look at planning options to facilitate ancillary dwelling units in appropriate locations, approving boarding houses/ micro apartments, granny flats for unrelated parties and open up more land for pilot lower cost housing projects and duplexes.

Since Covid, Noosa has had a large migration of people all wanting to live here. Record low interest rates, government stimulus and the pandemic-driven migration has resulted in rising prices and an unprecedented demand on housing availability.

Last week Council resolved to work on data and empirical research to inform policy changes.

The work has not been done (imo) to substantiate any changes in policy relating to short term accommodation, including the economic impact that changes in relation to short term housing will have on the tourism industry, tourism economy and local employment.

As stakeholders the community are entitled to ask for proper analysis that includes an economic impact study. It would be negligent (imo) to allow changes to occur to visitor accommodation (STAs) without proper consideration of the proposed changes. The economic consequences to the tourism economy of Noosa needs to be considered and made public as tourist accommodation is vital to the Noosa economy.

The reality is that visitors spend more than locals, and a bed night keeps a whole range of people within the community employed- chefs, waiters, cleaners, photographers, wedding celebrants, plumbers, electricians, handymen to name a few.

This is a complex problem, and there is no silver bullet and limiting STAs is NOT the answer.

Balance is required both economic and social balance. This is a tourist town and it is a resident town. And the two are intrinsically linked and we cannot underestimate how important tourism is to the sustainability of our town’s economy.

Limiting STAs would (imo) change the character and appeal of Noosa as a tourist destination and impact Noosa’s economy, jobs, visitor numbers, visitor spend and investor interest.

Major organisations likely to be impacted, including large employers like the Noosa Surf Club, industry participants such as all of the major real estate agents, restaurant owners and retailers. All have made significant investments on the basis of a previously held confidence that this Council supports an ongoing and viable tourism industry.

Let’s do the work, get the data and proper analysis. And let’s better understand what alternative approaches have been researched, presented and deliberated to deal with the real issue of housing affordability.

Let’s get that process right by correct terms of reference and by appointing the right independent consultant.

And let’s STOP blaming STAs for our housing crisis, otherwise we will end up throwing the baby out with the bath water. *This is an opinion piece that expresses my personal view only and not that of Noosa Council