Friday, 21 April, 2023
Thinking of
SELLING? You know who to call 12600176-FC16-23
Rallying after the fire
Horror of Gallipoli landing
Lucy’s $6.3m windfall
40-page liftout Property Guide
PAGE 3
PAGE 5
PAGE 8
INSIDE
PR OP ER TY
Celebrating connections Proud Kabi Kabi and Wakka Wakka girl Alkirah Bell’s painting Connections Through Water has been selected as the official image for Noosa Library Service’s 50th birthday celebrations. Council’s Acting Libraries and Galleries Manager, Tracey King, said themes of community, connection, learning and storytelling – explored in the painting - were also central to libraries. “As we celebrate 50 years of our libraries, we’re honoured to promote local Kabi Kabi culture and pay respect to local traditional custodians of the land on which our libraries are located,” she said. Alkirah says water – a key motif in her painting – represents connection. “Water has connections. It’s connected to everything, from the ocean to our bodies with over 60% of water. The waterholes represent everything and everyone connected,” she said. “I think water connects us all together, whatever water we drink has already been drunk by someone or something else. My painting represents this through the ocean. The ocean is never the same, it’s always changing, just like us. “The dots in the middle represent us together as a community, working together.” Alkirah says she is lucky to have been taught her culture from a young age, passed down by her ancestors, including her great-great-great grandparents Willie Crowe and Emma Dunne, who are featured in the Noosa Council documentary Place of Crows. Continued page 2
Alkirah Bell with her painting titled Connections through Water.
Nudist crackdown By Margie Maccoll
12497020-DL22-21
There’ll be no nudity on Noosa beaches say police who launched an operation last Sunday targeting Alexandria Bay, Noosa Heads National Park’s locally recognised nudist beach, to address the undressed. “It’s been an unofficial nudist beach. Now it’s officially not. We’re going to police it,“ said Noosa Senior Sergeant Anthony Cowan. Police issued infringement notices to 10 men and one woman for wilful exposure last Sunday and plan an initial blitz followed by regular policing. The infringement notice incurs a $287 fine
but the police have a range of options to maintain the law from issuing infringements to taking the matter to court. Snr Sgt Cowan said police were responding to complaints, mostly to Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, not only of nudity but of indecent acts. “We’ve had several complaints of people doing lewd acts, people masturbating in public, men approaching females and openly masturbating,“ he said. “Some of the complaints are just disgusting.“ About seven years ago police cracked down
on nudists in A-bay and it was met with strong opposition, including street protests so police expected opposition on Sunday. “People were sun baking saying they were doing nothing wrong,“ he said. “Nudity is not acceptable. It’s never been legal.“ This week Noosa Today received a letter from a local resident protesting the police action, Queensland’s draconian laws and a lack of places for naturists. The man, who doesn’t want to be named, described the scene on Sunday at A-bay as one where a handful of naturists were sunbathing peacefully when three police drove their 4WD vehicle on to the beach before “round-
ing up a number of naturists who were lying in the sand dunes and certainly not visible to the public before taking their personal details and informing them that they would be fined for indecent exposure“. “Alexandria Bay and other sections of the Noosa National Park including Granite Bay has been known by locals and tourists alike for donkey years as being frequented by sun worshipping naturists,“ he said. Snr Sgt Cowan tells a different story, saying there were certainly not trying to hide. “A lot of them were walking down the beach in full exposure,“ he said. Continued page 2