Wasting our liquid asset
KERRY Noyes believes the state of the Broadwater represents a missed opportunity for the Gold Coast. The waterway needs dredging to attract sailing regattas and other events
WHAT DO YOU LOVE ABOUT THE GOLD COAST?
“Everything – the community, the lifestyle that it offers is just fantastic.
“And I love the opportunity. You can just do anything – in a business sense you can come up here and start a small business, you can be successful, there’s plenty of opportunity.
“Also, the fact you can go to the Hinterland and hike, visit the Broadwater, there are plenty of beaches.
“I train every day of the week and there’s not a day you can’t get outside and do something.
“I walk across the road to the park at 5am and you can’t get anything better.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK CAN BE DONE BETTER ON THE GOLD COAST? “I’ve just been to Japan and the recycling in Japan ... the Gold Coast, and Australia, could take a leaf out of their book.
“They’re so committed to recycling and there wasn’t one scrap of rubbish anywhere.
“It didn’t matter how many people were around, everyone was responsible for themselves, took their own rubbish away and were really committed to recycling.
“We have a litter problem compared to Japan, probably not as bad as some other major cities, but we still don’t have that love of our community.
“I felt the Japanese people appreciated their surroundings and didn't want to sully it with junk. There was no graffiti.”
IN YOUR TRAVELS, WHAT HAVE YOU SEEN DONE ELSEWHERE YOU
THINK COULD WORK WELL HERE?
“Our infrastructure and public transport systems are way behind what we saw in Japan.
“I can’t wait for the light rail to be finished and I really think we need to make a concerted effort to get it down to the airport at least.
“Japan’s light rail systems, their heavy rail systems, bus transport – we didn’t do
anything except use public transport and walk in Japan, it was just amazing.
“It just shows how you can do it and do it well.”
IF MONEY, LAWS, TIME AND APPROVALS WERE NO ISSUE, WHAT IS ONE BIG PROJECT YOU’D UNDERTAKE TOMORROW?
“I really think our Broadwater is our big drawcard and we really need to do something about it, we need to get it back to what it was 40 or 50 years ago when it was actually a waterway that you could use.
“It needs dredging and lots of attention.
“We could do so much on the Broadwater and attract so many more people if it was just a usable space.
“There’s been major improvement in Southport, along the foreshore is just beautiful now, but we really need to look at the waterways because they’re just wasting away and silting up.
“There’s massive opportunity, not just for yachting but for all watersports in the area, rowing, canoeing, parasailing – there are so many events you could hold on the Broadwater that we can’t do at the moment because there’s not enough usable space and depth.
“In between the Waterways Drive, Marina Mirage area and the Southport pool is a priority and also the deep hole at Runaway Bay, it’s no longer deep.
“To the east of the Runaway Bay foreshore between Stradbroke Island, there’s this big lake of water basically which used to be a really deep hole, now it’s extremely silted up.
“You could have sailing regattas. We can’t have the number of vessels like we used to and we can’t have vessels that have a deep depth and draw a lot of water.
“Also Southport Bar. Last week, we finished a yacht race here, we had Wild Oats and Black Jack, the first and second boats to finish the Sydney to Gold Coast race.
“It’s the major bluewater event for winter in Australia.
“Those two vessels finished and, rather than being able to come into the Broadwater and celebrate their win, they had to go to Brisbane because they just couldn’t get in.
WHAT CONVERSATIONS SHOULD GOLD COAST MOVERS AND SHAKERS BE HAVING?
“We need to get behind the Gold Coast light rail, make sure it at least travels down to Gold Coast Airport, and have a look at our other transport infrastructure.
“If there’s an accident on the Gold Coast, you can’t move.”