Mooloolaba beachside caravan park loses Queensland Heritage Council battle

Despite a $90 million-dollar state government tourism promotion asking Queenslanders to take visitors to local tourist attractions, the Queensland Heritage Council unanimously rejected a bid to protect one of the Sunshine Coast's most iconic beachside holiday spots.

That will mean bulldozers will demolish the Sunshine Coast Council-run Mooloolaba Beach Caravan Park by July 2017, allowing a new landscaped ocean walkway to be built.

The QHC unanimously rejected a bid by locals and campers to have the 51-year-old caravan park added to Queensland Heritage Register, like a number of other beachside caravan parks, last week, Queensland Heritage Council chairman Professor Peter Coaldrake said.

Professor Coaldrake said 10 of the 11 Queensland's Heritage councillors discussed the nomination on Tuesday, November 22.

Mooloolaba Beach Caravan Park in the 1970s. Credit: Mooloolaba

"And they unanimously decided the place did not satisfy any of the criteria for state heritage significance as specified in the Queensland Heritage Act 1992," Professor Coaldrake said on Tuesday in a statement.

The Mooloolaba Beach Caravan Park, a few hundred metres north of the Mooloolaba Surf Club, is regarded as a battler's beachside paradise, where families return year after year to pay $400 a week for one of Queensland's best beachside views.

The Australia-wide popularity of the park, home to just 34 caravan sites, was largely due to word of mouth recommendations.

In September last year, the Sunshine Coast Council unveiled plans to axe the public caravan park and build instead a landscaped coastal walkway, a reasonably popular decision.

A group of campers unsuccessfully attempted to have the park heritage-listed in September 2015.Credit: Tony Moore

The landscaped walkway includes gardens, a playground and rock pools and would run through the narrow Mooloolaba caravan park site and around Alexandra Headlands.

Some campers took their plan to save the beachside caravan park to the QHC, which had already added three Sunshine Coast beachside caravan parks to the heritage register, in January.

Mooloolaba Beach Caravan Park, circa 1950.Credit: File photo

In 2009, then-QHC president David Eades said beachside caravan parks should be protected because they were "quintessential Queensland experience."

"These three caravan parks not only demonstrate the evolution of tourist accommodation but remain true examples of waterfront caravan parks that blend nature with accessible, affordable amenities," he said in 2009.

However, last Tuesday, the QHC rejected the bid, led by Jon Erbacher, to have Mooloolaba's caravan park heritage-listed.

Mr Erbacher's team gave an oral presentation to the QHC last Tuesday, but could not win a majority from the 11 heritage councillors at the final meeting of the year.

"We're disappointed at the decision, but at the end of the day, that is the way the chips fell," he said.

"It was a difficult decision for the Queensland Heritage Council and we understand that."

Sunshine Coast councillors voted seven to four against supporting the heritage bid before Christmas last year.

"I guess that means the bulldozers will be moving in after July," Mr Erbacher said.