Residents concerned over landowners encroaching on Noosa beaches

Ritzy Noosa neighbourhoods continue to claim public beach dunes as their own with an environmental group saying enough is enough after more than a year of pleading with council to do something about it.

Judy Tulloch voiced her concerns over encroachment onto the Noosa region’s beach dunes. Photo: Patrick Woods

Noosa beach dune damage fears have re-emerged more than a year after environmental groups petitioned to council for stricter laws governing encroachment.

Former Marcus Beach Bushcare Association president and current bushcare co-ordinator Judy Tulloch said the issue of landowners building infrastructure and damaging vegetation on public land on Noosa’s eastern beaches had not been resolved.

In November 2022, a petition with nearly 270 signatures over the issue of encroachment on the Marcus Beach Coastal Reserve was handed to the Noosa Council.

Ms Tulloch said she became aware of the issue when a concerned resident contacted her about a property extending their boundary so far they “basically landscaped” the reserve into a backyard.

“I was horrified,” she said.

Two community groups garnered hundreds of signatures from concerned residents in 2022 against landowners claiming beach dunes as private property. Picture: Patrick Woods.

More than a year later, Ms Tulloch said the backyard still existed and she continued to receive phone calls from residents asking why the issue had not been addressed.

Ms Tulloch claimed the reason this occurred was due to the 20-year history in the area of landowners encroaching on the land with no penalty and others followed.

She claimed Noosa Council had local laws which enabled them to prosecute landowners and called to amend the current encroachment policy.

Ms Tulloch said the reserve protected adjacent areas from big swell and landowners could “choose to become custodians of the reserve” and change their attitude to respecting property rights for private and public land.

Ms Tulloch said the council’s policy should be amended to cover all aspects of encroachment.

It should also require proof from property owners to show they were not responsible for bushland destruction adjacent to their properties, she said.

Ms Tulloch also suggested a law for property owners to build a fence if they owned a dog and a law installing restitution for historical encroachment when a property changed hands.

She will present a proposal at Noosa Parks Association Environment Centre on February 23.

Judy Tulloch will give a presentation showing the impact and importance of dune vegetation. Photo: Judy Tulloch

Encroachment on the reserve can include building infrastructure, dumping rubbish and garden waste, creating pathways to the beach, removing vegetation for beach views and implementing garden plants which can become a weed and create havoc with the bushland.

Noosa Shire Council’s environment services manager Ben Derrick said the council had endorsed an encroachments policy and encroachments operational procedures in mid-2023.

He said a priority was to improve community understanding regarding the values of council-managed bushland.

The policy focused on road reserves but due to complexities surrounding responses to encroachments, the implementation in bushland was delayed.

“We are aware the Eastern Beaches Foreshore Reserves and the critical protection it plays against the impacts of climate change,” Mr Derrick said.

“We will systematically work through this area with a program of ecological rehabilitation and encroachment recovery in a multifaceted way.”

Mr Derrick said an initial budget has been allocated and council is recruiting for a new natural areas encroachment officer to focus on bushland encroachments.