Sunshine Coast locals invited to have say on Clive Palmer-planned automotive museum

As the community prepares to have its say on a car museum at the Sunshine Coast’s Palmer Coolum Resort, see how the $100m works are unfolding and the effect on nearby residents.

Clive Palmer has ambitions to build an automotive museum filled with rare vehicles at his luxurious Palmer Coolum Resort.

A long-term Sunshine Coast resident has lamented how a Clive Palmer-owned resort will return “to its former glory” as a $100m refurbishment continues.

The mining magnate has also applied to the Sunshine Coast Council to build a car museum at the Palmer Coolum Resort in Yaroomba.

Warrack St resident Mary O’Neill has lived at her home opposite the resort for about three years.

She also helped build the former Hyatt resort.

In 2021 Mr Palmer announced a $100m refurbishment to the resort that would feature replicas of the Wonders of the World including a full-size Trevi Fountain.

Warrack St resident Mary O'Neill says she is unsure how the Palmer Coolum Resort will return to its former glory following its 2015 closure.

He bought the Yaroomba resort in 2011 and closed it in 2015 and the resort fell into disrepair.

Since January, bitumen has been laid inside the resort, paths repaved and work has continued on the villas.

Work continues at the Palmer Coolum Resort in Yaroomba.

Ms O’Neill, a long-term Sunshine Coast resident, said she attended meetings over the Hyatt plans and, at that time, her concerns were alleviated.

“You don’t see the resort from the road, it’s really lovely the way it was landscaped but it has changed dramatically over the years,” Ms O’Neill said.

“I don’t know how it’s ever going to be restored to its former glory.

“I can’t see how, with things like an application for a car museum, dinosaurs that didn’t work, things like that, it’s just completely different from the resort that we all did not object to.”

Work continues on the villas in the Palmer Coolum Resort, which is undergoing a $100m refurbishment.

“It’s not the resort that I knew.”

She said there was “no respite” from the trucks going up and down the street regularly or the dust from the trucks since the resort work started.

Watch the video from January:

Ms O’Neill said she could feel her house “shake” when the trucks went past.

“The reason I bought this place was because of it being a quiet street with a no-through road, which I never thought would have that flow of traffic,” she said.

Meanwhile, the future of Clive Palmer’s planned luxury car museum hangs in the balance, with the public asked to share their thoughts on the development.

The public notification period has opened for the mining magnate’s proposal to build an automotive museum and multi-level car park at his Palmer Coolum Resort on Warran Rd, Yaroomba.

Sunshine Coast Regional Council has been asked to consider a proposal for an automotive museum at Palmer Coolum Resort.

It’s understood that Mr Palmer is the owner of an enviable luxury car collection and that the museum would showcase some of the rarest working vintage cars from around the world, if approved.

According to documents lodged for the impact-assessable development in March, the 22-metre tall museum would have the space to display 879 cars, 363 motorcycles, while the touted unique tourist attraction could draw as many as 189,000 visitors per year.

Clive Palmer in his three wheeled 1959 BMW Isetta.

Following the unveiling of the plans, the height of the development drew criticism from community group Development Watch, citing that the proposed height is over the 12-metre height designated for the area in the Sunshine Coast Planning Scheme.

Acknowledging the opening of the public notification period until December 11, 2023, Development Watch President Lyn Sexton stated that the group would be objecting to the development application.

“We have no doubt that Clive’s collection, to a vintage car enthusiast, would be attractive and we are sure Clive loves his collection but what he is proposing is really a stand-alone tourist attraction that would be better placed perhaps at the Sunshine Coast Airport or on the Bruce Hwy with other such large stand-alone tourist attractions,” she said.

“The height and scale of the development will have an adverse impact on the existing resort and the scenic amenity of the area.”

An initial assessment of the proposal by the Sunshine Coast Council in June found that the museum did not meet several development outcomes for the Mt Coolum planning area, largely pertaining to the compatibility with “scale of existing development” and the “residential character” of the area.

“The built form presents as a large commercial building with excessively large floor plate and facade exceeding 200m in length”,” a document prepared by council read.

In July, the State Assessment and Referral Agency requested that the application be amended to include a car park to support the proposed car museum in a bid to limit the potential impact on state transport networks.

It prompted a change to the application to include a three-level car park, which is linked to the proposed museum.

A visual impact assessment submitted to the council said the proposal had a “form and appearance that mitigates visual impacts” and that it had limited visibility to neighbouring areas and would not have unacceptable impacts on the area’s character and amenity.

Clive Palmer’s media spokesman Andrew Crook was contacted for comment however did not respond by deadline.