Jay Heather speaks about Minyama waterfront jetty dispute

A Sunshine Coast man has spoken out over a dispute involving his neighbour’s jetty, revealing the moment he realised he would be settling for a jetski instead of a boat.

Minyama man Jay Heather tried to reverse the council approval of a jetty attached to his neighbour’s home and has spoken out after the owners of the jetty lost a bid to have him pay their legal fees. Photo: Elizabeth Neil

A Sunshine Coast man who tried to reverse the council approval of a jetty attached to his neighbour’s home has spoken out after the owners of the jetty lost a bid to have him pay their legal fees.

Planning and Environment Court documents state Jay Heather and his wife Elisabeth attempted to overturn the Sunshine Coast Council decision to allow a jetty and pontoon to be built at the home of their neighbours, Glynn and Karan Moseley, at Minyama.

The attempt to overturn the approval was dismissed by Judge Glen Cash in February 2022, and in 2023, the Moseley’s applied to the court for the Heather’s to pay their costs. This was dismissed.

Mr Heather said he and his wife had offered their neighbours what they thought the legal costs would be in a bid to come up with a settlement and have them adjust the length of their jetty.

Mrs Moseley rejected this claim and said the Heathers had offered less than a quarter of the disclosed legal costs contingent on the pontoon’s removal.

Jay Heather said he cannot get anything out of his boat shed other than a jetski with the neighbouring jetty as it is. Photo: Elizabeth Neil.

Mr Heather said as it stood nothing bigger than a jetski could safely manoeuvre around the jetty structure.

“I would challenge anyone to come down, stand at the end of my boat shed and go ‘that makes sense to approve (the jetty)’,” he said.

“I can’t get a boat in there.”

Court documents stated the first court proceeding was sparked by Mr Heather wanting to put a “bigger” boat in his shed.

Mr Heather said prior to the jetty being built, he had made inquiries and picked a boat he wanted to buy, but abandoned that dream upon realising he would not be able to get the vessel in and out of the boat shed safely with the jetty in the way.

It was completed before the Heathers moved in but after they signed the contract on their Mooloolah Dr property.

“I got a shock the day I saw it, I was like: ‘what the hell?’,” he said.

The two homes are separated by Oak Park in Minyama, pictured second from the left is the Moseleys’ home and pictured second from the right is the Heathers’ home. Picture: Patrick Woods.

Property records show Mr and Mrs Heather bought their home for $1.495m in June 2020.

The property is currently listed for sale by Home Sunshine Coast.

He said he and his wife have no real relationship with the Moseleys. Mrs Moseley said the same.

He called the sequence of events a “learning experience”, but said the original application to have the council’s decision overturned would not be appealed.

He said the only positive to come out of the proceedings was that he claimed the council was now reviewing its tidal works approval processes.

A Sunshine Coast Council spokesman said the council were not reviewing their process of how they approved applications to construct tidal works, such as pontoons.

“The decision of the (Planning and Environment) Court upholds the validity of Council’s current practices,” they said.

Originally published as Jay Heather speaks about Minyama waterfront jetty dispute