Much has been said in recent times about what is right and what is wrong with the Sunshine Coast.

I first came here in 1968 on a surfing trip to Noosa and fell in love with the place.

After that my life took a few twists and turns – working in London, Melbourne, the Northern Territory, New Zealand ... a quick look at New Guinea.

While working amongst the red sand and spinnifex of the Outback we used to joke about living so far from the ocean ... but with one of the world’s biggest beaches out the back door.

With that in mind I used to dream of one day getting back to Noosa and living on a couple of acres with a creek running through it.

That dream turned into reality almost 30 years ago and I fell in love with the Sunshine Coast.

Mum used to say she loved the Australian bush ... that whenever you had trees you were among friends.

She also said if you looked hard enough you could see the spirits of the Aborigines dancing among the trees.

One day while watching the cricket at Noosa that funny feeling ran through me.

I looked beyond the men in white, playing with bat and ball on the grassy oval, to the wallum scrub in the distance ... and for a moment I thought I saw those Aborigines from many years past dancing among the paperbarks.

This is now my home, I thought.

Further changes in my life saw a shift to Buderim, but it was just the opening of another chapter in my love affair with the Sunshine Coast.

The one thing I did realise early on was that the fact of my moving here would, in some small way, change the place. It’s the same for all of us.

Noosa has changed from my first visit, when the Reef Hotel was a new red brick building on the hill. When there was only the cafe at Noosa National Park. Hastings Street still had sand drifts over it.

The Sunshine Coast has changed. We had to drive in off the highway to get to Caloundra, drive in off the highway to get to Maroochydore, drive in off the highway from Cooroy to get to Noosa.

There was no coastal road.

You could get in through Eumundi, past the wooden sign that pointed to Noosa along a road that was little more than a goat track.

Those memories come back to me each morning I set off on a bike ride, take the dog for a walk or go down to the beach.
We complain about the traffic on the way to work ... but really.

Compared to some of the world’s larger cities, we have little to whinge about.

Admittedly, a lot more can be done in regard to public transport. The planned multi-modal carriageway linking Caloundra with Maroochydore is a start.

Yet then I think back to those early days on the Coast. There was a bus service ... but it only ran once a day.

And high schools were only found in major centres. No university. No private schools. You had to go to Brisbane for them.

Today there are buses criss-crossing the Sunshine Coast every hour or less, from Maroochydore to Caloundra, to Buderim, Nambour and Noosa.

We have come a long way since the days of the canvas chairs in the old Coolum Cinema and the Maroochydore Drive-In Theatre. We watch midnight-to-dawn marathons at multi-screen complexes.

The major supermarket chains – love them or loathe them - have stores scattered throughout the region. The choice of products is amazing.

Yet we can still enjoy fish and chips on the sand of some of the best beaches in the world, have a picnic in one of the forest parks along the Blackall Range or a coffee and croissant while reading the paper at one of the streetside cafes.

There’s the fact you can swim all year round. We can play golf at international-standard courses or play tennis under lights and watch the moths gather around the lights, listen to the cicadas in the trees.

Then there’s the friendliness of people you meet ... how good is that? You can travel the world and not see many places nicer than what we have right in our own back yard.