12:00a.m. 23rd October 2007

| By Toby Walker

Michael Gloster with Noosa North Shore in the background. Photo: Geoff Potter/n18822c

Noosa’s North Shore is a step closer to attaining World Heritage status with news that it is to be assessed for a National Heritage Listing.

The Australian Heritage Council has recommended the federal government assess about 500,000 hectares of land north of Noosa Heads.

The most northern point of the land takes in the Great Sandy Strait, east of Hervey Bay, and heads south along the coastline through the Great Sandy National Park right up to the northern banks of the Noosa River and including Lake Cootharaba.

All of the assessable land is national park, marine park or publicly owned land already declared nature refuges.

Freehold properties on the lower Noosa North Shore and the townships of Teewah, Rainbow Beach and Tin Can Bay will be excluded from the assessment, which is due for completion next August.

News of the national heritage recommendation comes just weeks after the Noosa Shire was officially recognised by UNESCO as a biosphere.

Noosa Parks Association president Michael Gloster has spent more than 20 years trying to get the land a World Heritage Listing.

He almost did in 1992 when Fraser Island became the tenth Australian site to be recognised by UNESCO, but the Great Sandy and Cooloola region didn’t make the grade due to quibbles with the land’s management. Mr Gloster said these had since been rectified.

He is confident the land will win the National Heritage Listing it needs to make a case on the international stage.

“There’s no doubt the environmental values are very significant in the area so it’ll get a tick for National Heritage Listing and that will pave the way for the World Heritage Listing,” he said.

“When UNESCO was looking at it last time there was still threats of very significant development on Noosa North Shore – the threat of a jet airport, for example.

“Those lands have been since safeguarded as nature refuges and the dangers posed by development in the area are no longer a concern.”

Tourism to the Noosa region is likely to benefit greatly in the short term, should the North Shore join Noosa National Park in the exclusive World Heritage club, but what of the long-term impact?

Could popular beach camping destinations be closed or dramatically reduced in size or could four-wheel-drives ultimately be banned from the area?

“The truthful answer is, in the long run all activities will be assessed to see if they are sustainable,” Mr Gloster said.

“It’s not closing things down tomorrow but it does raise the bar for everybody to act more carefully because it’s an area of national, and if we get World Heritage, international significance.”