Yandina community group thanks Nambour for saving Howard St car park

The Yandina and District Community Association (YADCA) has extended its gratitude to the Nambour community for dedicating time and effort to running an effective ‘Hands Off Our Car Park’ campaign. 

YADCA President, Marie Reeve said hinterland communities valued the irreplaceable parking infrastructure that has served local and outlying communities so well over the years.

Ms Reeve said out-of-town residents also relied heavily on the Howard St car park to access medical and business services in the area. “Yandina’s rapidly growing population finds driving is essentially the only viable option for safe, timely point-to-point access to services in Nambour,” she said. 

Ms Reeve said the lack of frequent all-access, public transport infrastructure in hinterland areas directly accelerated car-dependent growth, making the prioritisation of parking supply an essential aspect of hinterland town planning. 

 “Until the day public transport services are reviewed and upgraded to provide frequent all-access bus services, hinterland towns will continue to develop and grow as car dependent communities,” she said. 

Ms Reeve said bus frequency between Yandina and Nambour was generally 1½ hours, which created significant challenges of long wait times and safety concerns, particularly for elderly, mobility-challenged and young people. “The infrequency of the service can leave a person stranded and exposed to weather conditions or feeling unsafe,” she said.

She said reasonable access to the bus service in Yandina was dependent on where people lived, with “substantial pedestrian challenges” for residents living outside the immediate town centre who were required to walk distances greater than 800m up to 1.5km to reach a bus stop. 

Ms Reeve said as hinterland towns grew, finding unused land to meet expanding infrastructure needs was near impossible, and if public transport did not keep pace with this growth, parking needs would continue to increase. 

“This is exemplified in Yandina where residents are facing increasing parking pressure. With no central car park in the town, residents, workers and visitors rely on street parking and a parking lot on land leased from Queensland Rail. Yandina is very lucky to have railway land available for lease however this is a tenuous situation. In old established towns like Yandina, many businesses do not have their own off-street parking and are very reliant on customers being able to park within walking distance of their premises.”

Nambour Chamber of Commerce, I Am Nambour, Nambour Now, local businesses and residents united last month to protect the car park, after being given just 72 hours’ notice before a decision on the sale was due to go before council.