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CAPTIVATING COAST The gateway to the beach

It was serendipity that brought me to the Sunshine Coast of Queensland in Australia. I could have ended up in one of the metros. Sydney or Adelaide perhaps. But fate and Google conspired, and I found an internship project here, in a place so pretty I ’m often overcome by the surreal feeling of being in a picture postcard.

The Sunshine Coast occupies a small corner of southeast Queensland about an hour-and-a-half’s drive north from Brisbane. It covers the area from Caloundra at the bottom to Noosa at the top. The four major towns are Maroochydore, Caloundra, Nambour, and Noosa. Drive inland from the coast and you enter the picturesque and artsy mountain towns of Maleny, Montville, Eumundi, and Kenilworth. Tourists usually stick to the beachside towns like Mooloolaba, Alexandra Headland (“Alex” to the locals), Coolum and Noosa Heads.

I find the names intriguing, doubtless deriving from aboriginal roots.

Sixty-five kilometres of the stunning Pacific coast by itself would be a magnet, but throw in the climate, and it becomes irresistible. It’s cool without being chilly, and the sun is out everyday. All rather idyllic, a little removed from reality.

Walking to my bus stop in the mornings, I often see young children lining up with their surfboards for the morning class, and sun-reddened 60 and 70-year-olds packing away their surfboards into their cars. A lot of people move to the Coast and accept lower paying jobs, for the lifestyle. There are jogger’s paths laid out all over the town and there are always people jogging, walking their dogs, or ‘power-walking’ alongside them.

After rugby, Australian Rules football (‘footie’), and cricket, barbecuing seems to be the country’s most popular activity. In the few weeks since I arrived, I’ve already attended one barbecue at work and one at a colleagues’ house. Every time I amble along the beach, I see families working the free-to-use barbecue grills set up at strategic points, before settling down to a fragrant dinner.

The Australia Zoo, made famous by the Crocodile Hunter – Steve Irwin — is also on the Sunshine Coast. Expensive, but worth a visit, it consists of 70 cleverly laid out acres. You can feed the kangaroos (‘roo food’ costs 50 cents), feed the elephants and if you’re lucky, carry the koalas. One of the things that I found pleasantly surprising is that nearly every restaurant has vegetarian fare. Don’t be too surprised if you find beetroot and carrot in your veggie burger. At most restaurants that don’t serve alcohol, you can “B.Y.O.” or Bring Your Own, as their signs proclaim. That includes regular water, by the way. And surprise, surprise, there are two Indian restaurants within a kilometre of each other. The University of the Sunshine Coast is Australia’s youngest public university, started just 11 years ago with a little more than 500 students on what was originally a sugarcane farm. It currently has 5,000 students, including international scholars.

My project will end in a little over a month’s time. When I’m back in Chennai, sipping filter coffee, I wonder what I’ll miss most about the Sunshine Coast. Well, there’s the Mooloolaba Wharf, with its music bands and Uncle Tony’s Kebabs. There’s the charming old gentleman (Uncle Tony perhaps. Though, on second thoughts, I’ve heard him being addressed as “Pete.”) who greets me with a friendly: “G’day mate!” as he serves up my falafel kebabs. My evenings at coffee shops reading “The Australian” newspaper.

And there’s the beach, and my long walks on it.

ANAND KRISHNASWAMY

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