The Queensland school holidays mean one thing for nearly all of those beautiful little beach side towns on the mid north coast of NSW. The invasion of Queenslanders. They arrive in their pimped 4×4’s, towing jet skis, camper-trailers, caravans, boats, trailers, fully loaded with fishing gear, camping gear, surfboards strapped down 6 high on the roof, dirt bikes and so on. Trains of them can seen heading south on the highway when the Queensland holidays kick off. They all love Queensland and say it’s the best state in the country, but come school holidays they can’t get out of there fast enough and all invade NSW.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a Aussie tradition to get away on the holidays, take the kids away, go camping, rent out a beach shack with family and friends and create life long memories. Swim, surf, fish, share a few beers around the fire, put out some crab pots, give the kids a bag of marshmallows to cook on the open fire. It’s a wonderful thing and I think all children should experience trips away like this. But it’s the lack of respect that a lot of these Queenslanders have for the locals and the fragile and beautiful environment that they visit that makes the thousands of local people that live in these little towns blood boil.
For some time now, every Queensland school holidays period becomes a complete shit show for a lot of these small coastal NSW towns. The beaches are ripped apart by 4×4’s, they get in the dunes and test out their “Hill Climbing Skills” destroying the beach grass that is keeping the dunes intact and protecting the beaches and homes from erosion. They drive through conservation zones where conservationists are doing their best to help “protected species” such as the Pied oystercatcher. They discard their rubbish on the side of the road, leave rubbish behind at their campsites, flick ciggy butts on the beach, and this isn’t even half of it, this is only the tip of the iceberg.
I have personally seen my home town get rubbished and trashed more times than I can remember, and it gets worse every year. It takes weeks for these towns to recover from the Queensland school holiday invasion. The locals walk the beaches, picking up smashed bottles and rubbish, they comb the riverbanks for bait bags, empty stubbies, disposing of shit filled nappies and handy wipes, plastic ice-cream wrappers, fishing line, broken camp chairs, it’s endless. My 80 year old mum comes home with a bag of rubbish on her morning walk for weeks after the invasion ends and the terrorists have all left, she even has a stick with a nail on the end purposely built so she doesn’t fuck her back bending over cleaning up the beach and that shit just ain’t right.
And this is just the rubbish side of things, then there are the wankers that bring their jet skis and terrorise the rivers, speed up into the upper reaches and in non allowed zones, think its cool to do laps around dolphins, spray the oyster leases with their wakes. Then there is the surfers that rock up at a local surfing spot and paddle out and think their “Gold Coast” attitude is going to fly, snake, hassle, drop-in and paddle for every wave that comes through, take photos and plaster all over social media. Well, if you get back to your car and you have slashed tyres or a big rock sitting on your seat with a pile of smashed glass you know you pissed off an angry local surfer, they won’t stand for your shit, no CCTV in the bush.
Things need to change and I think I speak for all locals of these small coastal towns on the mid north coast of NSW when I say, have some respect for the locals and the environment and do the right thing when you visit or you can fuck off back where you came from. Don’t rubbish and trash the towns that natural beauty and friendly local people is what brought you there in the first place. It’s really is that simple. Because if it keeps going the way it is the “friendly locals” will become not so friendly and you will wreck it for the people that do visit these towns and do the right thing. It’s already starting to go that way and it sucks. The locals of these small coastal villages love and cherish their towns and most are full blown environmentalist, keep trashing their towns, keep disrespecting them, keep lifting their crab pots, stealing their shit, bringing your “Gold Coast” attitude into the surf, speeding through their towns and basically being a flog and you will no longer be welcome.