Leonie Palmer Noosa

The Lazy Noosa River

“ I have long enjoyed a complex love affair with this extraordinary part of the world. When I’m in Noosa I crave to be somewhere else, and when I’m somewhere else I desperately long to be in Noosa…the smell, the taste, the beauty, the simplicity and the people lure me back. And when I do come back, it is with a sense of frantic anticipation, and Noosa never lets me down.”

Some 15 years ago, this was the introduction to my simple little book, Leonie Palmer’s Noosa Cookbook. Nothing has changed, except in 2011 I have been in less of a hurry to rush off ‘to somewhere else’. The incredible bounty of the Noosa region has kept Stef and I constantly delighted to be here, home.

Again it is the sheer physical beauty, the sounds, smells, tastes and the people of this place that so captivate and intrigue us. Life is undoubtedly less simple than it was all those years ago, but our experiences lead us to believe there is no community untouched by the march of time and circumstance!

Living on a bend in the mighty Noosa river, we feel connected to the place, looking out on a spot where a hundred and fifty years ago, felled timber logs were loaded onto barges and shipped north to sawmills in Maryborough or south to Brisbane, the emerging capital city of Queensland.

The morning rituals of life around the river mirror its natural ebb and flow. The early morning fishermen give way to the energetic exercise brigade, rowing, striding, running and cycling who begin to fade away as the heat of the sun seriously starts to kick in, replaced by more genteel walkers, happy mums or proud grandparents pushing prams, determined seniors gleeful on their motor-machines, and plenty of pampered canines busy watering the vegetation. No matter what the weather, houseboats, fishing boats, cruising restaurants and pleasure craft go about their business accompanied by the intermittent hoot hoot of the ferry boats loaded with locals and visitors plying the river along the beautiful, busy stretch from Noosa Heads to Tewantin.

This is as good as it gets…anywhere.