TL;DR: Coochiemudlo Island's ongoing ferry parking shortages are causing community tension, but fighting each other won't solve it. Instead, residents are urged to direct that energy toward Redland City Council and local representatives to demand a formal parking study, commuter permits, better transit links, and long-term infrastructure solutions.

This week, I wrote about a banana peel in my fuel tank, leading to another conversation about someone writing ‘this is not a carpark’ in lipstick on the windshield of a car in the overflow carpark.

The stories touched a nerve, and were quickly followed by yet another issue around parking for Coochiemudlians.

To put it mildly, this isn't our first rodeo—or our first endless loop looking for a park. The community has been playing parking musical chairs here for years. 

Angela wrote about it two years ago on her website ‘Life on Coochiemudlo Island’. You can read that article here. 

One island resident recently returned to her car to discover another vehicle parked behind it. She needed to get to work and couldn’t get out.

Let’s be clear. Blocking somebody’s car without their knowledge or permission is not okay. It doesn’t matter whether there’s nowhere else to park, whether you know them or whether you think they’ll catch the same ferry as you. Unless you have made an arrangement, don’t assume.

But here’s the uncomfortable bit.

The person doing the blocking probably didn’t set out that morning thinking, “How can I ruin another Coochie person’s day?”

They were most likely trying to solve exactly the same problem.

There wasn’t enough parking.

We can keep fighting over spaces that don’t exist…

When someone is blocked in, misses work or has to scramble to find the owner of another vehicle, frustration is understandable.

Very understandable.

However, if all that frustration is directed at each other, Council receives no requests, no data and no clear indication that the problem has reached breaking point.

We become a group of grumpy islanders arguing over the last car park while the underlying problem remains comfortably untouched.

What if we aimed that energy somewhere more useful?

Pick one small action

You don’t have to organise a march, write a 12-page submission or chain yourself to a bollard in the upstairs carpark.

While this conversation has been going for many, many years, for the newcomers and others wanting to revisit, here are some ideas…

Choose one thing:

• Email or phone Council and request a formal parking and transport study for the Victoria Point ferry precinct.

• Contact Division 4 Councillor Lance Hewlett and ask him to advocate for immediate and long-term solutions.

• Lodge an official customer request each time parking conditions cause a genuine access or safety problem.

• Keep a simple record of the date, time and location when the parking area is full.

• Photograph congestion where it is safe and lawful to do so, without turning individual drivers into public targets.

• Carpool with another islander one day a week where practical.

• Offer a lift through a trusted local group when you are already travelling.

• Use public transport when it genuinely works, while also telling Translink when the timetable or connections make it impractical.

• If you must park behind someone you know, ask first, exchange phone numbers and agree on departure times. No agreement means no blocking. Easy.

One email may feel insignificant. Fifty emails describing the same recurring problem are much harder to ignore.

Ask for solutions, not simply “more parking”

More spaces may be part of the answer, but they don’t have to be the whole answer.

We could ask Council and the State Government to investigate (again):

• additional commuter and overflow parking

• a resident or regular-commuter permit system

• clearly marked short-term, drop-off and pick-up zones

• better use of nearby underused land

• a satellite parking area connected by a small shuttle

• bus services better timed to meet the ferry

• secure parking for bicycles, e-bikes and mobility devices

• designated car-share spaces

• a trial community car-share vehicle (again)

• safer pedestrian access between overflow areas and the jetty

• clearer signs showing where long-term parking is permitted

• a proper occupancy count across weekdays, weekends and peak periods

And here’s the thing: these aren’t wild ideas dreamed up over a cuppa.

Brisbane City Council responded to pressure in Greenslopes by conducting a parking study using occupancy data, then consulting residents about timed parking and resident permits. The City of Sydney now has more than 800 dedicated car-share spaces, helping people access a vehicle without every household needing to own one.

Closer to home, Redland City Council added 64 bays at the Russell Island ferry terminal, along with a commuter drop-off zone, motorcycle parking, bicycle racks and safer pedestrian access. More than 500 commuter parks have also been delivered at Weinam Creek, with a multi-storey car park progressing.

Infrastructure can catch up.

But it usually needs a community to keep asking.

“What exactly do I say?”

Try this:

I am asking Redland City Council to undertake a parking and transport study for the Victoria Point ferry precinct. Demand regularly exceeds available parking, creating access problems and conflict between residents and visitors alike. Please investigate additional and overflow parking, resident permits, improved public transport connections, safe drop-off areas, car sharing and other practical options. I would appreciate a customer request number and information about how this issue will be considered in future planning and budgets.

You can contact Redland City Council on (07) 3829 8999 or lodge a request through Council’s online services.

Division 4 Councillor Lance Hewlett can be contacted on (07) 3829 8603, 0421 880 371 or at Lance.Hewlett@redland.qld.gov.au

From grumpy to gutsy

We are allowed to be annoyed.

We are allowed to say blocking cars is inconsiderate, because it is.

But we can also recognise that a shortage of parking sets people up to make desperate, inconvenient and sometimes downright silly decisions.

Parking is not solely your problem.

It’s not the person who parks behind your car’s problem.

It’s not solely an islander problem or a mainland problem.

It is a community infrastructure problem, and that means all of us can be part of the solution.

Send one email. Make one call. Offer one lift. Share one journey. Record one incident.

Direct the grump somewhere useful.

Who knows? We might even become known as the little island that solved a parking problem without running each other over in the process.