Dreams from 2000 revisited as time capsule unsealed

Mr Juniper, Mr Culley and Sunshine Coast Mayor Rosanna Natoli at the unearthing.

A time capsule buried in 2000 contained a colourful snapshot of Sunshine Coast life at the turn of the century and big dreams for our future. But did they come true?

The capsule was buried near the then-new Landmark Resort on Mooloolaba Esplanade by Maroochy Shire Mayor Don Culley and prominent developer Graeme Juniper, with instructions to open it at the beginning of 2025.

It contained heartfelt letters from Mayor Culley and Mr Juniper, copies of the Sunshine Coast Daily (Friday, December 31, 1999, and Saturday, January 1, 2000), headlined “Party time’’ and “Age of Imagination’’, a Celebrate 2000 stamp collection and 1999 commemorative coin set dedicated to the International Year of Older Persons.

The capsule also held a bottle of Tyrell’s Toast to the Coast 2000 Fine Old Tawny Port, several important photos of our region, tourism brochures and clippings from The Sunday Mail business section, promoting the Sunshine Coast as “the place to invest’’ in the new century.

The Coast’s daily print newspaper may not have survived, but the preserved copies showed just how vibrant our community was in 2000 – and the real estate bargains on offer. Stories, advertisements and classifieds captured a time when you could get a T-bone meal for $3.95 at a bowls club, a four-bedroom beachfront home cost $219,000, and Friday night was video night if there were any copies of Notting Hill left on the shelf. You could rent a two-bedroom unit at Alexandra Headland for just $115.

Mr Culley’s letter firstly contained hopes we “survived the Millennium Bug’’, the potential Y2K computer issue anticipated as the year ticked over from 1999 to 2000. He wrote that the odds of him being present at the capsule opening were “fairly remote’’, so what he would like to see was him there.

This was impressively achieved, with the now 95-year-old Mr Culley present, alongside Mr Juniper, aged 78, the current president of the Mooloolaba Chamber of Commerce.

Mr Culley’s key wishes for his beloved region in 2025 were environment-related, as this was our “single greatest resource”. Mr Juniper wrote about the reasons behind the time capsule, chiefly the need to preserve the history of “a vital period”.

Mayor Natoli said it was a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the past 25 years and to look at how much the region had flourished.

“Mr Juniper’s vision for Mooloolaba as a tourist haven definitely came true, and Mr Culley’s advice regarding preserving the environment – our no. 1 resource – could not have been wiser.”