Town looks forward to bright future, says Chamber secretary

Back in March foot traffic in Yandina’s main streets was virtually zero. Now, with restrictions easing, life is returning to normal for the robust and growing hinterland community.

“In March it dropped off to next to nothing,” said Yandina Chamber of Commerce Secretary Bill Gissane.

“It really took a lot of the spirit and a lot of the momentum out of the place. We noticed that in our case, our revenue dropped off by 60 percent. So it was really a remarkable downturn.”

Mr Gissane, who owns Yandina Art and Framing, praised the town’s community spirit for the recovery.

“We said, we’re not going to just sit here and moan, we’re going to do something about it. So, like in other places, cafes marketed themselves as takeaways. They did deliveries. We all adopted technology wherever we could.

“In our case, we offered and we still offer online consultations for people’s framing. So it’s all helped to keep us going.”

Mr Gissane said things started to pick up again in April. “And I think the most remarkable thing we noticed was, when the Yandina markets got going again, Saturday mornings just exploded. All the overflow from the markets are coming up the street to have a coffee and a look around.”

Since the lifting of heavier restrictions the town had definitely “got its mojo back”, he said. “There’s a good vibe and people are spending again. We’re not back to where we were but we’re very confident that if we can keep this momentum going Yandina will move on from here and prosper.”

Mr Gissane said Yandina was well positioned given its character and location.

“People are really responding well to the artistic and food nature of Yandina,” he said. “It’s become a really popular spot for particularly people from further north ... to get away from the areas that they have been too many times. They love the streetscape, and the quirkiness of Yandina. So we really think we’ve got something to offer people that’s a bit different from just more Chinese-made products and wall-to-wall franchises.”

Mr Gissane said part of the reason for Yandina’s success was that it did not have a shopping centre. “Once you’re inside one of those malls you could be anywhere,” he said. “There’s no character. They’re all much the same.

“I think we’re like Maleny 10 was years ago because we’ve still got the character, still got the community feel.”

Mr Gissane pointed to Yandina’s booming industrial area as a positive generator for locals. “It means we’ve got employment. Plus there’s growing agricultural employment opportunities on the outskirts of town towards North Arm.”

Yandina was looking forward to Nambour recovering. “We get a lot of Nambour visitors down this way. So we wish them all the best. And we think Yandina is a really good counterpoint to big brother up the road.  

“We love Nambour but we’re not good because we’re bigger. We’re good because we’re different.”