Jacqueline’s Story

Three Years On - And Council Is Still Watching?

It’s been nearly three years since the scene in the photo below played out at my property (see above) in the Noosa hinterland in August 2023.

For those who don’t know the story, this was the culmination of a long three-year battle with council that started in an attempt to get councils to change local laws allowing tiny homes on wheels on private rural property, or at the very least suspend the current local law while a legal pathway could be found.

That day, pictured below, three police officers arrived in separate vehicles, accompanied by three council officers in more vehicles to execute a Warrant to Enter. Even though all compliance issues had been dealt with, council insisted they had to come onto my property. I had refused entry simply because my whole property is visible from the road. This was the second Warrant to Enter executed on my property in the past three years. The full story is documented on this website.

Following that visit, after years of Show Cause notices and so many emails, I received an Enforcement Notice. Additional actions were now required. I guess the council were determined to find something; that’s why they wasted so much ratepayer money on Warrants to Enter and Police presence to execute them, sending three Compliance Officers as well. The Notice stated there was Assessable Development on my property. ‘Non-compliance ’ would incur huge fines; as I had no resources for a legal fight, I had no choice.

I thought the council intrusion in my life, at my home, was over and I could go back to living peacefully on my beautiful property. I wasn’t prepared for the continuing emotional toll that the experience would take on me. For a long time, simple everyday things like going to the letterbox made me feel anxious. Would there be any further correspondence from the council? If a council vehicle drove past my house, I would get a knot in my stomach, and the tension wouldn’t ease until it disappeared from view.

Even phone calls could make me nervous, so I stopped answering calls from unknown numbers. I’d had some particularly hostile interactions on the phone with Compliance officers in the past.

There had also been seemingly civil, if not pleasant, conversations with Senior Executives who appeared to be understanding and helpful. Unfortunately, they then misrepresented what was said and used it against me. So yes, phone calls triggered me too.

On top of that, I couldn’t shake the feeling I was still being watched.

Someone once told me that, after years of contracting work for Sunshine Coast Council, he had come to believe that if you displeased them, they were, in his words, “a very vengeful council”, and he felt he had been blacklisted because of disagreements! Maybe he’s right, maybe he was.

After everything that’s happened, I can’t help wondering. I know I no longer feel as peaceful in my home as I did and should.

Looking back at it now, I can’t believe this is how a local council can act. The gaslighting and the anger directed at someone trying to be part of the solution to the housing crisis seemed disproportionate to the so-called offence. Why don’t councils want to help? Unfortunately, very little has changed.

I’m not trying to play the victim. I made the choices I made because I genuinely wanted and hoped, to effect positive change - to help give people who needed to consider non-traditional housing options, housing security and peace of mind. I never expected it to be easy, but I certainly didn’t expect the attitude I got from our local council.

No doubt I was naive and uninformed going into this. It's true I was given some very poor advice at the start. There was also no doubt I was ignorant of the workings of councils and local government. I’d never had much interest in government or politics in the past, but I found I really wanted to try to do something that might help people with housing security, as the housing crisis just kept deepening. I had the land; tiny houses were becoming popular, and for many, they are the perfect solution. But I lacked the knowledge and ability to effect this change.

If you have followed our story, you will know I met Helen, who had long been a community activator, and she offered to support me and the families, single mums, and grandmother living tiny on my property. With Helen’s knowledge of councils and government, together we began the campaigns documented on this website.

By 2026, things seemed to have calmed down following that dramatic day in August 2023.

But in April or May this year it became clear that my vague sense of being watched may not have been entirely unfounded.

I had another visit from a council compliance officer.

That day, I noticed a council vehicle drive past, then return and park near my letterbox in front of my property. After a few minutes, it drove away. The familiar tension had flared up but faded quickly.

I was heading out, so I got into my vehicle and headed down the driveway. As I stopped at the end, the council vehicle returned and pulled up beside me. A council officer approached and identified himself. He explained that council had received a complaint that there was ‘camping’ taking place in the paddocks on my property. From the verge of the road, almost all of the property is clearly visible, and he could see the information was incorrect. He was satisfied there was no problem and left.

Fortunately, this Compliance Officer was calm and polite, and at no time did I feel intimidated by his manner. No mail or email arrived in the next few days, so I assumed the matter was settled.

But the interaction had stirred up something I thought I had started to leave behind. That familiar feeling of being watched. I wondered if the council really was watching me?

Three years later?

I wondered if I was under some type of surveillance. In Australia? No, it can't be!

Then a couple of days ago, about three months after that visit from the Compliance Officer, another email from council arrived in my inbox.

And suddenly it all feels horribly familiar. Not again! The knot in the stomach, the anxiety rises.

One of the issues brought up in the email was the shipping container sitting in front of my shed. The container belongs to a family member who has lost both their business and their home. Past experience with the council has taught me not to expect it to care about human reasons.

Fortunately, the container has already been scheduled for removal. There was also another reference to ‘camping’ again.

The aerial photograph included in the correspondence is not current - it’s at least a year old, probably older. Similarly, the aerial photo used in 2023 with the execution of the Warrant to Enter was at least 18 months old, and council officers with a huge printout of the photo in hand insisted on scrambling and crawling through gullies (that fill the dams in rainy weather) at the back of my property looking for something they were calling a ‘structure’.

I was disappointed that the email triggered apprehension, but knowing that council can and do exaggerate something minor into something much bigger, it’s hard not to be concerned. Ultimately, they can force ‘compliance’ whether you believe the directions are reasonable or not. Whether you think it’s overreach or not is irrelevant.

This current issue should be settled quickly, but will there be a next time?

It seems that all it takes is a phone call from a disgruntled neighbour, if that is in fact the case, to set things in motion again. If it wasn’t a complaint, then am I being watched?

The thought of it feels so intrusive.

I can’t help but feel that I may never again experience the same sense of peace and enjoyment on my beautiful property as I did when I first moved here. It was so easy to fall in love with the stunning beauty of this magical place.

But for me, that peaceful beauty is now tainted by the feeling that the council will always be watching. And that perhaps, no matter how much time passes, they will never go away.

Maybe I’ll have to move to find that peace again.