What's local about Coolangatta
Coolangatta Creek
About 8 km long, it drains through most of Coolangatta and Kirra and meets the sea at Kirra Beach. City of Gold Coast says it starts around Tugun Hill and Hidden Valley.
Water you can't see
The state's catchment story says the Pacific Beaches area is highly urbanised, with most tributaries piped to the beach. Drains like those suit rats and cockroaches.
Mosquitoes don't stop at the line
This creek's catchment is bordered by the Cobaki Broadwater in New South Wales. Tweed Shire's planning rules say salt marsh mosquitoes from around there travel widely, often many kilometres, towards hills and ridges above tidal flats.
Headlands
Kirra Point, Greenmount Headland, Snapper Rocks and Point Danger are rocky shores, which means salt spray and wind on the houses nearby. Wind is the one thing midges can't handle: they mostly stop biting in a breeze.
Two sides of the same street
| Coolangatta (Queensland) | Tweed Heads (New South Wales) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Council | City of Gold Coast | Tweed Shire Council | |
| Fire ants | Report to Biosecurity Queensland within 24 hours, by law | Report to the NSW Biosecurity Helpline | |
| Pest licence | Queensland Health licence for the work | NSW EPA licence, held by the technician | |
| Termite work | QBCC class plus a pest management licence | Timber pest management technician licence | |
| Possum release | Within 25 metres | Within 150 metres, at dusk | |
| Rental disputes | Residential Tenancies Authority rules | NSW Fair Trading |
Which side am I on?
Your rates notice settles it. If it's from City of Gold Coast, you're in Queensland. If it's from Tweed Shire, read our Tweed Heads page instead. It matters most for fire ants and licences, because the NSW EPA says Queensland licences aren't among those it accepts.
Termites and inspections
Apartment owners should start with the body corporate, which generally handles common property. Inside your lot, the work's yours. Termites still get into low rise blocks and older houses, and a yearly inspection is the QBCC's advice. If you find mud leads or damaged timber, don't disturb them.
For a building and pest inspection in Coolangatta, the two reports need separate licences unless one inspector holds both.
On your side of the fence
You can
- Keep bins sealed and floor drains clean.
- Tip out anything holding water, on the deck too.
- Note any scratching in walls or ceilings at night.
Leave to a pest business
- Rats and cockroaches coming up from drains.
- Termite inspections and treatment.
- Possum catch and release, then closing the gap.
Our take on the border
Check which state your place is in, then use that state's numbers. After that it's the same job as anywhere on the coast: keep the water tipped out and the termite inspection current. Tell us what you've seen and your postcode.
Want someone to look at it?
Tell us what you've seen and your postcode, and a local pest business that handles exactly that calls you to talk it through.
