It’s not uncommon for Dwayne Chanter to shut up his shop on Gallery Walk at the end of the day and then drive a desperate tourist down to the Gold Coast.
“I’ve driven heaps of people down the mountain when they get stuck,” the owner of Hinterland Organics said.
“People get an Uber up and then can’t get an Uber back.
“They are very disappointed that such a major tourist attraction doesn’t have any form of public transport.
“I’ve had families from India and university students from Brisbane. Most of the time I take them to Helensvale.
“I even took a priest to Brisbane.
“It’s not a good look. A lot of them are panicking.”
On one occasion Mr Chanter recalled rescuing a young boy who’d had an argument with his parents and decided to make his own way home only to find there was no transport.
“I found him across the road shivering and in distress,” Mr Chanter said.
He said there was a desperate need for a proper bus service that was easy to use, well-advertised and didn’t require booking ahead.
“It took me a lot of looking around to find the service online. There is no real timetable for the existing service and trying to book a trip is not user-friendly.
“For those where English is their second language trying to navigate the website is tricky.”
Tamborine Mountain Visitor Information Centre manager and Chamber of Commerce treasurer Janice Smart agreed the lack of a proper bus service was a major issue.
“We get a lot of people who have used Uber or a taxi and come to the visitor centre at 2.30 or 3pm and can’t get off the mountain,” she said.
“Usually, a lot don’t speak English. We always manage to get them off somehow.
“We put them in touch with one of the tour companies to try to get them off the mountain or I’ll contact Dwayne or someone to drive them off the mountain.”
She said many also don’t realise how big Tamborine Mountain is and that they can’t just walk around easily.
Ms Smart said many also get stuck at Tamborine Mountain Glades after getting an Uber there.
“It turns people off coming back up here,” she explained.
Ms Smart said it was important to have a bus service that could serve everyone, not just tourists, but elderly, people with only one car and children.
“We are aiming to get a bus around the mountain and one to Helensvale that you don’t have to book,” she stated.
“I find it bizarre we have never had a bus service on Tamborine Mountain. You go to Kyogle or Uki, and they have buses going to Lismore all the time.
“There is a lot of infrastructure already here that could be implemented for a bus service.
“I think it’s really important for the local community. Even for kids trying to get to sport in the afternoon, a bus could take them to Long Road and they could go and play footy.”
Members of the Working Group for Public Transport on Tamborine Mountain, a Rotary project, are hoping their submission to the State government seeking an extension to the existing weekday service will help alleviate the problem.
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