Local businesses on Queensland's Sunshine Coast marketing together, with free monthly networking nights in Buderim, led by Luke Hawley alongside founder Claire Parkinson. It runs on its own website and is part of My Most Trusted.
Buy local. The habit of choosing a business from your own town first, so the money stays and keeps local people in work.
It started with a hashtag in Noosa in 2020, when shops were closing and locals wanted to know who was still open, and grew into businesses across the Sunshine Coast marketing together. You can't buy love, but you can buy local: every coffee or kayak bought from a Coast business keeps cash circulating at home, and when locals choose local, the whole Coast wins.
Every club has an idea like this one, and it belongs to the place rather than to us. It is not a slogan we handed out.
Luke Hawley leads Buy Local Sunshine Coast and has been its co-owner since 2025, alongside founder Claire Parkinson, who started it as #buylocalnoosa in 2020. He joined as an adviser in 2021, proposed the region-wide campaigns it is known for, and was invited to lead it in 2022. He has hosted business networking on the Sunshine Coast since 2017, first as LinkedIn Local Sunshine Coast and now as the free monthly Local Networking Nights in Buderim, and he works with local businesses as a marketing strategist.
Luke Hawley is a real person, not a logo. That is the point. Somebody has to know both people for an introduction to be worth anything.