The Sunshine Coast (wikipedia)

is an urban area in South East Queensland, north of the state capital of Brisbane on the Pacific Ocean coastline. Although it does not have a central business district, by population it ranks as the 9th largest metropolis in Australia and the third largest in Queensland. At the 2011 Australian Census the region recorded a population of 270,270. The area was first settled by Europeans in the 19th century with development progressing slowly until tourism became an important industry. The area was several coastal hubs at Caloundra, Kawana, Maroochydore and Noosa Heads. Nambour and Maleny have developed as primary commercial centres for the hinterland.

History

 

Mount Beerwah is part of the Glass House Mountains National Park

James Cook on the deck of HM Bark Endeavour in 1770 became the first known European to sight the Glass House Mountains, located south-west of Caloundra.

In the 1820s, the Sunshine Coast saw its first white inhabitants: three castaways (Finnegan, Pamphlet and Parsons) who shared the life of the local (Kabi Kabi) Aborigines for eight months. Thereafter, during the 1830s to 1840s, the district became home to numerous runaway convicts from the Moreton Bay (Brisbane) penal colony slightly to the south.

In 1842, Governor George Gipps had the entire Sunshine Coast and hinterland from Mt Beerwah north to roughly Eumundi declared a “Bunya Bunya Reserve” for the protection of the bunya tree after Andrew Petrie advised him of the importance of bunya groves in Aboriginal culture. However, during the 1840s and 1850s, the Bunya Bunya Reserve and its vicinity became the scene of some of the most bitter skirmishes of Australia’s “Black War“. The Blackall Range, on account of the tri-annual Bunya Festival, served as both a hideout and rallying point for attacks against white settlement. By the 1850s timber cutters and cattlemen had started exploiting the area; in 1860 the Bunya Bunya Reserve was scrapped.

Many of the Sunshine Coast’s towns began as simple ports or jetties for the timber industry during the 1860s and 1870s, as the area once had magnificent stands of forest. Likewise, the region’s roads often began as snigging tracks for hauling timber. Timbergetters used the region’s creeks, rivers and lakes as seaways to float out their logs of cedar – the resultant wood being shipped as far afield as Europe.

During the Gympie Gold Rush (1867), prospectors scaled the Sunshine Coast mountains to develop easier roadways to and from the gold fields of Gympie. After construction of the railway line to Gympie, the coastal and river towns, being mostly ports for the early river-trade, were bypassed. By the 1890s diverse small-farming (fruit and dairy) had replaced the cattle-and-timber economy of earlier decades. Sugar cane and pineapples proved especially important produce for the district. Many small hamlets and towns now emerged. Produce was initially taken by horse to Landsborough, then to Eudlo in 1891. Especially after World War II, the Sunshine Coast grew into a favoured holiday and surfing destination. This tendency was further expanded in the development boom of the 1960s and 1970s. Around the same time, various tourist/theme parks were created – the most iconic being Woombye’s “Big Pineapple”. During the 1960s and 1970s, the Sunshine Coast also attracted persons drawn to alternative lifestyles. These newcomers developed a range of craft industries, co-operatives and spiritual centres, particularly in the hinterlands.

After the 1980s, the Sunshine Coast experienced rapid population growth. As of 2011^[update] it had become one of the fastest-growing regions in Australia. As the region becomes increasingly residential, most of the district’s distinctive small farms – especially tropical-fruit and sugar-cane farms have disappeared, as have most of its theme parks, the Moreton sugar mills closure in 2003 removed a market for the district’s 120 cane growers who had been harvesting cane in the region Instead, businesses concerned with retail, catering and tourism have assumed increasing importance.

12^th September, Friday

We had a really short drive to Maroochydore this morning (126kms in fact), so we didn’t rush leaving Tin Can Bay. The road to Maroochydore is mainly on the Bruce Highway and then the M1 that goes to Brisbane. It is very busy and we are not used to the traffic and multi lanes anymore as we haven’t seen them in a while.  We turned off to Coolum Beach as we wanted to get off the M1. The road went over the ranges and was so pretty. Green and farmy . We stopped off in Coolum Beach for our breakfast and it was hard to find a place to pull up.  The place is big, lots of cafes etc. and not much space to pull up with a caravan. We eventually found a little park in one of the suburbs and parked there for awhile and had our sandwiches, coffee and leg break. We needed a bit of a stop over as we were way too early to book into the caravan park. Maroochydore is very close to Coolum Beach and it only took us about 15 minutes to get here.  We can’t believe how big this place is, it’s huge. We weren’t sure what we were expecting but we didn’t expect this.  The caravan park we are staying in is right across the road from the Maroochy river which is quite big and flows out to sea. You can hire boats, do fishing, cruises etc. It’s a nice river and quite picturesque. The caravan park is like a resort, swimming pool, café, tennis courts, putt-putt amongst other things. We set up and then took a drive into town – eish!  It took us longer to get through there than it took for us to drive here.  The place is all restaurants, bistros, bars, apartments, hotels and resorts all on top of each other.  There are so many people here and we are panicking :-).  It’s nice here but we think that 3 days (which is what we are booked in for) is enough for us.  Tomorrow we will go and visit Noosa and Coolum Beach then will cut across inland as there is a ginger factory I would like to see (I love my ginger) and then there is a micro brewery that does lunches, so we will stop there for a bite and a beer for Ralphie. Sunday we will do Brisbane (we will take the GPS), Coloundra, Bribie Island and on Monday we will do the whole of Maroochydore and Ralphie can do some fishing – sorted (ha, ha).

13^th September, Saturday

We went to Noosa today. Again it’s a big Sunshine coast town with lots of cafes, bistros etc.  Lots of shops a gizillion people, crowded beaches, nowhere to park to have a look see so we left.  The boardwalks looked good though.  Seriously, it’s nice but not our sort of place so all I will say about Noosa is “been there, done that and crossed it off the list and we didn’t stop to buy a t-shirt”.  We took a drive instead into the Hinterland of the Sunshine coast through the Blackall range and visiting quite a few of the towns along the way. The scenery is breathtaking and it makes you feel like you are on the top of the world looking down.  Some of these towns look so European with quant little shops that sell local knick knacks.  The first town was Yandina which had a farmers market and they were selling the most amazing home grown veggies.  This town is very alternate and a lot of the produce is organic and there are permaculture gardens around the place and what looks like to be hippy communes. There was a ginger place there as well, so had to stop and buy a few gourmet goodies for the trip and to bring back for you guys to try. Love these places.  I bought a box of veggies that would last us for about 2 weeks and fresh as for $15. They throw in this and throw in that – no charge, it’s awesome. From there we went to Montville and this town is not like Yandina at all, although it is very close.  This little town is so European with Bavarian clock shops, patisseries, speciality little craft shops etc., it’s so charming.  The main street is windey and hilly and all over the place and I am finding it quite difficult to explain just how beautiful this little place is.  We found a little place that sells wine (as we do) and the guy that runs it was quite a character.  I think that he fancied my Ralphie because he told me that I could pee off and leave Ralphie with him (what a proposition), quite cracked me up really.  From there we drove through a few more little towns and just enjoyed the view, honestly, it is really very beautiful. Tomorrow we will visit Brisbane because being the adventurous souls that we are we thought that we might be able to handle the big smoke on a Sunday.  God help us when we get to Sydney and then to Melbourne but we will not worry about that at this stage (ha, ha).  Night all. xxxxx

14^th September, Sunday

This morning the sun is shining again. I went to the markets which was a fair walk and Ralphie stayed home with Hugo.  I bought some awesome prawns for dinner tonight, they are huge so I bought 9 prawns (ha, ha).  Can’t buy them by the kilo for the 2 of us and 9 prawns (Tigers) landed up by being just over half a kilo. We went for a drive to Brisbane  (oh my God! What a drama).  We tootled off along the M1 (Brisbane is 80kms).  We saw a sign saying to “Bribie Island” and we thought that we would hop off the M1 and go and have a look, see.  Bribie Island has a road that goes right across the sea to the Island.  It is huge and there a lot of suburbs and a huge community living there, in fact you don’t feel like you are on an Island at all, rather just another suburb.  They have channels with houses with berths, the same as Mandurah. We were driving along and we noticed that there was a huge Gem fest on this weekend and my Ralphie was in heaven.  See, there was a reason why we took that turn off and we really didn’t know that the fest was on.  Anyways, to cut a long story short we spent quite a bit of time there and Ralph learnt quite a bit of what he wants to do and what machinery he needs to cut and polish and he will join the Lapidary club when we get home to learn how to do it.  We got back onto the M1 to Brisbane and the traffic was banking up really badly.  There are 4 lanes on the M1 in each direction and they were all on a Standstill on the way to Brisbane (this, all on a Sunday, when we decided to go when things were quite, HA!).  We decided to “Sod Brisbane, we will fly over and see it another time”, when Ralph changed lanes and the traffic moved a little faster.  We decided that we had come this far so we might as well keep going, (I know that you are saying “Eish! them and their traffic).  We finally made it to Brisbane. We went over the story bridge which was quite awesome.  We didn’t realise how big Brisbane was, we thought that it might have been a smidge bigger than Perth but it is way, way bigger.  We did a whirl wind tour and decided that we had had enough and found the return route and left (ha, ha). We will come back but may fly in next time and see it without having to negotiate the traffic. We stopped off at the Ettamogah Pub on the way back (much more civilized than fighting with traffic).  Those of you that know the comic strip will know which pub we are talking about.  It was awesome, we loved it.  This is the second Ettamogah pub that was built, we think that the first one is Albury in NSW and then 2 years later this one, on the Sunshine Coast and then the third one is in Cunderdin in WA and the fourth one is in Sydney.  Anyways, we eventually got back to base and some dinner and a relax.  Tomorrow we will have a look see around here but we will not go into the town, because it is a nightmare. Night xxxx

15^th September, Monday

Today is our last day in Queensland and it is another beautiful sunny day. We went and did a stock up shop and then we took a small drive to a little town just out of Maroochydore called “Bli Bli”. There is a Norman/Medieval castle there built in 1972 just for a fairytale type place.  It’s a full size castle and they have kids birthday parties where the can dress up, weddings, parties sort of like feast nights etc.  http://www.sunshinecastle.com/index.php/history-of-the-castle  We came back and went and sat at the river across the road from we are staying and Ralphie threw a rod in for awhile and Hugo had a swim and it was all just so relaxing.  Tomorrow we have a big haul so we have packed up, I have made the sandwiches and have bought a packet of snakes and some jube jubes for the trip..  we can’t drive with no lollies. So, we will speak to you next from Lismore in New South Wales. xxxxxxxxxxx