page_title: Sunshine Coast, Queensland
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Sunshine Coast, Queensland / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Preparing logs for rafting on the Noosa River, Noosa, 1889
context_page_description: Sunshine Coast is a peri-urban area and the third most populated area in the Australian state of Queensland. Located 100 km north of the center of Brisbane in South East Queensland, on the Coral Sea coastline, its urban area spans approximately 60 km of coastline and hinterland from Pelican Waters to Tewantin. The estimated urban population of Sunshine Coast as of June 2018 was 333,436, making it the 9th most populous in the country. The population of the area has grown steadily at an average annual rate of 2.4% year-on-year over the five years to 2018.
  The area was first settled by Papuasians migrating from northern Australia. Europeans settled in the area in the 19th century, with development progressing slowly until tourism became an important industry. The area has several coastal hubs at Caloundra, Kawana Waters, Maroochydore and Noosa Heads. Nambour and Maleny have developed as primary commercial centres for the hinterland, although Maleny falls outside the urban area defined by the ABS that this article refers to.
context_section_description: The earliest residents of the Sunshine Coast were the indigenous Gubbi Gubbi and Wakka Wakka people. The territory of the Kabi included about 21,000 square kilometres (8,200 sq mi) along the coastline from the 27th parallel northward to the mouth of the Burrum River.  The country of the Wakka Wakka people was about 13,000 km² (5,000 sq mi) that was roughly triangular to the west of the Kabi, including a small part of the Dawson, and meeting the northern Kabi boundary at Walla.  The two tribes were friendly and intermarried and has the same class restrictions.  The groups were nomadic, gathering food en-route as they moved from one campsite to the next. 
  Gubbi Gubbi (Kabi Kabi, Cabbee, Carbi, Gabi Gabi) is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken on Gubbi Gubbi country. The Gubbi Gubbi language region includes the landscape within the local government boundaries of the Sunshine Coast Region and Gympie Region, particularly the towns of Caloundra, Noosa Heads, Gympie and extending north towards Maryborough and south to Caboolture.
  In 1770, James Cook on the deck of HM Bark Endeavour became the first known  European to sight the Glass House Mountains, located south-west of Caloundra.
  In the 1820s, former convicts, John Finnegan, Thomas Pamphlett and Richard Parsons landed on Moreton Island after becoming hopelessly lost fetching cedar.  They lived with the Kabi Kabi) 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 the Big Pineapple in Woombye. 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 2016 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 su
caption: Log rafting on the Noosa River, 1889
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