SBL

Mount Beerwah

is part of the Glass House Mountains National Parks.

In 1770, James Cook, on the deck of HM Bark Endeavour, became the first known European to sight the Glass House Mountains, located southwest 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. After that, 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 settlements. 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 forest stands. Likewise, the region's roads often began as snigging tracks for hauling timber. Timber getters used the region's creeks, rivers, and lakes as seaways to float out their cedar logs, resulting in wood being shipped as far afield as Europe. During the Gympie Gold Rush (1867), prospectors scaled the Sunshine Coast mountains to develop more accessible roadways to and from the gold fields of Gympie. After constructing the railway line to Gympie, the coastal and river towns, 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 for the district's production. Many small hamlets and towns have now emerged. Produce was initially taken by horse to Landsborough, then Eudlo in 1891. The post-World War I era saw the "seaside shack" rise. The seaside shack provided the opportunity for the coastal "getaway" with a modest investment. From 1914 to 1946, they popped up all along the North Coast (because it was north of Brisbane). Seaside shacks were exceedingly cheap and were an early use of the concept of recycling. Many were built of disused or second-grade timber, and all kinds of materials were used for the holiday seaside shack, including fibro cement, metal containers, and left-over farm sheds; even disused trams were sold off as seaside shacks. Especially after World War II, the Sunshine Coast became a holiday and surfing destination. This tendency was further expanded in the development boom of the 1960s and 1970s. Then known as the Near North Coast, renaming the South Coast to become the Gold Coast triggered interest in renaming the Near North Coast to increase the tourist appeal. Names considered included the Silver Coast, the Diamond Coast, and Suncoast. Suncoast was rejected as a proprietary company copyrighted it. In 1967, it was officially renamed the Sunshine Coast. Around the same time, various tourist attractions and theme parks were created, such as the Big Pineapple in Woombye. 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 – mainly 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 harvesting cane in the region. Instead, businesses concerned with retail, catering and tourism have assumed increasing importance. In 2008, The Shire of Noosa and the Shire of Maroochy merged to form the Sunshine Coast Region. The 2007 referendum conducted by the Australian Electoral Commission, which led to the merger, remained controversial in Noosa Shire, where 95% of voters had rejected amalgamation. In March 2013, a second referendum resulted in 81% of residents voting to leave the combined Sunshine Coast Region. On 9 November 2013, an election resulted in Noel Playford being elected to take office as mayor on 1 January 2014 with the new council. The Shire of Noosa was re-established on 1 January 2014, resulting in two geopolitical areas occupying the area generally recognised as 'The Sunshine Coast': the Sunshine Coast Region, governed by the Sunshine Coast Council, and the Shire of Noosa, governed by the Noosa Shire Council. At the 2016 census, the population of the Sunshine Coast was 346,522. The median was 44 years old, six years older than the nationwide median. The male-to-female ratio was 48.3-to-51.7. Most residents were born in Australia (73.7%), with 1.9% being Indigenous Australians. The most common countries of birth of other residents were England (6.2%), New Zealand (4.5%), South Africa (1.0%), Germany (0.7%), and Scotland (0.6%). German (0.6%) and Afrikaans, Dutch, French, and Italian (0.3% each) were the most commonly spoken languages other than English. Many Sunshine Coast residents reported no religious affiliation (34.0%). Of those who had a religious affiliation, the most frequent were Catholic (18.2%), Anglican (16.8%), and Uniting Church (5.2%). Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data from the May 2019 Labour Force Survey indicate that around 184,200 people were employed in the Sunshine Coast region. Health care and social assistance was the largest employment sector with 26,800 people, construction with 26,500 people, and education and training with 21,200 people. Other important employment sectors in the region were accommodation and food services, retail trade, and professional, scientific and technical services. The agriculture, forestry and fishing sectors employed 2,600 people, representing 1% of the region's workforce. The Sunshine Coast's leading operating airline, Bonza, was founded in 2021 to serve the southeast Queensland region.