Sunshine Coast is the name of a region in Queensland, Australia. The Sunshine Coast is located on the eastern coast of Queensland. It is bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the east and by Moreton Bay to the west. Inland the land rises to hills and mountains, forming a range named the Sunshine Coast Range. The coastline is punctuated by inlets, mostly natural creeks running north-south or mangrove tidal swamps connected to Moreton Bay by a number of distributary channels. At their northern extremity these inlets give way to seasonal wetlands around Montville Lagoon.

What was the Sunshine Coast called before?

Most of the region south of Tweed River is hilly with most land under mixed forest. Mangroves dominate west coast beaches around Caboolture and Tin Can Bay, while sugarcane farming extends north to Caloundra. The Sunshine Coast Regional Council acts as government for this part of Queensland, although some functions are shared with other local governments close by (Greater Brisbane City in particular). Both catchment areas include many villages , towns and communities.

The Sunshine Coast Region extends 16 kilometres (10 miles) north of the Harvey Estuary, 35 km south of Brisbane city centre, 15 km eastwards along the coast to Tweed Heads and Facing Islands National Park plus about 725 km lengths on two other islands also within Moreton Bay. The northernmost landmass is called Moreton Island which has its only riverside settlement named Noosa Beach located at the northern tip of the island.

What is the oldest town on the Sunshine Coast?

The early Indigenous Australians, the Bundjalung people, called this area “Marum” or Yuggera-Marum (coming from Marumbun creek after Euahlayi speaking work party camp on Tugulu Creek). The first European to use it as a name was William Landsborough who called it Mountain Shire after John Gilbert’s marooned expedition travelling northward along its coast. Others have called it “Maroubra” after the name of a home town or simply “Moreton Bay”. A South Australian politician, Henry Isitt named Queensland’s capital city Brisbane which he believed to be on Moreton Island at Bribie Head so may not have seen its coastline north of that place. The current spelling is an re-adoption by local authorities south of Waterford more commonly used since 1986 with no submissions for a different spelling for Queensland councils.

The Sunshine Coast Region covers an area of 782 km, spanning Port Douglas in the south to Caloundra in the north all within Queensland’s “B” Divisions. The regional centre isCaloundra located 47 kilometres (29 miles) south/west of Hervey Bay at . Moreton Island, just off this coast totally enclosed by Waterford Point Pinelands National Park lie 672 kilometres (417 miles) north-west into Moreton Bay. This island is also included in the region southwards illustrated above and its only riverside settlement Pascoe is not part of this regional centre although generally encompassed by it. The city is surrounded with a variety of sea growth conditions which provides beginning points for many beaches and coastal views: Port Douglas, Buddina, Yaroomba and Northcliffe to name but a few places on or just offshore. Other major settlements are in the south-west, these being Matta at , Eumundi at and various places further west including Narran Mountain which has a signal watch signal station situated on its summit () All of this southern coastal region is included in Queensland’s water catchment system receiving many rivers from surrounding managed lands for itself preserving their ecological integrity by allowing plants to flourish without substantial enrichment with heavy metals or other deleterious minerals depleting the land’s groundwater.

Why is Queensland called the Sunshine State?

Pembroke Bridge Hither to Yatala, Mungalli and Pacific Palms are all non-metropolitan centres within this catchment area along with Maleny westwards towards Toorbul (a very small locality at ). The river Teviot (Yarra) emerges from the Murray’s Bogong Mountain range through numerous tributaries before it becomes filled between Blanche Harbour on More ton Island and Shute Harbour (), a lake located at . The huge range is widely known as the Murray River because this river has been used to fund Australia’s economic development until mid 1900s, which stopped following world wars allowing other rivers in various parts of North America to cash-in. Since that resumed its status as major Australian export it has again become a major supplier for irrigation water throughout most States westwards except Western Australia since 1960 where artesian bore off recharge supplying to Goldfields-Esperance region since 1970s. Industrial water demand is now controlled by the Murray–Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) and special consideration given some key users such as aluminium smelters in Bendigo and Geelong and some primary industries like peanut, wool and grain elevators in Albury, Lismore including sugar mills on start of Adelaide Canterbury Road at . This system also supplies 40 towns along the water that is unable to be depleted with groundwater easily surpassing 100 years of its historic base flow. The river meanders through cropping land until reaching the northern end at Albury-Wodonga, an important transport hub for most vegetable products passing it along the eastern seaboard and southwards towards Melbourne.

What was Queensland originally called?

The Murray River basin has high ground topography ranging from flat sand flats in lower reaches to granite ridges rising above Mun gee to the highest point at Narran Falls. It has sand sheet plains entirely devoid of vegetation except saltbush hibberdia brittanica and scattered wetlands along its banks, mostly because it is less sulphurous than other tributaries upstream. Many smaller tributaries are ditched by sod farmers for protection from droughts spread by warm winds coming across Great Dividing Range making Murray-Darling Basin into arid steppe with average rainfall ranging between . The main riparian communities are mallee forests upon lower ground riverbanks dominated by scribbly gums (“Euc alyptus leucoxylon”) and regenerating cottonwoods on upland stumps from pioneer settlement. The Kangaroo Island has been recognised by the IUCN as a major region of conservation significance for its populations of endangered South Australian freshwater fish such as Murray cod (“Gobio australis”), southern bonytongue (“Embiotoca jacksoni” Bennett) and perchlet (“Platichthys flesus”). This is because native aquatic fauna in that area survived heavy 7 °C cooler than normal winter flooding caused during passage of 2004 cold.

This is a small piece of history. The Sunshine Coast was the first place in Australia to have electricity generated by a hydro-electric plant. In 1901, at the mouth of the Maroochy River, the first power station was built to supply power for lighting and refrigeration, as well as pumping water from the river to irrigate farms. In 1906 a second hydro-electric station was constructed at Nambour, followed by a third at Yandina in 1912. The two stations were operated by the Queensland Government until 1957 when they were sold to a private company called Queensland Electricity Company Limited (QEC). QEC was one of the world’s largest electricity generators at that time and had its headquarters in Brisbane’s Queen.