Backward Glance: Holidays and Sunshine Coast tourist attractions

Over the years the Sunshine Coast has played a major part in many holiday experiences, sometimes in a unique way.

Backwards Glance will turn back the hands of time during the next few weeks to share some of these happy holiday memories.

Many Australians have holiday memories which generally focus around our culturally laid-back lifestyle.

Tourism tends to peak during the Australian school holiday season with some school holiday periods occurring at different times in each state.

Australians have in the past been big domestic holidaymakers, often travelling great distances by train or coach or in the family car with the kids crammed in the back seat to visit beaches or different picturesque regions far from their own homes and states.

In earlier times, friends, families and their relatives pitched their tents side-by-side or stayed in a flat or holiday house all in together.

Many still return with their children and grandchildren to share their experiences of happy times in a region known as a friendly, sunny and picturesque place to visit.

There are also numerous memories shaped by visiting the varied and unique tourist attractions on the Sunshine Coast and early tourist information guides provide a wonderful record of those that have come and gone.

Many holidaymakers will recall climbing inside the heritage listed Big Pineapple and having a pineapple parfait, banana split or a macadamia ice-cream before a trip around the Sunshine Plantation in a little train or a ride on the Nutmobile, created in the shape of a nutshell, when the Sunshine Coast had a large macadamia farming industry.

The iconic tourist attraction opened in August 1971, established by KW Taylor on a 52 acre pineapple farm at Woombye.

Today our re-invigorated pineapple remains not only as a landmark tourist attraction for all to enjoy, but as a venue for the farmers markets and popular music festival.

One of the region’s earliest tourist attractions was the unique family project created in the early 1970s by Bill Goodchild at Golden Beach near Caloundra.

Known as the Endeavor Replica, it was a two-thirds scale model designed for the visiting tourist to visualise Captain’s Cook’s ship Endeavour from the 1770 period.

In 1992, the Endeavour was relocated to the lagoon adjacent to the Waterfront Hotel at Bli Bli.

It was dismantled and demolished in October 2007.

Some will recall the amazing World of Matchcraft which opened in 1977 on Nicklin Way near the Currimundi Bridge.

Matchstick architect Leonard Hughes displayed more than 300 vessels depicting sailing, airplanes, trains, and other items all made from wooden matches carefully glued together.

Given that a matchbox generally held about 50 matches it would have taken many boxes, lots of patience and a steady hand to make this tourist attraction.

The World of Matchcraft opened each day and advertised that it took 243,000 matches to make the model Spanish Armada and 83,000 matches to make a paddle boat.

Not to be forgotten are two old attractions now long gone.

The Caloundra Military Museum in Bowman Road had an impressive Mk II Matilda Tank parked outside and advertised that it had the biggest display of war relics outside the Australian War Museum. It closed in the 1970s.

Another 1970s tourist attraction was Vic Walker’s Egg Farm on the old Bruce Highway, Glass House Mountains.

The “Eggspress” was described as weighing one tonne. It had two large motorised white leghorn fowls (about four metres high) attached to an egg train.

When the Egg Farm closed, the Eggspress had its final “nesting place” near the Matilda’s Service Station on Steve Irwin Way. It was still there until at least 1990.

Later, the Sunshine Coast became the home for the award winning Queensland Air Museum.

It had begun in 1974 with the unveiling of the first plane at Pioneer Valley Park in Kuraby.

In 1977, the museum moved to lower Nudgee and then to temporary premises at Brisbane Airport in April 1980.

It was officially opened at Caloundra Aerodrome on April 4, 1987 and is situated in the aptly named Pathfinder Drive.

Today the Queensland Air Museum is the perfect tourist attraction for aviation enthusiasts and holiday makers.

Stepping back in time, who can remember the Seal Sanctuary in 1962?

The park was located at what was then the junction of Buderim Road and the Bruce Highway.

It included a colony of koalas and zoological gardens with a variety of animals and reptiles.

By 1965, the tourist attraction was known as the Seal Park.

A number of animals were relocated to the Park from Ashton’s Circus and other animals included a rhinoceros, a hippopotamus, a chimpanzee and antelopes.

In around 1973, the park was renamed the Buderim Zoo and Koala Park.

The owner, Bill Horne, also managed the nearby attraction, The House of Treasures.

In early 1990, the park was closed and the animals relocated due to a decline in revenue following the opening of stage one of the Sunshine Coast Motorway.

Holiday makers loved to visit the Big Cow that watched over what was then the Bruce Highway, Kulangoor.

The Big Cow was a major feature at the complex known as Farmorama or the Country World tourist attraction.

The complex was created and developed by Sunshine Coast’s Des Scanlon and officially opened on September 10, 1976.

The tourists are long gone but when the Big Cow was in full swing tourists could visit a working dairy farm running Ayrshire cows and learn about the dairy industry.

The Big Cow was sculpted by Hugh Anderson who created the Big Bulls in Rockhampton.

Hugh created an exact replica of the Big Bulls, but the mighty cow was seven times larger and a “few changes” were needed to transform the bull to a cow.

The property also included a trolley ride, an animal nursery, and restaurant and helicopter joy flights.

Another must visit was the Forest Glen Deer and Wildlife Sanctuary which opened in 1980 and was set on 20 hectares of natural park and bush land.

Animals included Rusa, Fallow and Chital deer, wallabies and kangaroos, emus, koalas as well as squirrels and glider possums.

Forest Glen Deer Sanctuary closed in the late 1990s.

Times have changed. Each day jets now arrive at Sunshine Coast Airport bringing thousands of holiday makers from throughout Australia and from all over the world.

We still see cars towing caravans or trailers full of camping gear, cars packed to the brim with camping items and perhaps the kids bicycles strapped on the back.

Our many visitors come for the beauty we live amongst and to enjoy the lifestyle, the climate and many other attractions which make the Sunshine Coast unique.

Thanks to Sunshine Coast Council’s Heritage Library Officers for the words and Picture Sunshine Coast for the images.

In 2017 we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Naming of the Sunshine Coast. For more information on this milestone anniversary visit www.sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au/fifty

Image captions:

Hero image: M866265 Aerial view over Sunshine Plantation, Woombye, 1985.

Carousel images:

Image 1: M734504 Sunshine Coast promotion caravan distributing information to tourists, 1971.

Image 2: M839193 House of Bottles and Bottle Museum, Myles Street, Tewantin, 1975.

Image 3: M862866 Caravan built by Stephen Short returning to Maroochydore from a fishing holiday at Caloundra, ca 1950.

Image 4: M863274 - Young holiday makers at the Memorial Pools, Coolum Beach, December 1952.

Image 5: M864685 Prince Charles and Princess Diana ready to board the plantation train at the Sunshine Plantation, Woombye, April 12, 1983.

Image 6: M865318 Endeavour Replica, Landsborough Parade, Golden Beach, Caloundra, ca 1976.

Image 7: M867744 Big Cow at the Suncoast Dairy, Old Bruce Highway, Kulangoor, north of Nambour, ca 1976.

Image 8: M868204 Charm bracelet with souvenir pendants from the Sunshine Coast, 1980s.

Image 9: M868424 Giraffe delivered to the Seal Park at the intersection of the Tanawha Tourist Drive and Cosby Hill Road, Buderim, November 1970.