Kenilworth

Kenilworth is the heart of the beautiful Mary Valley and was surveyed off Kenilworth Station in 1921. It still has the original 1920’s ambience, with its tree lined main street that accommodates the area’s main business houses.

Kenilworth is a renowned ‘tidy town’ and located in an idyllic country setting close to spectacular national parks and state forests.

Distance From State Capital: 154km
Nearest Main Highway: Bruce
Nearest Airport: Sunshine Coast (60km)

Kawana Waters

Kawana Waters is a newly created residential area and has one of the fastest growth rates in Queensland. This picturesque area has beautiful, patrolled surfing beaches at Buddina and Wurtulla, excellent fishing, sporting facilities, shopping centres, a marina, and various accommodation options.

Distance From State Capital: 97km
Nearest Main Highway: Bruce
Nearest Airport: Brisbane (9km)

Imbil

In Blackall Range country behind the Sunshine Coast, Imbil is announced by orderly, hillside pineapple plantations on the 48 kilometre drive south-west from Gympie. A steep haul to the Imbil Lookout presents incomparable, near 360-degree views to Kenilworth, the mountains, and the Sunshine Coast. A 26 kilometre round-trip through forest and cultivated creek flats embraces Lake Borumba, which is perfectly tailored to swimming, boating, water-skiing and fishing. A nearby hatchery, which was opened in the early 1980s, breeds golden perch and silver perch, which are released into the local waterways as fingerlings.

Imbil is the terminus for the weekly Sunday run from Gympie by the famous Rattler. The beautifully restored steam locomotive No 45 and its carriages maintain the steam tradition on a railway line originally surveyed in the 1880s. On the 80 kilometre return journey, passengers are treated to some magnificent scenery as the train snakes its way through creek-networked valleys.

Nearest Main Highway: Bruce
Nearest Airport: Sunshine Coast

Gympie

As the heritage and cultural centre of the Cooloola Region, Gympie boasts a tradition that few areas in Queensland can offer. A city of 16,000 people, Gympie offers the warm hospitality of a country town with all the modern conveniences.

Known as the ‘Town that Saved Queensland’, Gympie’s proud heritage began in 1867 with the discovery of gold by prospector James Nash at the site now occupied by the Town Hall. At the time, Queensland was facing bankruptcy due to drought and the fall in wool prices. However, Nash made the five day journey down the Mary River from Maryborough and, after digging up 75 ounces of gold in six days, staked his claim. The Gympie Gold Rush was on, injecting the boost to the Queensland economy that enabled the colony to survive.

Distance From State Capital: 160km
Nearest Main Highway: Bruce
Nearest Airport: Sunshine Coast

Glass House Mountains

The Glass House Mountains are found in the hinterland of Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. They are actually the cores of 20 million year old volcanoes, so that the sides of the volcanoes have eroded away leaving only hardened plugs or rock spires.

The Aboriginal dreaming story about these formations gives each of the mountains a name and character in a family, and tells a dramatic story of human relationships.

Captain James Cook gave the area its unusual English name while sailing past, on his way up Australia’s east coast, in 1770. From a distance they reminded him of the glass-making furnaces of his home town in Yorkshire.

There are both sealed and unsealed roads through the Glass House Mountains National Park, with spectacular lookouts over the surrounding plains along the way. An excellent day trip could include a lunch stop at picnic grounds, bush trails and rock-climbing.

The area around the mountains produces many tropical fruits such as avocados, pineapples and papaya as well as strawberries, vegetables, nuts and tobacco.

Visitors can stay in the area at the township of Glass House Mountains, which can be reached in about 20 minutes from Caboolture or 30 minutes from Caloundra.

Distance From State Capital: 64km
Nearest Main Highway: Bruce
Nearest Airport: Brisbane (64km)

Forest Glen

Whilst at Forest Glen be sure to take a drive through Tanawha Tourist Drive, where you will find two great attractions. Be sure to visit Buderim Forest Park with its beautiful rainforest, barbecue picnic facilities and forest boardwalk.

Nearest Main Highway: Bruce
Nearest Airport: Sunshine Coast

Flaxton

Flaxton is a tiny village where you will find lovely arts and crafts and excellent devonshire teas and lunches. Surrounding the many avocado orchards is a town of restaurants, guesthouses, art and craft galleries and private dwellings. It is an ideal place to picnic and enjoy life. Flaxton is sometimes considered the prettiest of the Blackall Range settlements. It offers a wide variety of beautiful mountain accommodation.

Nearest Main Highway: Bruce
Nearest Airport: SunshineCoast

Eumundi

Every Saturday and Wednesday, come rain, hail or shine, the population of Eumundi explodes from 500 residents to several thousand as visitors flock to the markets. The Eumundi markets were established in 1979 and are situated in the heart of this historic town. The iconic and towering heritage-listed fig trees rise above the 500 plus stall market.

There is a blend of old and new within Eumundi. The streets are lined with historical buildings, modern art galleries, boutique wineries and local history museums. Eumundi, truly, has something for everyone.

Nearest Main Highway: Bruce
Nearest Airport: Sunshine Coast

Cooroy

This traditional country town with its prize winning streetscaping and community artwork is worth a visit with its urban village like atmosphere.

Cooroy started as a camp for timber workers in 1863. The railway came to Cooroy in 1891 and soon after the main street started to develop. The town relied on the sawmills and local dairies and was a prosperous town until the collapse of the dairy and fruit growing industries in the 1970s.

Distance From State Capital: 140km
Nearest Main Highway: Bruce
Nearest Airport: Sunshine Coast

Coolum Beach

Catapulted on to the elite tourism trail with the opening of the nearby golf resort, Coolum Beach has become a hideaway for the rich and famous. But a surge in high rise apartment development and resort accommodation has also broadened its appeal both as a residential address and as a Sunshine Coast holiday destination.

Coolum is a fine surf beach located halfway between Maroochydore and Noosa, while the surrounding bays and rocky outcrops are favourite fishing haunts. And, if it’s exercise you need, set aside a couple of hours for the hike to the top of Mt Coolum. Stunning views from the peak reward those who make the effort.

If those views over the ocean turn a visitor’s fancy to thoughts of dangling a line, charter operators will turn the dream to reality with a day of deep-sea fishing. Coolum Beach is located just 15 minutes south of Noosa.

Nearest Main Highway: Bruce
Nearest Airport: Sunshine Coast