Maroochydore: Stunning Urban Beauty on The Sunshine Coast
Maroochydore was first named in 1842 and means “the place of the red bills” in the language of the Brisbane River Aboriginals. It was first recognized as a holiday destination in the early 1900’s by residents of the Hinterlands who would travel to the coast to camp and fish. In 1912 the first coastal hotel and regular mail boat service were established and Maroochydore has been growing ever since.
The Urban Hub of The Sunshine Coast
Today Maroochydore operates as the central hub of The Sunshine Coast. It is home to the CBD of the area and has all the amenities of a larger city including The Sunshine Plaza, which is The Sunshine Coast’s largest shopping mall. The Sunshine Plaza is a bustling centre which has a large cinema complex, fashion boutiques, department stores and food courts.
Ocean Street
Ocean Street offers a gourmet getaway with up-market restaurants, cafes, boutique shops. Always an eclectic crowd of people, and is a great place to dine and take in this bustling dining precinct.
Big Top Market Fresh- Farmers Quarter
Big Top is the best of both worlds – the convenience of specialty stores with the excitement, colour and fresh flavours of market days with local growers.
Nights on Ocean
The second Friday of every month Ocean St Maroochydore comes alive with the one of the best artisan market on the Sunshine coast.
Ocean Street World Festival
The Ocean Street World Festival is a community celebration of culture, music and food. Held on usually on Easter Sunday, the event brings together the Sunshine Coast’s diverse flavours, sounds and people. The Ocean Street World Festival includes market stalls representing many different countries food and culture and entertainment featuring musicians from all around the world playing many styles.
Sunshine Coast Skyshow
The fireworks extravaganza, which is usually held on Australia Day each year will treat the community to rides, market stalls, live music, RAAF fly over and live music. The fireworks show at usually held at 8pm(but please confirm) has been one of the biggest Australia Day displays north of the Brisbane River.
While shows such as Riverfire on the banks of the Brisbane River were limited to smaller fireworks varieties because of safety restrictions, the Sunshine Coast Skyshow fireworks had more options because they will be ignited from pontoons. “We’re one of he few places in Queensland that can actually do this,” he said.
This is a fireworks spectacular, setup by the river with your blankets, picnic and chairs and enjoy and enjoy this extravaganza.
Big Plans for Maroochydore
Maroochydore is a city on the move with many exciting developments coming down the pipe for the city. These include the airport runway upgrade which will greatly increase the airports capacity, allowing it to keep up with the ever increasing demand of eager tourists to travel to new destination. The runway expansion will also allow Maroochydore to welcome more people from far away places. This will increase tourism and settlement in the area.
There are also plans to create a new railway line that would extend from the current Gympie North Line. The proposed line would spur from Landsborough station and travel closer to the coast than the existing line, including Mooloolaba and Alex Headlands. The new line would connect the major hubs of Caloundra, Kawana and Maroochydore with Brisbane and would terminate at the Sunshine Coast Airport, just north of Maroochydore.
The proposed Maroochydore City Centre offers the opportunity for investors to be part of delivering the only greenfield CBD in Australia at this time and is expected to service a wider catchment of over two million people by 2030. The Maroochydore City Centre will include commercial, residential, retail and lifestyle precincts, including a signature development opportunity for a five-star hotel/resort and an entertainment, convention and exhibition centre with residential and retail development entitlements.
The development scheme provides for a 250 room hotel plus 100 residential apartments and 15,000m² of retail gross floor area. With no maximum building height specified for the site, this will be a landmark building in the Maroochydore City Centre and its most prominent feature. This will be the only five-star hotel development in the Maroochydore City Centre.
Beaches on The Sunshine Coast
But Maroochydore is more than just commerce and industry. Maroochydore is minutes from some of the most beautiful and accessible beaches in the country. More than just beautiful beaches, Maroochydore also has breathtaking rivers and foreshores which are just perfect for a lazy afternoons and barbecue picnics with family and friends.
With the beautiful natural features, wealth of amenities and huge future growth potential of Maroochydore, it is truly one of Australia’s most desirable addresses.
Resources and photo credit: https://www.visitsunshinecoast.com/maroochydore
