QLDPlanned settlement
Caloundra
A surveyed town on a headland, sold to the seaside crowd.
1883First town allotments auctioned
WHAT STARTED IT
Caloundra sits where the Pumicestone Passage meets the ocean, with sheltered water facing Bribie Island and surf beaches to the north. The government surveyed a town in the 1870s and began selling allotments in 1883, and the beaches soon drew holidaymakers.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
Hotels and guesthouses followed, a lighthouse was built near Caloundra Head in 1896, and from 1905–06 visitors could reach the town by road from Landsborough railway station. After wartime defences along the beaches, a development boom from the early 1950s made Caloundra the centre of Landsborough Shire.
TURNING POINTS
1883The first public sale of allotments in the surveyed town is held in April.
1888Steamer excursions from Brisbane bring visitors to the ‘new watering place’, where the hotel is being enlarged.
1896A lighthouse is built just west of Caloundra Head.
1917Robert Bulcock’s land is auctioned in Brisbane as the Bulcock Estate, mapped in 404 lots.
1968Landsborough Shire council chambers move to Caloundra.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A large coastal town on the southern Sunshine Coast, with its business district on Bulcock Street. The old lighthouse still stands on Canberra Terrace above Kings Beach.