QLDRail & telegraph
Coolum Beach
A sugar-cane tramway turned swampy selections into a seaside estate.
1923Cane tramway reaches Coolum
WHAT STARTED IT
The coastal plain below Mount Coolum was swampy country taken up for cattle and timber from 1871. Drainage opened it to sugar cane, and the cane tramway extended to Coolum in 1923 also carried passengers to the beach.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
The tramway prompted the Mount Coolum Beach subdivision, sold with promises of bathing sheds, golf links and holiday trams from Nambour. Cane farming carried the district until the 1960s, when the small resort of about 200 residents began to grow into a town.
TURNING POINTS
1923The cane tramway to Coolum opens and begins carrying passengers.
1925Coolum Estate allotments are auctioned, with Christmas trams from Nambour.
1970sHoliday development lifts the population past 1,000.
1986A public campaign saves Mount Coolum from development.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A Sunshine Coast beach town of about 9,200 people. Mount Coolum, saved from development in 1986, is now a national park.