QLDPlanned settlement
Noosa Heads
A surveyed village on Laguna Bay that Gympie claimed as its seaside.
1879Noosa village surveyed
WHAT STARTED IT
Noosa Head shelters Laguna Bay and the mouth of the Noosa River, the outlet for timber cut around the lakes and shipped from Tewantin. In 1879 a village was surveyed along both sides of Hastings Street, a short walk from the ocean beach.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
Walter Hay, who had marked a route from Gympie to the Noosa River, built Bay View, one of the first boarding houses, and Gympie holidaymakers made Noosa their own watering place. Visitors came by boat from Tewantin until bridges were built in 1929 and the coastal road in 1959, after which cafés and apartments filled Hastings Street.
TURNING POINTS
1879The village of Noosa is surveyed along Hastings Street.
1880sWalter Hay’s Bay View, now Halse Lodge, opens as one of Noosa’s first boarding houses.
1897The Queenslander says Noosa is ‘claimed by Gympie as its own’ watering place.
1929A developer’s bridges over Doonella Lake and Weyba Creek let motorists reach Noosa.
1959The David Low coastal road opens Noosa Heads to motoring visitors.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A resort town of about 5,100 people beside Noosa National Park. Hastings Street’s low-rise scale reflects decades of local resistance to high-rise development.