noosa-heads

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6.7                   NOOSA NATIONAL PARK
LOCATION                    Park Road, Noosa Heads (Can also be accessed from Sunshine Beach)

TENURE                      National Park. 340NPW511

DATES                       1930

DESCRIPTION                 Noosa National Park is a near-continuous belt of natural coastal communities along the
                            Sunshine Coast from Coolum in the south to Noosa Heads in the north. The 2 200
                            hectares of the Park is an amalgamation of five separate national and environmental
                            parks and a few linking areas.

6.7.1       BRIEF HISTORY
In 1879 the Queensland Government gazetted a large proportion of the previous Aboriginal Reserve as Noosa Town
Reserve. It included the area covered by the northern section of the present Noosa National Park, and extended
westwards to what is now Noosaville, and southwards to include Lake Weyba and the land between the Lake and the
ocean.
It was out of this Town Reserve land that the first two sections of the National Park at Noosa Heads were created in
1930. They consisted of Portion R832 and Portion R833 and covered the two main patches of rainforest in the headland
area. The Governor of Queensland, Sir John Lavarack officially opened the Noosa National Park, on 14 October 1949. It
was recognised at the time that the area set aside for the Park contained two widely contrasting vegetations. At the
southern portion and south of the reserve is coastal wildflower country. In the northern section on the higher areas and in
the gullies is a pocket of rainforest containing hoop pine, piccabeen palm and Moreton Bay fig. 'Open Eucalypt forest
with bloodwoods, scrub box, forest oak, and sand cypress is also found in the reserve. Orchids, staghorns and elkhorns
are plentiful in this ‘living museum’ containing Qld flora in its primitive condition.’ 40
The next addition to the Park occurred in 1952 when the Noosa Council surrendered sixteen acres of land at Hell’s Gate
to the State Government for inclusion in the newly formed National Park; however, an earlier decision by Council proved
more controversial. In 1927 T M Burke Pty Ltd was given land at Sunshine Beach at the southern end of Alexandria Bay
by the Noosa Shire Council in return for building a road and constructing two bridges to link Tewantin and Noosa (one
over Lake Doonella and the other over Weyba Creek).
In the early 1960s this company devised a plan that was supported by Noosa Council to construct a road around the
coastline linking Noosa Heads to Sunshine Beach, following the route of the present day walking track. This would have
assisted T M Burke’s development in Alexandria Bay and also would have allowed development of the State
Government’s vacant crown land at the northern end of the Bay. However, after lobbying by the newly formed Noosa
National Parks Development Association (now known as the Noosa Parks Association) the government finally agreed to
add the coastal esplanade and the government-owned vacant crown land at the northern end of Alexandria Bay to the
Park. By December 1964 the Noosa Parks Association Newsletter reported ‘The announcement by the Minister for
Public Lands on 12th November that the Esplanade was to be closed as a roadway and added to the Noosa National
Park, represents the achievement of one of the major objectives for which our Association was formed.’ 41
Denied access from Noosa Heads, T M Burke attempted to obtain road access to its land development in Alexandria Bay
from Sunshine Beach. This was frustrated in 1967 when ‘...the Conservator of Forests has been invited to arrange for the
Noosa Park boundaries to be altered to include the 50 acres of vacant Crown Land in Alexandra [sic] Bay.’42 Additionally,
a state government owned water reserve (R334) on the headlands above Paradise Caves was added to the National
Park in 1972 after lobbying by the then President of the Noosa Parks Association.
From the early 1970s Noosa Parks Association had been working to have government owned land between Lake Weyba
and the ocean added to the National Park ‘Application has also been made...for the gazettal of a national park of about
2,000 acres of land constituting the Timber Reserve (R977) and adjacent lands near Peregian.’ 43 In 1979 T M Burke
agreed to surrender its freehold land at Alexandria Bay in return for more extensive land holdings elsewhere and there
was fear that ‘...the area...is now endangered by the expansion of sub-division of the T.M. Burke estate...’44. By the mid
1980s the area survived threats from sand mining companies, but it was not until 1991 and after a battle to prevent the
location of a coastal highway through the proposed Lake Weyba extension to the Park that the Noosa Shire Council and
the Queensland Government agreed and the Park was extended south to the shire boundary at Peregian.
In 1992 the heathlands and swamps running west of David Low Way at Peregian Beach, now known as Emu Swamp
was added to the Park extending its range along the coast from Hells Gate to Coolum.

40
     ‘Noosa Heads’ unpublished notes, Noosa Shire Museum, Noosa POI.I.
41
     Noosa Parks Association, News Bulletin No 6, December 1964, np.
42
     Noosa Parks Association, News Bulletin No 13, July 1967, np.
43
     Noosa Parks Association, News Bulletin No 21, May 1971, np.
44
     Noosa Parks Association, President’s Report 1980, np.