Better late than never

Well greetings to one and all, I have been getting a bit of flack from many of my crafty friends to update my blog with all things crafty and not crafty. I have decided to give you a little bit of info first of the area closest to when Brian and I are currently living, I hope you enjoy this little bio of Caloundra.
The story of Caloundra and the quick facts bio were taken from an article
written in a local magazine that is distributed around the local area.
Hope you enjoy reading a little about our beautiful area.

Where we live - Remember when ..............

We live in a suburb called "Little Mountain" - which is the suburb just before
Caloundra. It may not have been swinging, but Caloundra in the 1960s was a town on the cusp of significant change.

A five bedroom home, fully furnished, with all amenities and 120 - degree views of the ocean, the advertisement read on Christmas Eve, 1968.

The price? Just $10,000 - and that was among Norm Butler Real Estate's more expensive listings. A new three - bedroom furnished "surf home" was a snap at $8,500. Caloundra was still a very small place then.

"Nobody had to lock their doors, because there was only one road into Caloundra and therefore only one road back out of town if anyone was to steal anything." Until the late 1950s, Landsborough was the commercial capital of the shire of the same name.

Like the rest of the Sunshine Coast, it was the small towns along the railway line that mattered. Primary production still ruled, and tourism and property development were still to become viable economic interests. Visitors to Caloundra arrived at Landsborough railway station where they boarded a bus or booked a private vehicle for the journey down to the sea.

There was no coastal road north to Mooloolaba, just a rutted, sandy track that was finally sealed to become Nicklin Way in 1964. It was reported in May 1963 that work was expected to start on the "missing link" of the North Coast Highway in "about a month". "The link" is the 7.25 mile Caloundra - Mooloolaba section of the 30 - mile Caloundra - Noosa coastal highway". The report said that tenders had been let to construct the highway, including 3 bridges. The work would mean spending 350,000 pounds before June 30, 1964. Contracts stipulated that the bridge over Currimundi Creek had to be completed within eight months and over Tuckers Creek, north of the Mooloolaba River, by June 30 - 1964.

"The imminent start on the Caloundra - Mooloolaba coastal road ends a two - year halt on construction," the report said. "The section was originally scheduled to be completed by December 31, 1962, but the State Government extended the date until June 30, 1964". Significantly for Caloundra, Nicklin Way signalled that the Coast was ready to take over

from the hinterland as the economic heart of the shire. Four years later, in 1968, the Landsborough Shire Council moved it headquarters from Landsborough to a new building at the corner of Bulcock and Minchington streets. Its former  building in Landsborough, where many historic decisions were made, is now a museum, and now even the new Caloundra offices have long since become redundant. Council operations were expanded to its current building at the corner of Minchinton

Street and Omrah Avenue in 1995, less that a decade after Landsborough Shire officially became Caloundra City Council on December 19, 1987.

By 1988 Caloundra was well and truly on the map as a destination in its own right. It's population had virtually tripled in the decade from 1970 - 80. The property cycle peaked in 1976 - 77, again in 1980 - 81 and 1984 - 85, and shot to its highest level in 1988 - 89, with 1993 - 94 not far behind that. It then slowed in the mid to late 1990s before another resurgence in the new millennium.

 

Quick facts on Caloundra

The Caloundra Lighthouse was built on Canberra Terrace in 1898 and guided the ship into Brisbane until 1969. It was moved to Golden beach's Woorim Park a year later and is owned by the National Trust.

The Centaur plaque on Caloundra Headland pays tribute to the Australian hospital ship Centaur, which was torpedoed and sunk by a Japanese submarine off the coast of Caloundra in May 1943. Only 64 of the 365 medical staff and crew survived.

The SS Dickey Memorial stands in the park at Dickey Beach to mark the spot where the vessel carrying 11 crew and 40 tonnes of sand was forced on to the beach during heavy seas in 1893. Attempts to refloat the ship were unsuccessful and only a skeleton still remains on the sand.

Large tankers and liners make a spectacular sight today as they use the passage just off the coast of Caloundra to move into the port of Brisbane. Kings Beach is a popular spot for viewing the modern - day giants of the sea at close range.