During the 1960s, Bli Bli was a little bait shop and store on the banks of the Maroochy River beside the new bridge which had opened in 1959. There was excellent fishing and crabbing at Muller Park and its population of 206 at the 1961 census was mainly sugar cane farmers and their families. There were a couple of churches and a school but Bli Bli was still more a district than a town. It took off in the 1970s, so that by 1981, the population had quadrupled to 984. Residential estates continued to expand in all directions and within the next decade, it had mushroomed to 2386. As more cane land made way for housing, it just kept growing so that by 2006 it was home to 4416 people.
Six kilometres north-west of Maroochydore between the Bruce Highway and the Sunshine Motorway, Bli Bli is still more a district than a town, although it now has a local shopping centre as well as a caravan park and retirement homes. Officially, Bli Bli also takes in Rosemount, Diddillibah and Keil Mountain on the opposite side of the valley. The Bli Bli and Rosemount district has a land area of 6830 hectares with a density of 1.36 per hectare at the 2006 census.
Summing up: The Bli Bli-Rosemount district has the distinction of being on the coveted “eastern side of the highway” so that it is close to the beach but still a rural stronghold away from the rat race. As land has opened up and some cane farms turned over to residential development, heaps of affordable housing has been built, but there are still plenty of exclusive properties, especially high on the ridges.
