“The Gem of the Sunshine Coast” was Caloundra’s original announcement to motorists leaving the Bruce Highway and heading to the region’s first port of call from the south.
Once the biggest of the early seaside townships, Caloundra became the family destination, the quieter and more sedate end of the Sunshine Coast where children could paddle in the still waters of Pumicestone Passage or young surfers could always find a wave.
Bulcock Street, a dirt road in 1960, still looked like the main street of a country town long after it became a tourist centre but during the past two decades, Caloundra has shed any hint of being a bit tired and old-fashioned, and is now right up with the best as a pedestrian friendly, social hub where lifestyle meets amenity.
Over time, original beach houses and old brick six-pack holiday units have been replaced by elegant apartment complexes and Caloundra has become the apartment capital of the region. Unit blocks, many of them high-rise, line the waterfront from Golden Beach north to Moffat Beach.
Bulcock, the only Sunshine Coast beach beside a traditional CBD, has recently been tidied up with the opening of the ultra slick Waterfront precinct where cafes overlook the water and boardwalk and a landscaped park. Caloundra is big on parks and for the length of its coastline, the foreshores have been fashioned into some form of public recreation space.
One of Caloundra’s strongest features though, remains its spectacular views both west across Pumicestone Passage to the Glass House Mountains and east to the shipping lanes off King’s Beach headland, itself a highlight of the Sunshine Coast coastal path from Diamond Head to Noosa.
Caloundra is tidily contained in a promontory, bounded by the ocean and Pumicestone Passage, that peaks at the King’s Beach Headland. It includes Kings, Moffat and Shelly Beaches and although popular opinion puts Dicky Beach also as part of Caloundra, the statistical district has it with Currimundi next door. With the Nicklin Way as its western border, it officially covers an area of 580 hectares and at the 2006 census, had 17.91 people per hectare, due mainly to the abundance of apartment blocks.
Summing up: As an old township in its own right, Caloundra is fully self-contained with a CBD, separate shopping mall, hospital, schools, a large entertainment and events centre, golf course and everything else that makes up a town, all beside the sea. It has a complete range of housing opportunities, from mobile home parks to luxury penthouses and everything in between.
