When Rex Testro acquired leases to all the land between Coolum and Mudjimba in the early 1960s, he called his new development Suncoast, and at the centre of that development was Marcoola. The name came from its location halfway between Maroochydore and Coolum.
Throughout the 1960s, its claim to fame was an elegant kidney-shaped swimming pool beside an equally stylish new kiosk and cafeteria. It was free to the public, a big deal at a time when swimming pools still had novelty value. Between the pool and the ocean was a park and playground. The first houses went up in streets around the kiosk. There was no doubt that Marcoola was ahead of its time with its modern but very ‘60s development. A few more homes were added during the1970s and ‘80s, but the spotlight faded.
The pool is gone and it now has a surf club but Marcoola, between the ocean and the David Low Way, has not had enough room to expand too much further and remains a quieter residential area than most other suburbs beside the sea.
The airport is on its back doorstep and on its northern border is Town of Seaside, a slick master-planned community that opened in the mid-1990s to become the Marcoola of the new millennium. With Twin Waters, Pacific Paradise and Mudjimba, it is part of a 2575ha statistical district that had a population density of 3.81 people per hectare at the 2006 census, due mainly to the line of apartment towers on the beachfront further south.
Summing up: Marcoola is a long-established and generally more relaxed beachfront suburb. Town of Seaside to the north, with Mt Coolum as its backdrop and the ocean on its doorstep, is its upmarket neighbour. Both are largely made up of residential streets with some local shopping, dining and commercial centres. School is a drive away.
