With the Pacific Ocean forming one border and the Mooloolah River another, Mooloolaba was always going to be special. Things first started happening in 1864, when the river was identified as a handy port for shipping timber to Brisbane.
Mooloolah Heads, with a name too close to the hinterland rail town, was then renamed Mooloolaba in the 1920s, and the first allotments were sold along the riverfront up to the surf. It was a fishing village and popular holiday spot for settlers from Buderim, Palmwoods and Woombye. Construction of the spit and the opening of the Mooloolaba Harbour in 1968 guaranteed that one of the oldest beach towns would be a popular resort.
The main beach and its extension around to the Spit provides some of the best and safest surfing and swimming on the coast and is patrolled by the long-established Mooloolaba Surf Lifesaving Club.
Learning from Surfers Paradise, planners ruled that the high-rise accommodation towers that went up to house the numbers that kept pouring in, were kept far enough back from the front to not shade the beach. The council has also done its bit over the years by providing plenty of green picnic spots and a boardwalk through the dunes, as well as the landmark Loo with a View and landscaped esplanade.
The esplanade is a busy cosmopolitan mix of restaurants, coffee shops and boutique shops while in contrast, the beach is a peaceful picture of blue sea lapping white sand. Mooloolaba is also known for its tourist sites and nightclubs and the harbour is popular in yachtie circles and also for its fishing fleet.
Construction of numerous high-rise apartments, combined with the original housing spreading back from the ocean and river, has seen it become one of the most densely populated areas on the coast, with 23.6 per hectare at the 2006 census, but this hasn’t detracted from its preeminent liveability.
Summing up: Mooloolaba is a holiday resort backed by long-established residential streets. There are some homesites and unit developments on canals but while most residential properties don’t have water views, they are within an easy walk of one of the best beaches and esplanades around. As one of the older suburbs, it has a school and post office as well as a large supermarket and some commercial offices, but for the most part, it’s a holiday town.
