The first rail town north of Nambour and the key access point for the beaches around Coolum, Yandina held on to its small country town vibe longer than those south of Nambour which found themselves in the Brisbane commuter belt.
The locality includes North Arm and Verrierdale in the north, across Mt Ninderry, Yandina Creek and Valdora to Coolum Creek and the Maroochy River in the east, and south to Kulangoor, taking in Wappa Falls. Cooloolabin is hidden in the bush to the west.
Yandina is an old township. The first settlers arrived in 1853 and the town was established in 1870, with more residents arriving after the opening of the railway line in 1891.
There was then little residential development until the 1960s but even then it remained a small country town with a post office, pub, school of arts, railway station, school, bowls club, supermarket and a few other basic retail services, for another three decades.
Even as the foothills and slopes of Mt Ninderry were turned over to prime residential estates and the Maroochy River acreages between the M1 and the Sunshine Motorway opened up, Yandina township held on to its roots.
A large industrial estate, where the Ginger Factory was relocated when the streets of Buderim became too expensive, is at the eastern entrance to the town, which prospered after the opening of the Bruce Highway bypass.
The Yandina district has a land area of 9704 hectares, much of it large tracts of former caneland and national park, and a population of 0.55 people per hectare at the 2006 census.
Summing up: Yandina is a quiet and generally affordable family area, with plenty of residential opportunities from basic houses around town to mansions in the slopes to the east. In the west, the forests around Cooloolabin and Wappa still offer some isolation for anyone wanting to escape the rat race. The district has long since changed from Hicksville to Pleasantville.
