A LEGACY OF LEISURE
The tourist resort of Mooloolaba reclines at the mouth of the Mooloolah River on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, 100km north of Brisbane. It forms part of the Maroochydore urban centre, with a resident population of about 7730 that swells many-fold with visitors throughout the year. The town’s name derives from an Aboriginal word referring to the snapper that abound in the local waters.
The Mooloolah River descends from the eastern slopes of the Blackall Range and flows for about 20 kilometres east-northeast to a narrow mouth on the Coral Sea at Mooloolaba. Its catchment of 221 square kilometres embraces Addlington Creek, which was dammed by the Ewen Maddock Dam in 1973, and Mountain Creek that divides the Mooloolah and Maroochy watersheds. Although their combined volumes don’t often produce major inundations, a flood warning system was established in 2004 to provide the Sunshine Coast Regional Council with river height predictions from a network of rainfall and river gauges.
In its lower reaches, the river branches into a number of channels that have been modified into canals and developed for the residential suburbs of Parrearra, Minyama and Buddina. This coastal lowland is bordered by the Coral Sea and a magnificent strand of uninterrupted beaches stretching from Point Cartwright, at the river mouth, south to Dicky Beach near Caloundra.
The northern arm of the Mooloolah River is bounded by a narrow spit of land edged on the seaward side by the beautiful Mooloolabah Beach, a long sandy stretch that is separated from Maroochydore Beach by the rocky Alexandra Headland. Bathed in sub-tropical sunshine, Mooloolaba
