Noosa History
Gympie Terrace as it was.
Noosa's reputation as a tourist destination began long before white man settled in the region. For almost 40,000 years the Kabi tribe were part of a nation of aborigines who inhabited the area from Redcliffe near Brisbane, north to the Noosa River and west to Cooroy and Nambour.
By nature's standards they were a rich and successful tribe who enjoyed all the natural abundance and pleasures of the area. The Bunya festival, which was a famous celebration of the harvest of the Bunya nut (believed to be the oldest festival known to man) attracted tribes from as far afield as northern N.S.W. and Western Queensland and was celebrated in the nearby Blackall Ranges.
It was logging and then gold that first attracted white man to the region in the early 1800s. Logs were rafted downstream along the Noosa River from Lake Cootharaba to Tewantin where they awaited loading onto ocean going vessels.
In the later 1800s Tewantin acted as the gateway to the Gympie goldfields 50kms away. It was then that people from the township of Tewantin started to use the beaches and fishing estuaries of Noosa.
Noosa has changed considerably since those days. It has developed from a small fishing hamlet to a world-standard holiday destination.
