Where the businesses actually are on the Sunshine Coast

The commercial capital of the region. The Maroochydore and Kuluin statistical area held 3,560 businesses at 30 June 2024, the largest count in the region, of which 528 were construction and 200 accommodation and food services. The priority development area was declared on 19 July 2013 at the request of Sunshine Coast Council, covers 60 hectares of central Maroochydore about 100 kilometres north of the Brisbane central business district, and its development scheme came into effect on 11 July 2014 and was amended in April 2016, August 2019 and 15 March 2024. Inside that 60 hectares, development assessment sits with Economic Development Queensland rather than the council. Sunshine Plaza, Ocean Street, Horton Parade, Aerodrome Road and the Kunda Park industrial pocket sit around it.

The Wurtulla and Birtinya statistical area held 1,339 businesses at 30 June 2024. Sunshine Coast University Hospital is at 6 Doherty Street, Birtinya, run by the Sunshine Coast Hospital and Health Service alongside Nambour General Hospital, Caloundra Health Service, Gympie Hospital and Maleny Soldiers Memorial Hospital. The scale shows up in ABS employment rather than council marketing: 43,445 employee jobs in health care and social assistance across the local government area in 2021-22, 15.8 per cent of all employee jobs and 7.5 per cent of every health care employee job in Queensland. Birtinya Town Centre, Kawana Shoppingworld at Buddina and the Nicklin Way strip through Warana, Bokarina and Wurtulla serve it.

The two service and light industrial pockets that carry the middle of the coastal strip. Kunda Park sits behind Maroochydore inside the Maroochydore and Kuluin and Buderim North statistical areas. The Parrearra and Warana area on the Nicklin Way corridor held 1,474 businesses at 30 June 2024, of which 306 were construction. Manufacturing across the Sunshine Coast local government area was 1,470 businesses at an index of 1.07 and 12,382 employee jobs in 2021-22, spread across food processing, marine, building products and light engineering. Formal boundaries, land areas and lot counts for these estates are not published by council, so none are stated here.

1,158 to 2,211 businesses depending on where you draw the line: the Mooloolaba and Alexandra Headland area held 2,211 businesses at 30 June 2024 with 146 accommodation and food services, 6.6 per cent of its local base, and the neighbouring Buddina and Minyama area held 1,158. The Esplanade is the trading address and the harbour supports the fishing fleet and marine services. There is no commercial cargo port on the Sunshine Coast, so sea freight for the region moves through the Port of Brisbane.

910 businesses at 30 June 2024, of which 69 were accommodation and food services, 7.6 per cent of the local base and the second highest hospitality concentration in the region. Bulcock Street is the main strip. Golden Beach and Pelican Waters adds 1,134 businesses and Moffat Beach and Battery Hill 860. Caloundra Health Service sits inside the town.

The Caloundra South priority development area was declared on 28 October 2010 across 2,323.5 hectares, with a development scheme that commenced on 8 October 2011 and was last amended on 28 February 2025. It is planned for approximately 20,000 dwellings and 15,000 jobs, marketed as Aura, and it includes an Aura Town Centre and an Aura Business and Industry Park. The area is bounded by the Bruce Highway to the west and Bells Creek Arterial to the south. The Caloundra West and Baringa statistical area over part of it held 1,329 businesses at 30 June 2024 and recorded the largest population growth of any statistical area level 2 outside the capital cities in 2023-24, up by 2,500 people, and the largest in the rest of Queensland in 2024-25, up by 2,000 people.

1,230 businesses at 30 June 2024, of which 118 were accommodation and food services, 9.6 per cent of the local base and the highest hospitality concentration in the region. It also has the lowest construction share of any coastal area here, 125 businesses or 10.2 per cent against a regional average above 20 per cent, which tells you how little is left to build. Hastings Street is the trading address. The whole shire sits inside the Noosa Biosphere Reserve, recognised under the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere programme on 20 September 2007 across 87,000 hectares of land and waterways and extending approximately 3 kilometres seawards.

1,894 businesses at 30 June 2024 including 122 accommodation and food services. Gympie Terrace runs along the Noosa River. Behind it, the Rene Street and Eumundi Road service and light industrial pocket is the closest thing Noosa Shire has to an industrial estate. Noosa Shire holds 279 transport, postal and warehousing businesses at an index of 0.46, the largest under representation on its register, so this pocket serves local trades and local service businesses rather than distribution.

Tewantin held 858 businesses at 30 June 2024 with Poinciana Avenue as its strip, Sunshine Beach 964 with 49 accommodation and food services, Peregian Beach and Marcus Beach 707 with 48 accommodation and food services at 6.8 per cent of its local base, and Peregian Springs 913. Peregian is where the two councils meet, which is why a seller here needs both fee registers rather than one.

2,935 businesses at 30 June 2024, the second largest count of any statistical area level 2 in the region, including 224 agriculture, forestry and fishing businesses, the largest agricultural concentration here. Cooroy, Pomona, Kin Kin, Cooran and Boreen Point sit inside it. Noosa recorded $13.6 million of gross agricultural production value at the 2020-21 Agricultural Census across 27,370.4 hectares of holdings, including 459 hectares of orchard fruit and nut trees.

Coolum Beach held 1,678 businesses at 30 June 2024, 410 of them construction, with the industrial estate off Quanda Road and Junction Drive at the northern end of the region’s industrial supply. The Marcoola and Mudjimba area held 1,303 businesses and contains Sunshine Coast Airport. The new runway is 2,450 metres by 45 metres, was completed and handed over in June 2020 with taxiway and apron work finished in December 2020, and accommodates aircraft such as the Airbus A330 and Boeing 787. Airport ownership, lease arrangements and current passenger throughput are not published with a reference period, so none are stated here.

1,773 businesses at 30 June 2024, of which 446 were construction, 25.2 per cent of the local base. Nambour is the old shire town, the site of Nambour General Hospital and the northern terminus of the current Citytrain service. It also carries the Nambour Special Entertainment Precinct, only the second precinct of its kind in Queensland, where entertainment uses including restaurants, bars, theatres and nightclubs with live or amplified music are exempt from the amplified music noise requirements of Queensland liquor licensing laws. Currie Street is the retail strip.

The Eumundi and Yandina area held 2,094 businesses at 30 June 2024 with 498 construction and 117 agriculture, and Yandina is the region’s food processing town. Palmwoods held 1,376 businesses with 86 agriculture, Landsborough 1,599 with 460 construction, and the Maroochy Hinterland 813 with 143 agriculture, 17.6 per cent of its local base. Maleny, Montville, Mapleton and Kenilworth sit in the wider hinterland and carry part of the 8,912.8 dairy cattle recorded for the local government area in 2020-21.

Beerwah held 841 businesses at 30 June 2024 with 98 in agriculture, and Glass House Mountains 582 with 104 in agriculture, 17.9 per cent of its local base and the highest agricultural share in the region. This is where the Bruce Highway and the North Coast railway line enter the region from the City of Moreton Bay. Heavy rail runs to Beerwah, Landsborough, Eudlo, Palmwoods, Woombye and Nambour. There is no rail line to Maroochydore, Mooloolaba, Caloundra or Noosa today.