Noosa's Sporting History
Background
The Noosa Shire Thematic History (Nissen, 2024) identified Sport and Recreation as a sub-theme (8.5) of the Queensland Thematic Framework (QTF). The QTF outlines the broad patterns which have historically governed the development of the colony and subsequent state of Queensland. It helps to provide a basis for exploring a region's history based around broad patterns and themes that are common across Queensland. Sport and recreation fits into 'Theme 8. Creating social and cultural institutions'.
By examining sport and recreation in this way, it's possible to see sport in a larger context and as something more than an individual pursuit or pertinent only to cluster of people with one common interest. Sport has a fundamental place in the development of community, and examining the origins of sport and recreational activities in a region gives rise to a greater understanding of a variety of aspects: how geography impacts sporting opportunities; social strata in society; how communities organise and lobby for recreational & sporting facilities; and what major events are celebrated and how, to name a few.
The Project
In 2026, the Heritage Library embarked on a project to document aspects of Noosa’s Sporting History. Given the potentially large range of research possibilities in this broad topic, it was necessary to focus on specific areas. It is recognised that many sporting organisations have documented their histories, particularly around a milestone date in an association or club’s history. This project seeks to gather as many of these already documented histories as possible for inclusion in the Local Studies Collection.
The project also presents an opportunity to do in-depth studies into certain aspects of Noosa’s sporting history. Geography plays a factor in the sporting opportunities in any given region. The presence of the Noosa River and lakes system has provided an opportunity for sailing and still-water swimming to become pivotal aspects of the social fabric of the communities that fronted these water bodies. Topic 1 looks at the sport of sailing & Topic 2, the sport of swimming. Research into Topic 2 will also investigate the community’s role in lobbying for the construction of an Olympic sized pool at Noosa.
Finally, major sporting events such as the Australian-hosted Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games have touched our region in an increasing way since the first Australian Olympics were held in Melbourne in 1956. With a view to the 2032 Brisbane Olympic Games, Topic 3 looks examines how our region has participated in the lead-up to these major sporting events through torch relays and community celebrations.
These particular aspects of Noosa’s Sporting history will be documented through oral history interviews and three research papers prepared by a historian engaged by Noosa Council.
In addition, a collection of sporting images is being compiled from the existing Heritage Noosa collection and the Noosa Museum Image Collection. Sunshine Coast Libraries have shared images pertaining to the Noosa region from the Robinson Collection. As a result, for the first time, a curated collection of digitised sporting images is being built and accessible from this project page.
As part of the project, an opportunity arose to film an Olympics Taskforce 2032 event held at Sunshine Beach Surf Club on 22 May 2026 to honour Sunshine Coast Olympians.
Video - Celebrating 70 Years of Olympic Legacy
Anyone wishing to share photographs, video, film, manuscripts, ephemera or other information on Noosa's Sporting History is invited to contact the Heritage Librarian - heritage@noosa.qld.gov.au
The project will continue into 2027.
Extract from:
Thematic History of Noosa Shire by Judith Nissen
8.5 Sport and Recreation
Some sporting activities and clubs introduced as communities developed were common to many small communities of the late 19th century and throughout much of the 20th century.
Sporting teams were established, including, usually, cricket, football, tennis and, especially in country areas, rifle shooting. Athletics competitions were also held, and horseracing was popular. Racetracks were carved out of rural properties or established as a part of showgrounds; similarly, the showgrounds frequently incorporated cricket pitches and/or football fields. Tennis courts were built on properties, in school grounds, as recreational offerings by guesthouses, or as stand-alone civic facilities. The beach and riverside resorts offered sports such as swimming, tennis, golf and bowls. Government promotional literature of 1955 mentioned the sports and recreations available to visitors, including sailing, fishing, swimming and surfing, walking and picnicking, and tennis, bowls and golf. Later, new housing estates such as Peregian had sporting facilities such as pools, ovals and tennis courts built early in their development. More recently, facilities such as swimming pools and bowls lawns were constructed as integral parts of retirement complexes.
By the early 1900s cricket clubs were established in Pomona, Tewantin, and Cooran; a decade later others had been formed in Kin Kin and Cooroy. A Noosa Shire Cricket Association was formed in 1919, with membership by clubs from Pomona, Cooroy, Cooran, Skyring Creek and Kin Kin.
Football clubs, playing various codes, were formed during the early 20th century. The Cooroy Mountaineers (code unknown, but probably rugby league) was formed in the winter of 1909, with a maroon and sky blue jersey; and a Pomona “Rugby Football” club began in 1910. Both appear to have played against opposing teams from up and down the North Coast railway line, as far as north as Gympie, and south to Eumundi or further afield. A North Coast Rugby League had also been formed, and teams had been established at Cooran and Tewantin. The code played by various teams was, however, somewhat fluid. For example, in 1932 the Central Coast Rugby League resolved instead to play rugby union that season, changing its name to the North Coast Rugby Union, taking in former rugby league clubs including Cooran, Cole’s Creek, Cootharaba and Pomona. The Shire today is home to a number of football codes, totalling ten clubs, with several such as the Noosa Tigers AFL, Noosa District Rugby League, Noosa Lions Football [soccer] Club and Noosa Touch tracing their establishment back to the 1970s.
A golf course at Cooroy, constructed by members of the community during 1934 and 1935, was completed by February 1935. The following year a start was made on a community golf course at Tewantin on land purchased from the Shire Council; again, most of the work was done by club members. The course was not officially opened until 30 September 1939. The Tewantin-Noosa Bowls Club was formed in mid-1949, and opened its new clubhouse on 21 June 1980.
Other recreational opportunities abound in the modern Shire – totalling over 100 clubs, not-for-profit organisations, and commercial entities concerned with providing a wide range of sporting and recreational opportunities to residents and visitors, young and old, and from the grass roots to elite levels. Additional to these are the opportunities for nature-based recreation in national parks, on beaches and along waterways
Surf lifesaving
Surf lifesaving in the Shire began at Noosa beach when John Donovan, proprietor of Laguna House, purchased a safety reel. It was installed over Easter 1915 by a six-man Royal Life Saving Society team from Brisbane. This innovation did not, however, result in the immediate formation of a local club – there were simply too few visitors or residents to support establishment of a permanent club. More than a decade elapsed before more regular patrols were introduced, instituted by the Noosa Shire Council over the 1926/7 Christmas holiday period. A Royal Lifesaver instructor was employed for three days, probably using the reel at Laguna House. A year later, members of the Alexandra Heads Club provided a holiday patrol.
A local club was finally formed in April 1928 – the Cooroy Royal Life Saving and Surf Club was almost immediately renamed Noosa Heads. Club members provided surf patrols on both shores of the Noosa River. A decision that same month to ask the Noosa Shire Council to erect a storage shed at North Shore was apparently dropped.
The Club’s first headquarters were constructed at Sunshine Beach, then known as Golden Beach. In March 1929 real estate development company T.M. Burke Pty Ltd was approached to donate land; the company did so, and helped fund construction of a clubhouse, by Westbrook Brothers. Construction commenced in November 1929 and the clubhouse was completed within two months. The formation of the “Golden Beach Surf Life Saving Club” in 1936 rendered the Noosa club homeless, as they still had no clubhouse at Noosa, despite most, if not all, their patrols being concentrated there for a number of years. A decade after its formation, plans were underway to construct a clubhouse at Noosa Main Beach, which was officially opened on 22 December 1940. Attempts were made in 1949 to reintroduce patrols at Sunshine Beach, by members of the Noosa Heads Surf Club. Nothing came of this until in the mid-1970s the idea was resurrected, again with no result.
Over some 60 years, the Peregian Beach Surf Lifesaving Club has had its ups and downs. Assisted by T.M. Burke Pty Ltd, developers of the Peregian Beach estate, the Peregian Beach Surf Life Saving Club was formed in 1962. The only facility for the fledgling club was a “clubhouse” – a shed perched on the dunes to shelter lifesavers on patrol. Twelve years later, in 1974, a cyclone destroyed the “clubhouse”. Combined with a precarious financial situation, this was enough to cause the disbandment of the club. It took a further ten years for the club to be re-formed in October 1984, supported by donations from a number of other surf clubs, and a local holiday resort; the first stage of a clubhouse was completed the following year and it was further expanded in 1995. In 2014 the club once again folded, due to financial problems. The Noosa Heads Surf Life Saving Club continued patrols at Peregian until the club could be re-formed, which was completed with its incorporation in 2021. Sunshine Beach Surf Lifesaving Club is even younger, having begun patrols in the summer of 1980 to 1981; 20 years later it opened a rebuilt clubhouse, in January 2020.
Still-water bathing
In accordance with the prevailing attitudes to bathing and fresh air, in the 1890s Tewantin was praised as a healthy watering place.
Riverine bathing around Queensland usually involved the construction of timber enclosures extending from the shoreline, and sometimes bordered by floating gangways. Swimmers could then float, swim, and play free from fear of currents, sharks and more. River baths relied on tidal flows to flush and renew the water. Few bathing enclosures seem to have lasted long, due to the effects on the timber of water, tides, winds, floods and borers; repairs and rebuilding were frequent.
In 1895 the press reported that Mrs Myles, publican of the Royal Mail Hotel, had let a contract for the erection of a bathhouse, considered to be of particular value to women and children who could then “swim without the slightest danger”. The baths were completed within a month.
Twenty years later it seems that the Royal Mail baths had either disappeared or were derelict. In 1914 the Tewantin divisional councillor asked Noosa Shire Council to borrow £500 to erect a number of sporting facilities at Tewantin – public baths, a “pavilion” (purpose and location not stated), and public tennis court. Such borrowing was not supported by the Tewantin Progress Association which was hoping for a tramline from Eumundi to bring in sufficient visitors, and thus funds, to render the impost on local ratepayers unnecessary. The tramline was never constructed, but the following year the Council proposed to build the baths. Noosa Shire Council completed the swimming enclosure in the Noosa River at Tewantin in late 1915 or early 1916, on the site gazetted in 1902. In March 1916, Council’s Overseer recommended that “a notice be put up … warning persons against bathing without proper costume, a case of the kind having been reported recently”. Appointment of a caretaker was also recommended, and the Tewantin Progress Association was asked for suggestions about the best way to manage the baths.
New or rebuilt baths were opened here in December 1923, under the aegis of the Tewantin Memorial Baths Committee, but by the late 1920s the baths were run down, if not derelict. In 1930 the Tewantin Public Baths Improvement Committee, comprising members of the public, was elected. The baths (presumably the timber enclosure) needed to be rebuilt and made shark-proof, the rocks covered in oyster shells removed, a sandy bottom laid, and new dressing sheds with showers and lockers erected.
Although the enclosure in 1962 was deemed unsafe for bathing, learn-to-swim lessons for the schoolchildren of the Noosa District continued to be held there. As late as 1969-70 the Shire Council was spending funds on the pool. In 1969 it planned to make improvements such as installing additional lighting, adding “turning boards”, and working on the sand wall on the western side of the pool. In late December 1969 the Tewantin-Noosa Amateur Swimming Club was complaining that sand washing into the pool on the western side was making the water too shallow for swimming, making it impossible to hold a “decent carnival”. Members of the public were also complaining about the use of the pool, wading pool and changerooms by dogs, whether with their owners or unaccompanied is unclear. In the summer of 1975, ongoing pollution fears prompted the Council to close the river baths; two years later new swimming and wading pools were opened on or near the site of the original pool. By October 1991, these new pools needed extensive repairs, and they were eventually closed in ca 1995.
