Cotton Tree is a coastal neighbourhood within the suburb of

Maroochydore Maroochydore ( ) is a coastal town in the Sunshine Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the urban area of Maroochydore had a population of 63,673 people. The city was subdivided from the Cotton Tree reserve by Surveyor Thomas O'Conno ...

in the

Sunshine Coast Region The Sunshine Coast Region is a local government area located in the Sunshine Coast region of South East Queensland, Australia, from which it takes its name. It was created by the amalgamation in 2008 of the City of Caloundra and the Shires o ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, Australia.

Geography

Although not officially bounded, Cotton Tree is generally recognised as being bounded by the

Maroochy River The Maroochy River is a river in South East Queensland, Australia. The river rises from the eastern slopes of the Blackall Range and flows east through Eumundi before entering the sea at Cotton Tree, Maroochydore. Other populated centres in t ...

and Cornmeal Creek to the north, and to the south and west by Aerodrome Road and by the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

to the east.

Etymology

The area takes its name from a large ''

Hibiscus tiliaceus ''Hibiscus tiliaceus'', commonly known as the sea hibiscus or coast cottonwood, is a species of flowering tree in the mallow family, Malvaceae, with a pantropical distribution along coastlines. It has also been introduced to Florida and New Zeal ...

'' tree which is also known as the cotton tree. Plenty of these are still visible near the caravan park and old creek around Fourth Avenue.

History

The first European 'holiday maker' to arrive was convict John Graham in 1827 who escaped from Moreton Bay and spent six years living with local aborigines belonging to the

Gubbi Gubbi The Kabi Kabi people, also spelt Gubbi Gubbi, Gabi Gabi, and other variants, are an Aboriginal Australian people native to South Eastern Queensland. During the Australian frontier wars of the 19th century, there were several mass killings o ...

language group. The whole (

Maroochy Shire The Shire of Maroochy was a Local government in Australia, local government area about north of Brisbane in the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Sunshine Coast region of South East Queensland, South East Queensland, Australia. The shire covered an a ...

) area was protected by the Bunya proclamation 1842–1860. This was established after

Andrew Petrie Andrew Petrie (June 1798 – 20 February 1872) was a Scottish-Australian pioneer, architect and builder in Brisbane, Queensland. Early life Andrew Petrie was born in June 1798 in Fife, Scotland, to parents Walter Petrie and Margaret (''née'' ...

explored the area in 1838 and named the

using the language of Brisbane aboriginals who accompanied him. Timber getters arrived in the 1850s but the Maroochy River bar wasn't navigable so Mooloolah River bar was used instead with Cotton Tree used as a timber depot in 1856 by William Pettigrew and purchased 1864. He ran steamer ships in both rivers and to Brisbane and thus opened a post office receiving office in 1891 as the first shop in Cotton Tree. The headland at Alexandra Headland was used as a bullock paddock and for his own home which was also part of his 330-acre landholding. The Cotton Tree area was first gazetted as a wharf and water reserve (215 acres) in 1873. By 1880 it was re-gazetted as a camping reserve and used by the Salvation Army amongst others. The town of Maroochydore was subdivided from the Cotton Tree reserve in 1903 by Surveyor Thomas O'Connor. (Thomas & O'Connor streets both near Bradman Avenue bear his name). Until the 1910s, Cotton Tree was accessible only by water. Then a road through what is now Maroochydore was planned to access the area. By 1927 it was a main road. By 1937 it was a bitumen road. The fatal Maroochy air crash occurred on the beach on 30 December 1950. Cotton Tree Aquatic Centre was opened along the banks of the Maroochy River on 12 December 1981.

Heritage listings

Cotton Tree has a number of

heritage-listed This list is of heritage registers, inventories of cultural properties, natural and human-made, tangible and intangible, movable and immovable, that are deemed to be of sufficient heritage value to be separately identified and recorded. In ma ...

sites, including: * Cotton Tree Parade: Cotton Tree Caravan Park A heritage application for Cotton Tree Bacpackers timber building was made but subsequently refused.

Amenities

Cotton Tree has its own post office located in King Street since the 1930s. The suburb consists of a beach, a river mouth, several restaurants and cafes, lawn bowls club, RSL club, surf club, Swan's rugby club, library, child care centre, resorts, homes, units, Weir's surf shop, olympic swimming pool and numerous other shops, offices and businesses. The Maroochydore Surf Life Saving Club is right on the beach. Pincushion Island currently sits just 100m off the sand to the north of river mouth. (The river mouth moves not the Island) A large part of Cotton Tree is used for camping and is now known as the Cotton Tree Caravan Park. Today camping still takes place on 8.7ha of the total 90-110ha. The land size changes significantly based on the sand movement and development of river mouth. Cotton Tree includes 2 caravan parks which maybe heritage listed. Also includes 2 Rugby union fields, 6 tennis courts, 3 bowling greens, 50m swimming pool, 2x0.5 basketball courts, 2 ping pong tables and 2 waterfront parks, 1 on the river, 1 on the beach. Surf breaks include Pipes/Seabreeze, Poofters dunnies/Abdul's, Carpark, Pinnies, the Mouth and North Shore. (Pipes was named after the location of the old sewer effluent pipe, Poofters after a derelict toilet block, Abdul's after death of local surfer Ryan Abdy) Although 'unbounded' as a suburb it's generally recognised as being east of Aerodrome Road and including all numbered avenues and esplanades. Sometimes known as Forgotten Tree.

References

External links

Photo links

Old and New Post Office photo 1936/2010

Old and New Jetty photo 1930/2011

Postcard aerial photo 1975

Postcard aerial photo Pincushion
{{Sunshine Coast Region Suburbs of the Sunshine Coast Region Maroochydore Coastline of Queensland