General information

Welcome to the Sunshine Coast

The Sunshine Coast is the ‘laid-back’ version of the Gold Coast. Here there are kilometres of beaches stretching from Caloundra in the south to Noosa in the north.

Caloundra will be the main centre of activities. Here within easy walking distance via a coastal path are the protected calm water beaches of Golden Beach and Bulcock Beach as well as the open ocean surfing beach of Kings Beach. More on local beaches can be found at the Caloundra Council’s site at www.caloundra.qld.gov.au and follow the links through ‘City Visitors’ to ‘Local Beaches’. There is also a webcam for Kings Beach.

Caloundra is one hour’s drive north of Brisbane. Interstate visitors can access the city either from the Brisbane Domestic Airport or the Maroochydore airport. The Sunair bus service operates a door to door service from either Airport. Bookings should be made on-line at www.sunair.com.au or by phoning 1800 804 340.

Hire cars are available from both airports. The local bus company – Sunbus – operates regular services throughout Caloundra and the Sunshine Coast. Timetables are available from the Sunbus website at www.sunbus.com.au by clicking on the Sunshine Coast link. Many places including beaches and shopping can be accessed by the timeless mode of transport – walking!

The weather at this time of the year should be very agreeable. At this time of the year, average temperatures for Caloundra range from a minimum of around 14 degrees C to a maximum of around 24 degrees C. The Maleny Plateau will about 5 degrees cooler than these temperatures. Rainfall averages from 50-80mm with an average of 4-rain days per month.

Caloundra is in close proximity to many theme parks including Australia Zoo, Aussie World and the Ettamogah Pub, UnderWater World and the Big Cart Track. Links to all of these can be found on the Caloundra Tourism website – www.caloundratourism.com.au For those more closely attuned to nature, there are the parks of Maleny, the Glasshouse Mountains and Noosa.

The conference venue – the Sunshine Coast University – will be accessed by a free daily shuttle bus leaving the Rydges Resort pick-up point at 8.00am and returning at 4.15pm. The Wednesday field trips will all leave from the Rydges Resort pick-up point in Golden Beach.

Caloundra has its own public hospital as well as several medical centres including the Golden Beach Medical Centre in Landsborough Parade several blocks south of Rydges Resort. Apart from the Hospital there are no 24-hour Medical Centres nearby.