BACKWARD GLANCE: Easter memories

Easter provides the opportunity to get away from the everyday routine with consecutive public holidays and school holidays at a time of year when the temperature drops a little.

It was and still is no better time for holidays.

Photographs captured on Picture Sunshine Coast show many South East Queensland families driving to their favourite camping or holiday spot somewhere on the Sunshine Coast, pitching their tent at a campsite or checking into a holiday flat or guesthouse.

Recreational pursuits were of a simple kind; like going for a hike or heading to the beach for fishing and swimming.

Long beach walks or mountain climbing were not uncommon as the weather became a little cooler.

Sunshine Coast newspaper the Advertiser, 30 March 1977 suggests:

Get away to it all – expounding the virtues of being outdoors over Easter.

There’s Freedom off the Highway -

The game of chance, meeting the unexpected, adds to the enjoyment of regular outdoor pursuits. Anything’s possible, even if your excursion is by car for a picnic in a park. You might get a flat tyre; you might come across a strange species of bird, you might meet someone unexpectedly. Ask a bushwalker or a Sunday camper why he’s out there he is likely to answer ‘because it makes me feel good’. Advertiser, p. 39.

Thanks to Sunshine Coast Council’s Heritage Library Officers for the words and Picture Sunshine Coast for the images.

Camping on the Spit at Mooloolaba, Easter, 1935.  
By the 1930s the camping ground on the riverside of Parkyn Parade had become a popular spot for holiday makers. In 1938 the land was surveyed into Reserve R633 containing ten acres gazetted for camping purposes. By 1950 basic facilities and toilets were provided and by the mid-1960s some 300 campsites were occupied during vacation periods. In the 1980s the land was closed to camping and developed as a recreation site containing The Wharf and Underwater World. The land on the ocean side of the Spit was reserved as Parkyn Parade Caravan Park. Modern amenities were provided and a number of people became permanent residents living in caravans.
 

Youths gathered by their friend’s motor car in Maroochydore at Easter 1933.

Family groups with friends enjoying their Easter holidays at Maroochydore, 1933.

Easter Parade Bulcock Street, Caloundra ca. 1966.

Games on the sports oval during a children's camp at Alexandra Park, the Presbyterian Church's Conference Property, Alexandra Headland, 1950s.

The Presbyterian Church had purchased the property from Thomas O'Connor in 1945 to provide a permanent location for holiday and teaching camps, conferences etc. The oval was located at the front of the property facing Alexandra Parade. It was first used at Easter 1957 and subsequently became regular site for games and sporting events held during Church camps.