The Sunshine Coast has developed into one of Queensland's premier food destinations, with an abundance of excellent restaurants, cafes, and artisan producers. Hastings Street in Noosa offers sophisticated waterfront dining with world-class restaurants, while Mooloolaba's Esplanade provides a more relaxed atmosphere with excellent seafood restaurants serving the day's catch straight from the local fishing fleet. The hinterland villages of Montville, Maleny, and Mapleton are renowned for their artisan cheese makers, chocolate factories, wineries, and farm-gate produce. Fresh seafood is the highlight, with Moreton Bay bugs, spanner crabs, local whiting, and snapper featuring prominently on menus. The region also boasts excellent coffee culture, with specialty roasters and beachside cafes serving some of Queensland's best brews. Brewery tours and gin distilleries add to the food and drink experience.

Sebel Noosa Hastings Street

Mantra Mooloolaba Beach

Ramada Marcoola Beach

Nomads Noosa

The Sunshine Coast, stretching from Caloundra in the south to Noosa in the north, is one of Queensland's most beautiful coastal regions and offers surprisingly diverse diving just south of the Great Barrier Reef. While not a coral reef destination, the Sunshine Coast compensates with exceptional wreck diving, dramatic rocky reef systems, and a rich diversity of temperate and subtropical marine life where the warm East Australian Current meets cooler southern waters. The HMAS Brisbane, a purpose-sunk naval destroyer, is one of Australia's premier artificial reef wrecks, sitting upright in 28 meters of water off Mooloolaba and covered in an extraordinary diversity of marine life after more than a decade of colonization. The artificial reef systems deployed throughout the region, including Gneering Shoals and the Sunshine Coast Artificial Reefs, have created thriving underwater ecosystems that attract large numbers of pelagic fish, wobbegong sharks, and rays. Mudjimba Island, also known as Old Woman Island, offers dramatic wall diving and bommies with excellent soft coral coverage and frequent encounters with leopard sharks during winter. The Noosa region adds cave diving at The Caves and reef diving at North Reef, while Currimundi Reef and The Pinnacles provide accessible shore and boat diving with abundant marine life. The region's growing reputation as a diving destination is matched by its outstanding food scene, beautiful beaches, and the stunning hinterland of the Glass House Mountains and Blackall Range.

Queensland – Sunshine Coast

The Sunshine Coast is easily accessed from Brisbane via the Sunshine Coast Airport (MCY) at Maroochydore, which receives direct flights from Sydney, Melbourne, and other capital cities, or a scenic 90-minute drive north from Brisbane along the Bruce Highway. The main diving departure points are Mooloolaba (for HMAS Brisbane, Mudjimba Island, and Gneering Shoals), Alexandra Headland, and Noosa (for the northern reef sites). The region has excellent road infrastructure, and most dive sites are within 15-30 minutes by boat from the departure marinas. Several well-established dive operators run daily trips from Mooloolaba, and the proximity to Brisbane makes the Sunshine Coast an accessible weekend diving destination for southeast Queensland residents.

Liveaboard Diving in Queensland – Sunshine Coast