Visitors to the Sunshine Coast these days will never know the wonders of a wall of bottles or hear their voices bounce around a concrete cow’s innards.
The House of Bottles and the Big Cow are just two of several Sunshine Coast tourist attractions that have disappeared over the years.
The Big Pineapple, which reopened after renovation last year, stands as a testament to tourism days gone by when visitors made beelines for the weird and wonderful.
The Big Shell on Gympie Terrace, Tewantin, was one of the first attractions to be built, and one of the last to go.
The shell marked the main entrance to the House of Shells, a shop displaying and selling, of all things, shells, based upon a collection gathered by a family during their trips to the Great Barrier Reef.
The Big Shell withstood a couple of changes of ownership, and people were still having their photo taken with it long after the House of Shells became a private residence.
However, after the property changed hands again about four years ago, the Big Shell was removed once and for all.
The House of Bottles was another Tewantin landmark. Built in the 1960s, it housed a collection of 5000 bottles up to 2000 years old.
Standing next to it was an 8.5m high Big Stubby, built from 17,000 bottles, and 5000 bottles were used to build the Wee Stubbies, highly talked about his and hers toilets.
The House of Bottles and its bottle friends were demolished in 2006.
The Big Cow, the world’s largest concrete sculpture of an Ayrshire cow at 10.8m long, 7.8m high and 3.5m wide, opened at Kulangoor in 1976.
It welcomed people to a dairy-themed attraction that included a restaurant, animal nursery, milking demonstration and farm tour.
The Big Cow was looking worse for wear before she was rehomed to the Highfields Pioneer Village near Toowoomba in early 2020, where she lives happily ever after.
Further down the Bruce Highway was the Forest Glen Deer Sanctuary, a drive-through deer park, and Superbee, which was geared towards bees and honey production. The deer sanctuary went into receivership in 1990 and Superbee was sold in 2008.
Another attraction existed at Tawawha involving a collection of things to see, while north on the Bruce Highway at Federal was a miniature village.
Pacific Paradise was home to the Pioneer Village, later known as Nostalgia Town, which, as the names suggest, were historically themed.
According to Our Sunshine Coast, visitors could take a ride on a scaled-down steam train through different settings and experience remote-control boats, silent movies, mini cars, mini golf and Albert’s Incredible Time Machine.
It was sold in 2003 and the land used for a retirement village.
A few kilometres away, the Endeavour replica, once based at Golden Beach and important enough to make it on to souvenir tea-towels, lived out its final days quietly at the Waterfront Hotel, Diddillibah.
World of Matchcraft on the Nicklin Way at Currimundi showed off John Hughes’ matchstick sculptures, before the works went to Cairns and were later bought by Ripley’s Museum for display around the world. As of last year, Mr Hughes, 88, was reportedly still creating his matchstick art at home on the Sunshine Coast.
Waterslides were once a huge source of summer fun.
Andrew and Anna Vizis opened the Pacific Waterslide at Alexandra Headland in 1986 after much nagging from their grandchildren, according to Our Sunshine Coast.
Later sold and renamed Olympia Theme Park, it was demolished in 1996 to make way for units.
There was also the Black Hole Waterslide, built and run by Max and Denise Morris and family at Currimundi, from 1982 to 1985.
At 182m, the Tanawha Waterslide was the largest in regional Australia. It was moved to the small town of Kulin in Western Australia.
The Mighty Putt and Water Wonderland at the Golden Beach turnoff at Caloundra featured Australia’s longest waterslide, 18 holes of mini golf and family fun.
Top Shots, tucked just off the Sunshine Motorway and Maroochydore Road at Maroochydore, packed a small but powerful punch.
It offered mini golf, rock climbing and blaster boats, while an inflatable waterslide and vertical trampoline also existed at times. The family fun park was sold in 2017 for a townhouse development.
Visit Sunshine Coast chief executive officer Matt Stoeckel noted the evolution of the region’s attractions.
“The Sunshine Coast’s tourism industry and attractions have evolved to better cater for the needs of today’s visitors,” Mr Stoeckel said.
“Today’s attractions continue to invest and improve their visitor experience to remain high on the to-do list for visitors coming to the region.
“A great example is Aussie World, which has continued to add new rides at the attraction, and are now looking at expanding further with a new waterpark, which would include waterslides, function areas, and food, drink and retail outlets.”
