North Coast Roadside Rest Areas

Next time you travel to the Sunshine Coast, take the old Bruce Highway, established in 1935, and stop at one of the last three remaining roadside rest areas. The first at Petrie is located on Gympie Road, between the Pine River and Petrie. The Jowarra picnic area at Glenview’s popularity has been enhanced by the adjacent café on Steve Irwin Way, just south of the Caloundra turnoff and Paynter’s Creek on the Woombye Connection Road south of Nambour is accessed from Cobbs Road. They are reminders of a time when road travel was much slower, cars broke down or radiators boiled-over and families took picnic lunches on a trip. The Main Roads Commission built a series of rest stops along the highway to provide for the comfort of travellers. Most rest stops were created during the 1950s when traffic increased following the lifting of post-war petrol rationing. Many were planted with shade trees, and provided with rubbish bins, toilets, picnic shelters, water tanks and stone fireplaces to boil the billy and were often used by overnight campers. The Petrie Park includes a monument to Main Roads engineer, Frederick Stanwell Parkes, erected by the tree planting patrols.