Cotton Tree Caravan Park

Cotton Tree Caravan Park is a heritage-listed caravan park at Cotton Tree Parade, Cotton Tree, Sunshine Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 3 April 2009.HistoryThe lower reaches of the Maroochy River began to develop as a place of resort in the 1880s. On the southern bank at its mouth, where Cotton Tree Caravan Park is sited, a 215-acre Wharf and Water reserve was gazetted in 1873. Holiday makers informally camped on the reserve among the native Cotton trees (Hibiscus tiliaceus). The use of the reserve, adjacent to a calm, shallow stretch of the river, reflected the preferences of the Victorian era for seaside swimming, boating and fishing. Similar locations for resort on the North Coast (now known as the Sunshine Coast) developed in the same period at Caloundra and Tewantin.The Salvation Army established the area as a well known resort location. A yearly "Maroochy Heads encampment" was organised over the short break between Christmas and the New Year. The encampment provided a range of religious and leisure activities for local settlers and South Sea Islanders working on sugar cane farms at nearby Buderim, with alcohol, gambling and dancing prohibited. The first reported encampment was in 1896, when over 200 people stayed on the reserve. Later advertising by the Salvation Army suggests the encampment may have begun as early as 1888.