The stretch of coast from the top of Bribie Island to Noosa is known as the Sunshine Coast. It's a popular holiday area, renowned for fine beaches, good surfing and fishing. Although it doesn't have the high-rise jungle and neon-lit strips of the Gold Coast, the coast is still quite commercial and has been heavily developed.

Noosa is the most fashionable and exclusive town on the coast, but it also has a good range of budget accommodation, an excellent national park and great beaches. Maroochydore is also quite popular. North of Noosa is the Cooloola National Park and Rainbow Beach an access point for Fraser Island.

About 20km north of Caboolture, the Glass House Mountains are a dramatic visual starting point for the Sunshine Coast. They're a bizarre series of volcanic crags rising abruptly out of the plain to a height of around 300m.

At the southern end of the Sunshine Coast, Caloundra has some decent beaches and excellent fishing, but compared with places further north, it's a bit faded these days. It's still a popular holiday town with families, and has numerous caravan parks and holiday flats.

North from Caloundra, the coast is built-up most of the way to the triple towns of Mooloolaba, Alexandra Headland and Maroochydore, which sprawl together to form the Sunshine Coast's biggest and most heavily developed urban conglomeration.

The focal point of this stretch of coast is the majestic Fraser Island. At 120krn long it's the world's largest sand island. Hervey Bay, the major access point for the island, has grown into a busy tourist centre, while the southern access point is the sleepy and attractive Rainbow Beach.

Rainbow Beach located 70km north-east of Gympie is the southern access Point for Fraser Island and the northern access point for the Cooloola National Park.

The seasonal changes in Queensland are not really the destinct changes of summer and winter. The changes in Queensland are generally the hotter the climate the wetter it is or the cooler the climate the dryer it is.

In the northern parts of the state the hot/wet season is between November and May, particularly in January, Feburary and March where daily temperatures reach around 35C to 40C. This time of the year is also the time for cyclones and flooding with Cairns getting around 1300mm of rain during this period. In the southern parts of the state Brisbane and other major cities average around 450mm of rain in the hot/wet season with temperatures rarely droping into the 20C's.

In the cool/dry season the state still has relatively warm temperatures compared to the rest of Australia during the months of June to October. Temperatures hardly drop below 20C and the nights are still warm as well unless you are in the inland/outback regions of the state where it can be cold during the nights.