Bucasia

About Bucasia

Bucasia is a coastal suburb of Mackay in the Mackay Region of Queensland, Australia, situated approximately 12 kilometres north of Mackay's central business district along the Coral Sea coastline. Originally known as Marara and later Seaview, the locality was renamed Bucasia in 1938 to honour Father Pierre-Marie Bucas, a French-born Roman Catholic priest who in 1874 acquired over 1,600 acres of coastal land to establish a community for displaced Aboriginal people and St Joseph's Orphanage. The suburb features a popular sheltered sandy beach with views to the Cumberland Islands and is a nesting site for flatback turtles. The area includes sugarcane fields, tropical fruit plantations, and swampy wetlands such as Orphanage Swamp.