Cooroy

About Cooroy

Cooroy is a rural town in the Sunshine Coast hinterland of Queensland, located approximately 22 kilometres west of Noosa Heads and 130 kilometres north of Brisbane. The name derives from Mount Cooroy, originally called Coorooey, from the Gubbi Gubbi/Kabi Kabi Aboriginal word kurui meaning possum. Timber-getters arrived in the area in the 1860s, and settlement grew around the railway station opened in 1891. The timber and dairy industries sustained the town for much of the twentieth century, with the Butter Factory operating from 1915 until 1975 and the local sawmill closing in 2000. The Bruce Highway bypass was constructed in 1994. The former Butter Factory now serves as an arts and crafts centre, and the town retains many early heritage buildings along Maple, Elm and Diamond Streets.