In 1867 gold was discovered at Gympie and the rush was on. Tens of thousands of miners poured in to make their fortune, and at its peak, the new town of Gympie boasted 48 pubs.




Gympie’s Apollonian Hotel was built in 1879, closing in 1951. It languished, empty, until 1967, when the gold rush relic was sliced in four and moved to its new home at Boreen Point.

The reassembled hotel opened for business with its original 1869 Liquor Licence No 2 displayed over the door. The Apollonian is now a meeting place for the local community, as well as attracting visitors for a taste of what life was like back then.

With Gympie’s gold rush, Noosa River and Tewantin became important staging posts getting people and supplies to and from the goldfields. Demand grew for timber from the forests around Cootharaba and Cooloola for the growing town and its mines.

In 1869 a large sawmill was opened at Elanda Point, on the north western bank of Lake Cootharaba. Owners McGhie?, Goodchap and Luya had made money from gold mining and could see the enormous potential of the region’s forests. One for the first jobs at the mill was to cut pit props for the Gympie gold mines!

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