Sunshine Coast haunted, mysterious and grim places revealed

From reports of hauntings and mysterious lights, to some of the places where grim murders have taken place, find out more about the Sunshine Coast’s dark history.

While the Sunshine Coast seems like a fairly “new” place when compared with other heritage Queensland cities like Maryborough or Rockhampton, it has its own history of mysterious events, grim murders and more.

Here are several Sunshine Coast locations with a complex history.

Lake Weyba

There were reports in 2020 of people seeing min min lights in the bush at Lake Weyba and another bushwalker described hearing a humming sound at the Peregian end of Noosa National Park.

Min min lights are described as fast-moving, bright orbs that hover above the ground.

They are most commonly reported in the outback and Boulia in western Queensland has built a tourist campaign out of sightings.

Lake Weyba residents Pam and Colin Smyth, who have lived in the area since 1991, said they had never seen lights.

Lake Weyba residents Pam and Colin Smyth say they have never seen mysterious lights in the area. Picture: Letea Cavander

“We do get a lady playing a harp out here early in the morning but that wouldn’t be reflecting anywhere,” Mr Smyth said.

Mrs Smyth said she enjoyed the daily variety of visitors, from kitesurfers to young families, who used the lake.

Murdering Creek Road

In 2017, the Sunshine Coast Daily reported on an academic who wrote a comprehensive account of a massacre at Lake Weyba.

Ray Gibbons’ research indicated it was most likely an old Yandina station manager behind the raids of the Aborigines at Lake Weyba about 1864.

The researcher read a number of memoirs and concluded the massacre may have been carried out by station employee William Chippindal more than 150 years ago.

The road that leads to the estate on the shores of the lake was named after the grim event.

Aboriginal burial ground

Funerals Sunshine Coast and Regions Queensland founder Gillian Hall said there had been reports from 1932 of an Aboriginal cemetery or burial ground in an orange orchard in Palmwoods.

She said local papers, and the Brisbane Courier, in that year had reported on a teenager who was frightened by two white objects among the trees, which later turned out to be young people stealing oranges.

“I think it’s important to understand the deeper meaning behind these stories, what they are trying to tell us,” Ms Hall said.

“Rather than taking it as a snapshot as one story, what else was going on at that time for him to see something - that’s what gets me curious.”

Glasshouse Mountains

The Glasshouse Mountains has been the site of murders, dumped bodies and mysterious disappearances.

The most recent discovery has been that of missing Caboolture woman Donna Howe in the remote Beerburrum West State Forest on Tuesday, June 7, 2022.

Pomona Hotel

The Sunshine Coast Daily has previously reported that a resident ghost walks the halls of the hotel, with locals and staff apparently aware of a presence that has even been given a name - Darby.

It was reported footsteps are heard from time to time throughout the venue and doors inexplicably open and close of their own accord.

The Pomona Hotel may have an otherworldly resident.

Locals say the phantom prefers the hotel’s Darby Room Restaurant, which was named after long-time Pomona resident Darby Schrieber.

Yowie sighting

In December, 2021, The Courier-Mail reported on three men who believed they saw a yowie while driving to the Jimna Base Camp after a day’s work at the Sunshine Coast.

Three men believed they saw a yowie near Jimna in December, 2021.

The trio initially thought it was a boar or really big animal standing under a street light, and a worker said it was a surreal moment when it turned to look at them.

The workers described the creature as having “very long arms” and an “apelike” face. They said it was covered in dark, reddish hair.

Big cat sightings

No list of unusual experiences would be complete without an account of a big cat sighting near Gympie.

There have been many reported sightings over the years.

One of the more recent ones was reported in The Gympie Times in 2018, when a woman who wished to remain anonymous saw a black cat-like animal while driving on a dirt track in the Toolara Forest at Tin Can Bay.

The animal, who she described as glossy, sleek and larger than a wolfhound, caught her attention at 1am when its green eyes gleamed in her car headlights.