In 1969, there was a land sale in Rainbow Beach, at which time early residents came to the area (Rainbow Beach Community News, 2022).

Rainbow Beach became a hub of activity in the 1970s, for fishermen and tourists alike, with many businesses built along the main street of town. Read on to learn more about some of the early businesses in Rainbow Beach.

Rainbow Beach Land Sale brochure, 1975.

Phil Rogers/ Rainbow Beach Spar

 The first known businessman in Rainbow Beach area was Phil Rogers, who started running a mobile fruit and vegetable business in 1963. He used to load up the EK Holden Station wagon in Gympie on Friday night with goods and then travel to Rainbow Beach on Saturday morning to sell his goods. He would return on late Sunday afternoon (Stewart, 2023). If he ran out of supplies on the Saturday, he would travel back to Gympie to restock, which was a three hour round trip back then!

Following this (around 1966), he built a small wooden shop on the beach front to sell produce to day visitors and sand mine workers. Phil Rogers eventually shut up shop and his wooden shop building was moved into the yard of local sand miner Ivan Udovic.  The shop increased in popularity and became a full-time business. Mr Udovic consequently gave up his engineering job in the sand mines to run the enterprise. In 1972, he built a new brick shop, which also functioned as a post office. The new shop was known as Rainbow Beach general store and was located in the main street. The old wooden shop was then moved to Tin Can Bay and was used as the first clubhouse for the Tin Can Bay Country Club (Stewart, 2023). The business has had many owners over the years, however it was most recently owned for over 30 years by the Modin family. Sadly it burnt down twice in both 1989 and 2016, but has always recovered.

Phil Roger’s shop, 1966 (circled in red). Photograph source: Tony Stewart.

Gordon Elmer’s Ferry/ Barge Business

Gordon Elmer built a ferro-cement barge in one of the paddocks of his farm at Amamoor. He named his barge the “Fraser Dawn”. While his neighbours doubted if the barge would float, in 1967 he proved them all wrong.  He took his barge to Tin Can Bay where it passed the harbours and marine inspection and then he launched his vessel into the water there (Stewart, 2023).

This barge became the first ferry transportation service from Inskip point to K’gari (previously known as Fraser Island). The ferry service was so popular that he proceeded to have five more barges built. Some were built in Gympie, while others were built in Maryborough. He operated the barge for the rest of his working life until he retired and sold the business to Bevan Whittaker (Stewart, 2023).

Gordon Elmer’s Barge (year unknown). Photograph source: Tony Stewart.

Snappy Snacks

Around 1976, Ted and Val Albion ran a café/ takeaway style business in the same building as Ivan and Pat Udovic’s store. They then moved to a much larger takeaway food shop opposite the Rainbow Beach Hotel. They worked long hours, 7 days a week, as was required for many tourist businesses. Their shop even featured a Space Invaders machine and jukebox available for use in the foyer (Stewart, 2023).

Snappy Snacks advertisement, year unknown. Photograph source: Tony Stewart.

Rainbow Beach Air Services

In 1982, Ray Parker founded Rainbow Beach Air Services. As the main pilot, he was requested to pick up passengers flying from Sydney to Maroochydore airport and give them a flight tour over the Cooloola village. The passengers would then enjoy a lunch at Mikado Motor Inn before flying them back to Maroochydore (Stewart, 2023).

Ray Parker with one of his planes. Photograph source: Tony Stewart.

Rusty Taylor & Son

Rusty Taylor moved to Rainbow Beach with his then wife Sally around 1983. They ran a real estate business known as Rusty Taylor & Sons where the Hardware shop used to be. When Rusty retired, he then sold the business to Nev Holt, who established the First National Real Estate brand in town (Stewart, 2023).

The Schnitzel Hut

Anneliese Haring arrived in Rainbow Beach in the early 1980s and bought 3 industrial blocks. She developed the first block as you come into town, number 66 Rainbow Beach Road. This started off as Rainbow Beach Kiosk and Backpackers but later became the Schnitzel Hut. Anneliese was also involved in building the waterslide at Rainbow Beach around 1986. The waterslide was later dismantled due to the high cost of liability insurance (Stewart, 2023).

Rainbow Beach Nippers break up at the waterslide in the mid-1980s. Doug, Jennifer and Andrew Collins with Ben, Jake and Elise Parton. Photograph source: Tony Stewart.

Surf and Sand Safaris

In 1987, the Mahon family moved to the Rainbow Beach area and ran Surf and Sand Safaris. The touring business ran day tours and tours that lasted from 2-5 days (Stewart, 2023).

Surf and Sand Safaris, Rainbow Beach. Photograph source: Tony Stewart.

Rainbow Beach Tourist Information Centre

In 1987, Maureen and Sam Mitchell purchased the Rainbow Beach Tourist Information Centre from Fred Murray. They were also part-owners of the Sands Motel. They were very generous sponsors of local events, as they spent 21 years supporting the Variety Bash charity fundraisers (Stewart, 2023).

The Milk Run

Mike Lynch arrived in Rainbow Beach in 1989 and purchased the milk run from Sandor Szabo and wife Dawn. Mike did the milk run for six years, delivering milk to residents. Back in those days, he used to let himself into local’s houses, leave the milk they had ordered in the fridge and the change on the counter (Stewart, 2023). Those were the days!

Mikado Motor Inn

The Mikado Motor Inn was opened in the early 1970s and featured a Japanese restaurant and spa. It was a very popular venue for locals and visitors alike. It later closed down to make way for Ocean Palms resort (Stewart, 2023).

Mikado Motor Inn advertisement (year unknown). Source: Tony Stewart.

The Mikado Motor Inn and pool (tourist brochure from the 1970s).

Rainbow Beach Pies and Cakes

In November of 1990, Ed Falconer came to Rainbow beach and set up a bakery in the main street called “Rainbow Beach Pies and Cakes”. After three years, Ed went on to pursue professional fishing before opening “Cooloola Coast Pie Shop” at Tin Can Bay. When new shops were built at the Shell Service station in Rainbow Beach, he sold the Tin Can Bay shop and opened “Ed’s Beach Bakery” with his wife Kimmy. Eventually he sold the bakery and decided to move full time into his new business, “Keely Rose Fishing Charters” (Stewart, 2023).

The first batch of pies, ca 1990. Photograph source: Tony Stewart.

The Gazebo Motel

The Gazebo Motel was built by Mavis and Mick Blazun around 1973. It also featured a restaurant and a small bar (Stewart, 2023). Trish Dixon bought the Gazebo Motel in 1993 at an auction and renamed it the Rainbow Beach Motor Inn. The Gazebo motel building is now home to Freedom Backpackers.

Gazebo Gardens Motel (now Freedom Backpackers), year unknown. Photograph source: Ron Turner.

Iceworks

In 1993 Ian Dean started an iceworks business in Goondi Street. At one point he had up to eight trucks delivering ice to many areas, but now they have four. In 2023, Ian was still marketing ice from his factory (Stewart, 2023).

Newspaper advertisement for Deano’s Ice & Bait (year unknown). Source: Tony Stewart.

Rainbow Beach Houseboats

In March of 1993, Rosie and Tony Stewart moved from Victoria to Rainbow Beach and purchased two vessels from Jeff and Liz Brown to run “Rainbow Beach Houseboats”. Tony also ran Rainbow Beach fishing charters for over 20 years (Stewart, 2023).

Rainbow Beach Houseboats at Carlo point pontoon, 1997. Photograph source: Tony Stewart.

References

Rainbow Beach Community News. (2022). History Archive. [Online]. Rainbow Beach Community News. Last Updated: 2022. Available at: https://rainbowbeachcommunitynews.com.au/tag/history/ [Accessed 18 August 2025].

Stewart, T. (2023). The Making of Rainbow Beach: Stories, People and Memories Part One. Rainbow Beach: Tony Stewart. pp.1-306.