Noosa First Point: the surf spot and the headland
Compiled by Surf Haunts · Updated 2026-10-06
First Point sits at the eastern end of Main Beach in Noosa Heads, Queensland, beside the headland at Laguna Bay. The trees behind the surf aren't just a backdrop: a campaign against a proposed coastal road helped keep this stretch of coast green.
A park, but not the whole coastline
Noosa National Park was first declared in 1939. Its boundaries changed over the following decades. The date matters, because the campaign people often associate with saving the headland came later.
The park today also includes areas farther south. First Point, the headland and the whole national park aren't interchangeable names for the same patch of land.
The road that stayed on paper
The Noosa Parks Association formed in 1962. According to the association's history of the headland campaign, the park at that time did not extend to the sea, and a coastal road was proposed between Hastings Street and Sunshine Beach.
The group campaigned against the road and for the coastal strip to become part of the park. Its account describes the state government agreeing to extend protection to that land. It gives a very practical reason why the view from the water still contains so much vegetation.
The headland's protection grew in stages. It wasn't all secured when the park was first declared, or through one decision in the 1960s.
A later recognition for the surf
Noosa was dedicated as a World Surfing Reserve in 2020. That designation covers a longer coastline, from North Sunshine Beach around the headland to Laguna Bay.
It's a separate part of the story from the national park's establishment. The two dates describe different kinds of recognition, decades apart.
Another Queensland story takes us to Snapper Rocks and the sand moving along its coast.
What do you remember?
Have you got an older photo taken from Main Beach, or a memory of the headland before it looked as it does now? Email us with a detail, correction or source. We'll ask before publishing it and agree how to credit you.
Our Noosa print
Our illustration looks through coastal foliage towards the bay and headland. The photograph on this page shows surfers at Noosa Heads; the Noosa Heads · First Point print is our illustrated view of First Point.
Compiled from public historical sources and fact-checked against them at the time of writing – not a first-hand or local account. Corrections and memories are welcome; we verify before publishing anything sent in.