Between Noosa Heads and Coolum Beach there is a string of beach suburbs; Sunshine Beach (separate entry), Sunrise Beach, Castaways Beach, Marcus Beach and Peregian Beach (separate entry).
T.M. Burke Pty Ltd, real estate developer, began its involvement in the Noosa coastline in 1927. The company built the Weyba Bridge, Noosaville, which provides motor-vehicle access to Sunshine Beach. Land sales at Sunshine Beach were terminated by World War II.
In 1959 the company entered into a development agreement with the Queensland Government, exchanging a coastal road construction program for the grant of coastal land for a distance of eight km from Pacific Avenue, Sunshine Beach to Noosa Shire's southern boundary at Coolum Beach. (The developer, Alfred Grant, had a similar deal for the stretch of coast from the Mooloolah River to Caloundra.) T.M. Burke's road was completed in 1960 and the Sunrise Estate at Tingara Crescent was released in 1961. A caravan park was also opened near the estate. The suburb of Sunrise Beach developed in the late 1960s and the next decade.
Immediately south of Sunrise Beach there is the small suburb of Castaways Beach and then the slightly larger Marcus Beach. Originally named Bambara, Marcus Beach was named after Marcus Burke, son of T.M. Burke and company chair from 1949 to 1960. The first land sales at Marcus Beach were in 1970. Both suburbs have the extensive Noosa National Park on their inland side.
All the suburbs rely on other places for shops and schools, although Sunrise Beach has a small shopping centre near Sunshine Beach High School. The census populations were:
| area | Population | |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | 2011 | |
| Sunrise Beach | 3424 | 3448 |
| Castaways Beach | 617 | 606 |
| Marcus Beach | 753 | 764 |
Peter Sharpe, Up rose an emu: the development of Noosa’s Perigian Beach, Marcus Beach and Sunrise Beach, Southbank, Vic, Peter Sharpe, 2009
Sunshine Beach and Peregian Beach entries
