Caloundra City covers a huge area at the southern end of the Sunshine Coast: along Pumistone Passage, around Caloundra Head and up the coast to Kawana, then west to the Blackall Range, taking in the Glass House Mountains.  Much of it is farmland, wallum, eucalyptus forest and rainforest.  Caloundra itself has four main beaches; gentle Golden and Bulcock both face onto the passage, while wave-riders and body-surfers head for Kings or Dicky, named after the S.S. Dicky, which came to grief in 1893.

Punters in the coast can head to Corbould Park, just over Little Mountain, to watch the horses run.  On the way they will pass Caloundra Aerodrome, the site of the Queensland Air Museum.  But most visitors find it hard to tear themselves away from surfing, swimming, fishing, crabbing, beachwalking and sailboarding, even to wander in the wildflowers at Currimundi Environmental Park.