Alexandra Headland

Alexandra Headland is a suburb of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia, located in the Maroochydore urban centre between Maroochydore CBD and Mooloolaba.

The suburb consists of several restaurants, a bowling alley, resorts and the shortest beach in the Maroochy district. The Alexandra Headland Surf Life Saving Club has a building next to the beach.

The headland was once known as Potts Point, named after overseer John Potts employed by William Pettigrew who lived on the land from the year 1880 to 1890, when it was used to transport timber between Cotton Tree and Mooloolah River by bullock.

History

Potts Point was the original name given to the rocky headland between the estuaries of the Maroochy and Mooloolah Rivers. It was named after John Potts, William Pettigrew's (prominent land owner and businessman) overseer. It was renamed Alexandra Headland in honour of Queen Alexandra.

The area was formerly part of William Pettigrews 330 acre property. The land was purchased in 1864 at the first land sale in the Maroochy District. Over the next 30 years it was used as Pettigrew's base for his timber business.

The area was fenced as a paddock for the bullocks used to haul logs from Cotton tree across Potts Point to the timber depot at Mooloolaba (née Mooloolah Heads). Pettigrew built his house "Coolaluthin" and his overseers house "Wongotha" on the Headland.

Thomas O'Connor purchased all of Pettigrew's land at both Maroochydore and Mooloolaba in 1903. The land was subdivded and sold as allotments along the ocean front and Buderim Road in August 1915. It was during this time that O'Connor renamed the area Alexandra Headland in honour of Queen Alexandra, wife of King Edward VII.