Buderim ( ) is an urban centre on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. It sits on a mountain which overlooks the southern Sunshine Coast communities. In the , the urban area of Buderim had a population of 54,483.
The name "Buderim" is usually believed to be derived from a local Kabi Kabi Aboriginal word for the hairpin honeysuckle, (Badderam) Banksia spinulosa var. collina. However, as the environment on the mountain before British occupation was one of dense rainforest not Banksia heath, the name may have come from the Yugambeh word budherahm meaning sacred or spiritual.
Geography
The town of Buderim is not strictly bounded, but as at the 2011 census the Australian Bureau of Statistics classifies Buderim based on the boundaries of the following suburbs:
Buderim
Kunda Park
Mons
Mountain Creek
Sippy Downs
Tanawha
Historically, until the 2001 census, a section of Buderim within about of Sunshine Motorway, as well as Mountain Creek, were considered parts of the neighbouring Maroochydore urban centre.
History
Buderim is an Kabi word meaning honeysuckle or red soil. The name is also said to come from a Yugambeh word Budherahm, meaning sacred or spiritual.
In 1862, Tom Petrie set out from Brisbane with 25 Turrbal and Kabi Kabi men including Billy Dingy and Wanangga to search for cedar in the Maroochy area. They ascended Buderim mountain where they saw forests of fine timber, then had the satisfaction of being the first to cut a cedar tree there.' Buderim was seen as a resource for timbergetters, as huge stands of Beech and Australian Red Cedar grew across the mountain. Some trees were so large they were wasted due to the lack of transport to carry them down to the river for despatch to Brisbane. Once clear felled, the plateau was used for farming. The rich red volcanic soil found on Buderim made the area particularly suited to growing almost everything, from bananas to small crops. The most notable were ginger, the crop which made Buderim famous and coffee (in the 20th century) .
Coffee was first grown commercially by Gustav Riebe in 1881 who grew the crops among rows of banana suckers on his 300 acres of land. Riebe was a tea merchant, established in Queen Street Brisbane, who was offering a variety of teas for sale at his Oriental Tea Warehouse. Mr Riebe obviously knew about tea and coffee, and even designed his own machinery to prepare the dried beans for market. Another Buderim coffee farming pioneer was E.J. Burnett who in 1899 sent coffee samples to Earl’s Court Exhibition in London winning a gold medal diploma. Previously Mr Burnett had sent coffee to the Colonial and Indian Exhibition in London in 1886 and received a certificate of merit and a bronze medal. By 1911, Buderim was the largest coffee growing area in the state.
Buderim Mountain Post Office opened on 1 June 1884 (a receiving office had been open from 1874). It was renamed Buderim by 1897.
In 1887, James Lindsay began to operate the Buderim Library from his home Ryhope. It is unclear when Buderim School of Arts was established but it was operating by 1889. In 1924 the old building was removed and a new building was constructed. The stump capping ceremony for the new building was held on Saturday 6 September 1924. The new building was officially opened on Friday 14 November 1924 by the Speaker of the Queensland Legislative Assembly William Bertram and the Buderim Library operated from the new building. The hall was renovated in 1989 enabling the library to double in size.
Buderim Methodist Church was established in 1907 on the corner of Gloucester Road and King Street. A new church was built in 1963. Following the amalgamation of the Methodist Church into the Uniting Church in Australia in 1977, it became the Buderim Uniting Church. The current church building was built in 1998. On 3 February 2013 the church established a Garden of Remembrance for the interment of cremated ashes.
On 5 May 1917, Reverend C. Tunstall (Vicar of Maroochy) performed the stump capping ceremony for the new Anglican church. St Mark's Anglican Church was dedicated on Saturday 25 July 1917 by Bishop Henry Le Fanu. It was rebuilt and re-dedicated in 1988.
In the middle of the 20th century, the largest ginger processing facility in the southern hemisphere was built, and operated as the Buderim Ginger Factory until 1980 when operations were moved to a new facility near Yandina. As the value of their produce was eroded, many farmers left the land to find work elsewhere.