Buderim
Sunshine Coast

Buderim (26°41'S 153°04'E? / ?26.683°S 153.067°E? / -26.683; 153.067) is a mountain town in the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia about an hour's drive north of Brisbane. The mountain itself is an extinct volcano.

Etymology
The name "Buderim" is from the local Kabi Kabi Aboriginal word for the hairpin honeysuckle, (Badderam) Banksia spinulosa var. collina, which grew abundantly in the sandy country around the plateau. Although it did not actually grow on the plateau, it is likely the name was given when the white man gestured in the direction of the slopes across the plants, asking what the area was called.

[edit] Industry
Buderim was seen as a resource for timbergetters, huge stands of Beech and cedar grew across the mountain. Some trees were so large in fact, 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 coffee and (in the 1900s) ginger, the crop which made Buderim famous. The farming pioneer Burnett, won awards for the quality of his coffee at shows in London during the late 1800s.

In the middle of the 1900s the largest ginger processing facility in the southern hemisphere was built, and operated until the factory closed and operations were moved closer to other ginger growing areas near Yandina.

The town became famous during the 1930s for its meat pie "floaters" tempered with ginger.

Many farmers left the land to get jobs, as the value of their produce was eroded, this was very much the fate of the Lindsay Family, who farmed massive orchards around the road which now bears their name. The value of Buderim as real estate pressured many others out of the rural lifestyle. Housing development increased in and around Buderim Mountain. Thanks to the huge leap in real estate values during the first decade of 2000, much land is now being developed that was once deemed too expensive to engineer for housing estates. Due to this development, all farming and much of the secondary growth rainforest on the escarpment has disappeared.

Buderim does contain one of the most significant heritage relics of the early days in the form of Pioneer Cottage, restored and cared for by the "Buderim Historical Society".