Free Holiday Buses

History of the Noosa Free Holiday Buses

The Noosa Free Holiday Buses commenced Christmas / New Year 1999/2000 as a park & ride service, shuttling passengers from the Noosa Australian Football Club in Weyba Road to Hastings Street, in an effort to reduce traffic congestion in the busy Hastings Street precinct.
Due to increasing demands on the shuttle service and the transport infrastructure, over the years, the free service has been increased to include all local Noosa bus services for all passengers throughout the Easter long weekend, and from Boxing Day for approximately 12 days each year.  Additional services are also provided from Peregian to Noosa Heads (servicing the Peregian community which was not serviced by the free local services), and two additional services from Noosa Junction to Tewantin to cater for the influx of people in the local area.
Since inception of the program, passenger numbers have grown considerably, with in excess of 50,000 passengers utilising the service over a 10-day period.

The Noosa Free Holiday Buses are jointly funded by Sunshine Coast Regional Council and Tourism Noosa, and delivered in partnership with Sunbus and TransLink.

Trial inclusion of Route 600 – Christmas / New Year 2009/2010

As an initiative of the Sunshine Coast Council Public Transport Levy, TransLink Route 600 (Caloundra to Maroochydore) was also included in the Free Holiday Bus services over Christmas / New Year 2009/2010.  More than 35,500 passengers utilised this service over the 10 day period (almost 12,000 more passengers than the same period in 2008/2009), and as a result was deemed a huge success.

Subject to negotiations with TransLink, and the continuation of the Sunshine Coast Council Public Transport Levy, it is hoped that these Free Holiday Bus services will continue into the future.