Pomona

Pomona is a rural town and locality in the Shire of Noosa, Queensland, Australia.

Pomona is a rural town and locality in the Shire of Noosa, Queensland, Australia. In the 2016 census the locality of Pomona had a population of 2,910 people. Pomona is located around 135 kilometres north of Brisbane.It is located at the base of Mount Cooroora (439 meters) at the northern end of the Sunshine Coast.

Pomona was first settled by Europeans in the late 1880s, but had been home to the Kabi Kabi/Gubbi Gubbi indigenous peoples for thousands of years before that.Early settlers collected timber from the area. The railway to Pomona commenced operation in 1891, opening the land to farming.Pinbarren Provisional School opened on 1 August 1897 and was originally located on Reserve Street near the business centre of the town, in what is now called Stan Topper Park. On 1 January 1909 it became Pomona State School. From 1945 the school included a secondary department (Grades 8-10). In 1976 the school was relocated to Station Street.The town and railway station were originally called Pinbarren in 1899, then renamed Curara, and renamed Pomona in 1900, after the Roman goddess of fruit and orchards.Many of the town streets were named after the functions of buildings located along them including Ambulance Street, Church Street, School Street, Rectory Street, Hospital Street, Pottery Street and Factory Street.The early colonial dairy industry at Pomona was replaced by a patchwork of small cropping farms.The town became the administrative centre of the Noosa Shire Council when it was established in 1910. However, on 1 December 1980 the Council chambers moved to Tewantin. The original headquarters for the Shire, which were constructed in 1911, are now used by the Cooroora Historical Society and Noosa Shire Museum. The main streets of the town were devastated by fires in 1939 and 1942. Many buildings were re-constructed with brick or in the "Art Deco" architectural style of the era. Colonial buildings are also a feature of the town and can be viewed along a signed history walk.The state electoral district to which Pomona was part of from 1912 until 1992 was named Cooroora. The seat was renamed Noosa following the 1991 electoral district's re-shuffle. Pomona is in the Wide Bay federal electoral division.

Pomona Methodist Church opened on 26 March 1921 by the Reverend Henry Youngman. In 1925, the Methodist Church building at Kareewa was relocated to behind the Pomona Methodist Church to be used as the church hall. In 1977 the Methodist Church amalgamated into the Uniting Church in Australia and the church in Pomona became the Pomona Uniting Church.On Sunday 30 March 1949 Archbishop James Duhig laid the foundation stone for St Patrick's Catholic Primary School. Duhig returned on Sunday 30 November 1947 to bless and open the school, which was operated by the Presentation Sisters. The school closed in 1971.In 1996 the Pomona State School's secondary department moved to Summit Road, where it was renamed Cooroora Secondary College in 1997. In 2007 it was amalgamated with the Noosa District State High School in Cooroy to create a two-campus school with the junior secondary school being conducted on the Pomona campus and the senior secondary school on the Cooroy campus.Pinbarren Community Christian College opened on 10 February 2003.Historically and currently Pomona is within local government area of Shire of Noosa, but between 2008 and 2013 it was within Sunshine Coast Region.At the 2011 census Pomona had a population of 2,587 people, growing to 2910 in 2016.In the 2016 census the locality of Pomona had a population of 2,910 people.

Pomona is notable for three things: a relaxed streetscape of distinctive timber and art deco buildings, the heritage-listed Majestic Theatre and the annual King of the Mountain race up the nearby Mount Cooroora. The Majestic, built in 1921, is claimed to be the world's oldest continuously operating silent movie theatre built for that purpose. However, it is not the first theatre in the world in which silent films were screened. The Majestic has been a community-owned enterprise since October 2006.Australian musician Darren Hanlon's album "Fingertips and Mountaintops" was entirely recorded in the Majestic Theatre.The Noosa Shire Museum contains objects, photographs and historic documents that explain much of the early history of the area. It is also a Keeping Place of indigenous sacred objects. The old Pomona Railway Station has been moved to the other side of the railway tracks to become the Railway Station Art Gallery.