8 minute read • Prize Home Location
Could This Be the Healthiest Community on The Sunshine Coast?
If you’re on the lookout for the ultimate healthy lifestyle, get your joggers on and head to Birtinya. This new waterside community is part of the master-planned Oceanside precinct being developed by Stockland. With the vision of being ‘Australia’s healthiest city by the beach’, Oceanside is bringing new life to the central Kawana region with a long list of facilities to enhance what is already an amazing part of the world.
Just a few minutes from some of the Sunshine Coast’s best beaches and surrounded by sparkling waterways, Birtinya makes a spectacular base for a healthy and active lifestyle. Kilometres of walking and bike paths trace the saltwater canals and connect those lucky enough to live there with parklands, outdoor activities and even free personal training. More about that later.
With the beach, just minutes away, stand up paddle boarding could be your new favourite hobby.
But first, is living by the water really good for our health?
If you’ve ever hopped out of the car at the beach, taken a deep breath and felt your body relax, you’re not alone. There’s a lot of research out there that shows that living by the water, or spending a lot of time by the water, is genuinely good for us.
In fact, even just the sight of water can release a flood of neurochemicals that increase blood flow to the brain and heart. This can result in a greater feeling of wellness and relaxation.
Fresh air, particularly sea air, is also great for the mind and body. Charged with negative ions, fresh sea air helps your body to absorb oxygen. Breathing in fresh air can help balance serotonin levels in your body, helping you to release stress and improve your mood.
Even just the sight of water can lead to a greater feeling of wellness and relaxation.
If you live somewhere like Birtinya, you can get a double dose of health-giving life by the water. With many homes, including our New Year Prize Home, enjoying an enviable waterside location, you could enjoy uninterrupted water views from the minute you open your eyes in the morning to the moment you close them at night. To add to this, you’re also just minutes from the beach – close enough to enjoy the sea breeze when you’re not actually down there enjoying the surf.
Water views from the minute you wake up.
Investing $5 billion in a healthy community
Even just the sight of water can lead to a greater feeling of wellness and relaxation.By the time Stockland has finished transforming central Kawana into their Oceanside vision, they will have invested more than $5 billion into the project. If all goes to plan, the result will be a world-class destination for the Sunshine Coast with a focus on health and healthy lifestyles.
Local residents will have access to some of the best services and facilities on the coast including a major shopping centre, hospital and health precinct, restaurants and entertainment and world-class recreational facilities.
Stockland’s ‘healthy city’ vision has also seen more than 50 per cent of the community dedicated to parks, conservation areas and wetlands.
Birtinya, the main residential community of the development, is built around vast waterways and recreational spaces, offering residents ‘premium, island-style living’. The sought-after homes in the prestigious community offer all the benefits of waterside living but they’re hardly on an island in terms of services. Within a few-minutes-drive (or cycle) is a vast array of shopping, dining and active options to stimulate healthy minds and bodies.
Birtinya residents are encouraged to get on their bikes with kilometres of paths connecting the community.
The active lifestyle we all dream about
Let’s face it, being active is a choice. You have to choose to get up and get into it rather than just hitting the snooze button. But, that said, it really does make it easier when amazing options are put right in front of you. And that’s the case at Birtinya. With waterfront walks starting literally at your back gate and the beach so close you can ride your bike, you have good reason to set your alarm an hour earlier.
Stockland has also incorporated outdoor gyms into the community’s park areas and even offers free outdoor fitness classes are to all.
While the doing part is still up to us, it’s fair to say that Stockland is working hard to earn the ‘healthiest community’ badge.
Free outdoor fitness classes are available to Birtinya residents.
Having sporty neighbours helps too
Right next door to Birtinya, the massive Kawana Sports Precinct is home to Sunshine Coast Stadium, Western Fields, Lake Kawana and the Kawana Aquatic Centre spread out over 45 hectares. The premier venue for sport and events on the Sunshine Coast, Sunshine Coast Stadium also hosts weekly team sports on the surrounding fields including rugby union, rugby league, soccer and touch.
For water sports, Lake Kawana is where it’s at with rowing, canoeing, kayaking and outrigger paddling all on offer. With outstanding facilities and eight canoe/kayak lanes or seven rowing lanes, the facility is well-equipped to host local and national competitions.
Head to the Kawana Aquatic Centre for swimming, diving, water polo and even aqua-aerobics. The world-class centre is used for elite training as well as the venue for competitions, swim meets and carnivals.
All this is less than a 10-minute drive from Birtinya and our New Year Prize Home.
We’re feeling healthier just thinking about it.
Could even going shopping be good for you?
And if all that deliberate activity isn’t enough, Stockland is even trying to sneak some healthy habits into the shopping experience. Who knew shopping could be good for our health (if not our wallets)?
Birtinya’s brand new shopping centre provides a taste of what’s to come for the master-planned Birtinya Town Centre. And when we say brand new, we really mean it. The first stage of Stockland Birtinya opened on December 7 with flagship tenants Aldi and Coles along with 40 specialty stores. The open-air centre has been designed so that you can enjoy a leafy environment and fresh air, all while getting the shopping done.
When completed, the $830 million Birtinya Town Centre, will bring together shopping, dining and entertainment around an open green space, all alongside a walkable waterfront. If you’re feeling really healthy, and really lucky, you could even walk there from our New Year Prize Home.
Leading an active life shouldn’t stop in retirement.
How to care for a healthy city
An integral part of the healthy city vision is having the services on hand to care for the community. The creation of the Sunshine Coast Health Hub at Birtinya is the reality of that vision. At the centre, is the Sunshine Coast University Hospital, the first teaching hospital opened in Australia for more than 20 years.
Our aging population is also part of the plan. Stockland’s first ‘vertical’ (or high-rise) retirement village offers over 65s a range of holiday-style apartment living options. With spectacular views to the ocean and back to the hinterland, the apartments are proving popular with those wanting to squeeze the most out of life.
The beginnings of Birtinya and Kawana Waters
While much of Birtinya is relatively new, the suburb was actually named back in the 1960s by Melbourne developer Alfred Grant who was the first developer of the Kawana Waters region. Right next door to Kawana Waters, Birtinya’s name was fittingly derived from an aboriginal word meaning ‘neighbouring’.
The name Kawana also has aboriginal origins, meaning wild flowers. Interestingly, when Grant named his development in 1960, he originally chose ‘Kawana Island’. However, when development changed hands to Noel Burns of Kawana Estates in 1967, the development name was officially changed to Kawana Waters.
Other beaches along this beautiful stretch of coastline named by Kawana Estates include Warana (meaning ‘blue skies’) and Wurtulla Beach (meaning ‘southward’). Bokarina, the closest beach to Birtinya, was also given its name in the late 60s, derived from the aboriginal word for ‘middle’.
But before development began in the 60s, the Kawana region was a vastly different place to what we see today. The area was completely undeveloped wallum country with mangroves, mud flats and tidal swap lands. There were no roads, so the only way to get there was by boat along the Mooloola River or along the beach after first navigating Currimundi Lake or a Mooloolah River crossing.
However, things quickly changed with the 10+ kilometre Nicklin Way opening in 1965, linking Caloundra to Mooloolaba. And in 1967, the first two homes were constructed at Kawana Estates, selling for $9,700 each.
Since then, development of the area has boomed with the hugely successful Kawana Waters development and now Stockland’s multi-billion-dollar Oceanside development.
Fancy living in Australia’s healthiest city by the beach?
Kawana has come a long way since development began in the 60s.
If the idea of a healthy waterside lifestyle floats your boat, make sure you grab a ticket in the Endeavour Foundation’s New Year Prize Home Lottery. With a spectacular waterside location just a bike ride from the beach and uninterrupted water views, this luxury home valued at over $1.3 million has to be seen to be believed. Take a virtual tour or come and visit the real deal at Birtinya. Buy tickets now for your chance to win!
You could change your life and the lives of others.
Purchasing tickets in an Endeavour Foundation lottery can not only change your life, but it can also help to change the lives of others. The money raised from our lotteries helps to provide opportunities for people with an intellectual disability to learn life skills, live independently, have a job they love, and be actively involved in their local communities. Enjoy the feeling of knowing you are making a difference. Find out more about how Endeavour Foundation is helping people with disability to imagine what’s possible.