The Big Pelican

He's been standing watch on the Noosa River foreshore since the 1990s, a giant fibreglass pelican with a grin that somehow lands. The Big Pelican is less a destination than a landmark, the kind of thing you walk past on your way to something else and end up photographing anyway. The surrounding strip on Gympie Terrace does the heavy lifting: a riverside park with a pirate playground, coffee shops, sunset bars, and a flat walking path along the water that earns its own afternoon. Pelican Boat Hire, the family-run operation that's kept this corner of Noosaville going for over 60 years, hires out boats, kayaks, SUPs, and jetskis from the same spot. The pelican himself is not climbable. The sunset cruise, however, is worth booking.