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About Kooky and Shaka →Sunshine Coast residents were invited on Tuesday 18 August 2026 to comment on the design of the first three stations of The Wave, the rail line the Queensland Government has tied to its 2032 Games plan. The statement from Transport and Main Roads Minister Brent Mickelberg covers an upgraded Beerwah station and new stations at Bells Creek and Caloundra, and sets 14 September 2026 as the closing date.
The stations belong to Stage 1 of the project: 19 kilometres of new dual-track railway between Beerwah and Caloundra, with construction expected to begin in early 2027. It is the Sunshine Coast rail project named in the State's Games program, and it has now reached the point where people can see what is proposed at each stop.
Queensland Government media statement, 18 August 2026.
What residents are being asked
The consultation is about station precincts, not the route. According to the statement, locals can give views on landscaping, public spaces, accessibility features, wayfinding, street furniture, opportunities for public art and the overall look and character of each precinct.
Feedback is gathered through online surveys and pop-up sessions held across the Sunshine Coast. The department's project page describes 2026 as the year in which "detailed designs" are made "available for the community to view", and this round is that step.
The alignment itself was dealt with earlier. The same project page records community consultation on a draft Public Environment Report between July and November 2025, and a separate round of engagement on updated corridor alignment maps in September and October 2025. People who own or rent near the corridor have therefore already had the chance to comment on where the line runs. What is new is the detail at the three points where trains will stop.
Related readVictoria Park passes to the Games authority as stadium works beginMember for Caloundra Kendall Hatcher called it "a once-in-a-generation opportunity to help shape the future of transport on the Sunshine Coast". Member for Glass House Andrew Powell said Beerwah station "is already at the heart of our community".
The line, stage by stage
The Wave is the name given in the 2032 Delivery Plan, published in March 2025, to a new direct rail line from Beerwah to Birtinya, joined to a metro-style service that carries on to the Sunshine Coast Airport by way of Maroochydore. The State's Games delivery website puts the rail section at 26 kilometres in total.
| Stage | Section | Stations | Funding status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stage 1 | Beerwah to Caloundra, 19 km | Beerwah (upgraded), Bells Creek, Caloundra | $5.5 billion committed |
| Stage 2 | Caloundra to Birtinya | Aroona, Birtinya | Subject to funding approval |
| Metro link | Birtinya to the airport via Maroochydore | Not yet published | Not stated |
Department of Transport and Main Roads project page and media statement of 18 August 2026; 2032 Delivery Plan for the metro link.
With 19 of the 26 kilometres in Stage 1, the second stage from Caloundra to Birtinya covers the remaining 7 kilometres or so. The project page says the new line joins the existing North Coast Line north of Beerwah station, and that trains will run through to Moreton Bay, the Brisbane CBD and beyond. In other words, this is an extension of the suburban rail network, not a separate local system.
The project page lists the second station as "Bells Creek (Aura)", after the community it serves. Caloundra station is the end of the line under the funded stage.
At the Brisbane end, the Delivery Plan lists Cross River Rail among the same group of Games transport projects: a 10.2 kilometre line with 5.9 kilometres of twin tunnels and four new underground stations at Boggo Road, Woolloongabba, Albert Street and Roma Street. A train that starts at Caloundra would reach the inner city over the existing North Coast Line and that network.
Related readCairns' Barlow Park to close in September as builder search opensWhat it costs and who pays
Transport and Main Roads estimates the cost of Stage 1 at between $5.5 billion and $7 billion. The Australian Government has committed $2.75 billion and the Queensland Government $2.75 billion, a combined $5.5 billion that matches the lower end of the estimate.
Only Stage 1 is funded so far
The department's project page says Stage 2, from Caloundra to Birtinya, "is subject to funding approval". The station designs now on show are all in Stage 1. No cost has been published for Stage 2 or for the metro-style link to the airport.
That split matters for anyone reading the project as a Games promise. The Games delivery website describes "the final public transport link to the airport" as due by 2032. Stage 1 gets trains to Caloundra. Reaching Birtinya, Maroochydore and the airport depends on stages that do not yet have published budgets.
Why it is on the Games list
The Sunshine Coast hosts several parts of the 2032 Games. The Delivery Plan places one of the three main athlete villages in the Maroochydore city centre, and the Games venues authority lists two competition venues in the region: Sunshine Coast Stadium at Kawana, which is being upgraded, and a new mountain bike centre at Maroochy River.
A Government statement of 7 August 2026 said the stadium will host football group-stage and quarter-final matches. The Delivery Plan gives the upgraded stadium 10,680 permanent seats.
Kawana and Maroochydore both lie beyond Caloundra, the end of Stage 1. The rail project is therefore only fully useful for Games crowds if the later stages are built in time, which is why the Delivery Plan presents The Wave as one connected scheme from Beerwah to the airport.
Mr Mickelberg's statement keeps the focus on everyday use. He said the project would "transform the way people move around the Sunshine Coast", supporting jobs and connectivity.
Related readBESIX Watpac and John Holland are the last bidder left for the stadiumWhat it means around the three stations
For the towns involved, a station precinct is a planning event as much as a transport one. It fixes where buses turn, where cars park, which streets carry foot traffic and what the public space looks like.
Beerwah already has a station on the North Coast Line. The works there are an upgrade, and the consultation gives residents a say in how the enlarged station meets the town centre.
Bells Creek and Caloundra get stations for the first time. At both, the precinct design decides how a new piece of public infrastructure meets the streets around it.
This article makes no claim about what a station does to property values in any of the three places. No source consulted for it measures that, and the experience of other rail projects cannot simply be carried over. What can be said is narrower: owners, tenants and businesses near the three sites now have the first detailed drawings of what will stand there, and four weeks to respond.
Approvals and the path to a 2027 start
Both official sources attach a condition to the 2027 start: "subject to approvals". That is worth a sentence of explanation, because Games projects are often described as exempt from planning law.
The Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games Arrangements Act 2021, as amended in 2025, does make certain development lawful despite fifteen State Acts, the Planning Act 2016 among them. Section 53DD applies that rule to listed venues and villages and to what the Act calls "games-related transport infrastructure", which is set out in a schedule to the Act.
Related readBMD to move the first earth at Victoria Park from early AugustThe department's own timetable nevertheless treats environmental approvals as part of the pre-delivery work for The Wave, and ran a public process on a draft Public Environment Report in 2025. The practical reading for residents is that the State shortcut, where it applies, removes steps under State planning law. It does not remove every approval, and the department is not presenting the start date as certain.
The sequence so far looks like this.
- 25 March 2025The project is announced with the 2032 Delivery Plan.
- July to November 2025Consultation on the draft Public Environment Report, with corridor alignment maps shown in September and October.
- 18 August 2026Station precinct designs for Beerwah, Bells Creek and Caloundra open for comment.
- 14 September 2026Consultation on the station designs closes.
- Early 2027Construction of Stage 1 expected to start, subject to approvals.
The department's page describes the period from 2024 to 2026 as "pre-delivery", covering environmental approvals and a reference design. It also reports that preliminary geotechnical investigations and utility relocations are under way along the corridor, which is the work residents may already have noticed.
What comes after the consultation
Three things follow, on the published timetable.
The first is the close of comments on 14 September 2026. The statement does not say when a summary of the feedback or final designs will be released.
The second is the construction start. The Minister's statement says early 2027; the project page says 2027 and adds "subject to approvals". No contractor has been named in either source, and no opening date for Stage 1 is given.
The third is the funding decision on Stage 2. Until that is made, the line's published end point is Caloundra. For households weighing a move to the southern Sunshine Coast on the strength of a train to Brisbane, the distinction between a funded stage with a start date and a later stage awaiting approval is the detail to keep in view.
The Games open on 23 July 2032, according to the Delivery Plan. That leaves a little over five years from the planned start of construction to the date the State has attached to the full link.
Kooky, from Shaka
Kooky edits Queensland Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for Queensland property professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.
