Property Week is off to Sydney.

It’s part of the Queensland on Show trade promotion to be held on October 5-7. As well as bundles of Property Week and our fabulous Coast tourism guide, we will be taking a special publication outlining why the Sunshine Coast is such a great place to live, work and play.

Helping put the feature together made me realise why we love it here.

I had to ask the question: What were you doing at 6am today? Walking along the beach? Playing a round of golf? Doing a few laps of the pool? Getting dressed in your colours for a cycle ride then enjoying a coffee at an ocean-front cafe or restaurant?

Were you having a “board’’ meeting at a classic surf break before going into the office?

That’s what we were doing here on the Sunshine Coast. And it is this lifestyle that is continuing to attract thousands of new residents each year.

I had my first taste of Sunshine Coast in the late 1960s. It was a surfing trip and I knew then that one day I would return.

Today, the surf is still an attraction but the Sunshine Coast has changed. Grown up, if you like.

Instead of cane cutters and farmhands, waitresses and builders’ labourers, you now have computer programmers and financial advisors, scuba diving instructors and development company professionals.

In the ’70s, if you wanted to live on the Sunshine Coast you had to create a job, buy a business or have a trade. Now, it is much more sophisticated.

You can obtain a business degree, complete a hospitality course, pursue a career in health care, education, the legal system or the environment.

The University of the Sunshine Coast is the focal point of a spread of public and private schools that are attracting students from around Australia and around the world. There are the facilities to help make those dreams reality.

People love the natural attractions rather than the man-made. And the fact that while we do have a lot of development there is still a lot of green.

Yet we take for granted the fact that we live so close to all amenities. Rush hour is when you have to wait for the traffic lights to change.

You can be at the beach, beside the river or in the mountains in a matter of minutes. There are so many options to choose from.

Walk along cosmopolitan Hastings Street or drive along the beach to Fraser Island.

See the kangaroos grazing on the lawns at the university, watch the crocodile feeding at Australia Zoo.

You do not have to go to Brisbane for anything. You can get there in an hour if you have to but generally there is no need to.

Then there are the Eumundi or Cotton Tree markets to go to. And the taste of the Sunshine Coast – fresh prawns and an avocado salad, Moreton Bay bugs in a cream and pepper sauce, fresh snapper with baked banana.

How good is that?

Clean air, great beaches, fresh food ... that’s what I like about the Sunshine Coast.