In 1862, Tom Petrie with 25 Turrbal and Kabi Kabi men including Ker-Walli, Wanangga and Billy Dinghy entered Petrie's Creek with the view to exploit the large cedar growing in the vicinity. They encountered some resident Aboriginal people with whom they had a traditional ceremony together. Petrie's group afterwards made a permanent logging camp further up the creek in the area now known as Nambour. At this camp, the Aboriginal workers requested that Petrie brand them with his logging symbol. With a piece of prepared glass, he cut his logging symbol of a P inside a circle into each of the men's arms. These Aboriginal workers, as well as local Maroochy men such as Puram, worked hard, returning frequently with Petrie to build the roadway, fell the timber and transport the logs downriver. The Nambour area had its first permanent European settlement in 1870. The town was then still just called Petrie's Creek. Maroochy Provisional School opened on 13 October 1879. It was renamed Nambour Provisional School in 1891. It became Nambour State School in 1897. It had a secondary school department from circa 1940 until 2 February 1953, when Nambour State High School opened on 2 February 1953. Petrie's Creek Post Office opened on 1 June 1888 (a receiving office had been open from 1885, originally known as Carrollo) and was renamed Nambour by 1890. In 1890 the Maroochy Divisional Board was established. In 1891, the
North Coast railway to Brisbane was completed, and at its opening Petrie's Creek was renamed "Nambour", after the Nambour cattle station. It was . Circa 1950, it was demolished to make way for a new church. The timber from the demolished church was used to construct Our Lady Star of the Sea (Stella Maris) in
Maroochydore as a cost-saving measure. On Sunday 16 April 1950, Archbishop
James Duhig laid the foundation stone for the new St Joseph's. The
Moreton Central Sugar Mill Cane Tramway was constructed from 1897. It was used to transport passengers and sugar cane. The tramway closed at the end of 2001. Much of the track and signal lighting still remains. A section of the track can still be seen in central Nambour along the roadway of Mill, Currie and Howard Streets. On 25 August 1921 a new church was opened. Another new church opened on Sunday 2 November 1952 on the south-west corner of Currie and Bury Streets (). Circa 1970s the site was used to construct a new library. A fire in 1924 destroyed many of the timber buildings along the main street. The Nambour branch of the
Queensland Country Women's Association was founded on 1 November 1928. In 1931 they established their QCWA Rest Rooms in the Shire Hall. In September 1958 they officially opened their own building at 10 Short Street (still in use today). Nambour Hospital opened as Maroochy District Hospital in 1930, renamed Nambour General Hospital in 1958. Historical milestones for Nambour Hospital were as follows: Block 1 completed (1975), Block 2 completed (1986), dialysis unit opens (1989), Block 6 opened (1993–95), Block 7 built (1998), and Block 1 demolished (2023) for redevelopment. Much of Nambour Hospital's acute services relocated to Sunshine Coast University Hospital upon its opening in 2017. St Joseph's Primary School was opened on 2 February 1925 by the
Good Samaritan Sisters. From 1940 to 1977 it also provided secondary schooling, an arrangement that ended when St Joseph's High School was established in 1977. Nambour Centre for Continuing Secondary Education opened on 4 February 1991. == Demographics ==