Caboolture, shire, southeastern Queensland, Australia, on the Caboolture River. It serves as a gateway to the Sunshine Coast.
The area had long been occupied by the Kabi Aboriginal people when European settlement began in the 1840s. Originally a livestock station, Caboolture derived its name from cabul-tur, a phrase in a local Aboriginal language meaning “place of the carpet snake.” To relieve shortages brought about by the American Civil War in the 1860s, Caboolture became a cotton-farming centre. Today, vegetables and fruits, especially strawberries, are grown, and dairy and stud beef cattle are raised. Timber is milled in the shire, which is on the main northern rail line and the highway to Brisbane (26 miles [42 km] south). Caboolture became a shire in 1879. It served during 1944–45 as the secret headquarters for the Allied High Command in the Pacific theatre of World War II. In 2008 the shire council merged with neighbouring Redcliffe and Pine Rivers into the Moreton Bay Regional Council. Pop. (2006) shire, 15,016; (2011) state suburb, 21,929.