Noosa was carved out of the old electorate of Cooroora on the introduction of one-vote one-value electoral boundaries in 1992. Cooroora had provided a dramatic upset at the 1989 election when Labor's Ray Barber won the seat after a massive swing. At the 1992 election he contested Noosa, which had a notional Labor majority, but was defeated by the Liberal Party's Bruce Davidson.
Davidson was well known before his election, courtesy of running the largest bait shop on the Sunshine Coast and providing weekend fishing tips on Channel 9 news. Davidson served as Minister for Tourism in the Borbidge government, and is best remembered for an improbable scheme to buy rhinoceros from the South African government for a proposed north Queensland safari park. His vision of rhinoceros hooves thundering across the north Queensland veldt was never achieved, but Davidson was re-elected at the 1998 election, helped by One Nation disendorsing its candidate late in the campaign for being too right wing. At the 2001 election, Davidson's primary vote fell behind that of Labor in a contest where One Nation chose to exhaust preferences, allowing Labor's Cate Molloy to win the seat.

Molloy increased her majority with a swing of 8.7% in 2004 but fell out with her party over the proposed Traveston Dam. Resisting provocation, the Labor Party declined to make a martyr of Molloy by expelling her when she campaigned against the Labor Party's decision. Molloy eventually resigned from the Labor Party and contested the 2006 election as an Independent. She pulled ahead of the Labor Party on preferences but could not withstand the surge in Liberal support that occurred across the Sunshine Coast in 2006. Molloy nominated again in 2009, but attracted only 8.1% support as LNP MP Glen Elmes more than doubled his margin.

In 2012 Elmes was easily re-elected with 60.6% of the first preference vote, but Labor slipped to third place with 12.4% behind the Greens with 15.5%.

Year Winning Party 1992 LIB 1995 LIB 1998 LIB 2001 ALP 2004 ALP 2006 LIB 2009 LNP 2012 LNP

2015 Ballot Paper (4 Candidates)

Candidate Name	Party
WOODS, Ian	Palmer United Party
DENHAM, Mark	Australian Labor Party
ELMES, Glen	LNP
SHLEGERIS, Joe	The Greens

2012 Result

Candidate	Party	Votes	%	Swing
Glen Elmes	LNP	17,121	60.6	+4.5
Bob Jarvis	KAP	2,548	9.0	+9.0
Jim McDonald	GRN	4,382	15.5	+2.2
Kurt Hopkins	ALP	3,514	12.4	-8.1
Bill Colley	IND	316	1.1	+1.1
Gemika Maloney	FFP	376	1.3	-0.6
....	IND	0	0.0	-8.1
Glen Elmes	LNP	18,116	75.5	+5.6
Jim McDonald	GRN	5,893	24.5	+24.5
Kurt Hopkins	ALP	0	0.0	-30.2