Harry Roberts, after whom Roberts Creek on the Sunshine Coast is named, built the 37 ft. sailboat named Chack Chack in the early 1920's and published a book about his maritime adventures called The Trail of Chack Chack. This boat was first called Odamit. His second boat was call LHF with those initials signifying his name Louis Harry Roberts. A third boat he built, Chack Chack III, was not launched. He homesteaded on Nelson Island and his grandmother is credited with coining the phrase 'Sunshine Belt' that evolved into the term 'Sunshine Coast'. (The Elphinstone Museum has provided excellent website histories for the Sunshine Coast area at www.bigpacific.com based on books such as The Sunshine Coast by Howard White. See brief sample below.) The claim that Roberts was responsible for the term Sunshine Coast arose because he painted the words Sunshine Belt in big letters on his store. In his book Whistle Up the Inlet, Gerald Rushton claims the term Sunshine Coast arose from a 1925 marketing brochure from the Union Steamships Company. People who live in Roberts Creek sometimes refer to themselves as Creekers. The area is noteworthy as the long-time home of author Hubert Evans, who lived on the waterfront for more than 50 years.

BOOKS:

The Trail of Chack Chack: Book 1. (New York: Carlton, 1968).

[BCBW 2004] "Maritime"