Particularly rich was the soil of the Redland Bay District which is said to have had lush rainforest complete with prized red cedar.

Locally milled cedar was used for doors, architraves and other feature work on the early houses, such as the original farmhouse on what was to become Mt Carmel Orchard.

[citation needed] One early settler was Arnold Friedrich Muller who took up 50 acres (20 ha) of coastal forest north of what is now Point Talburpin.

Muller's farmhouse was removed in the 1990s to make way for a stage of the Orchard Beach estate, but its site is still marked by a pair of mature fig trees, planted around 1905, at the top of School of Arts road where it meets Collins Street.

While these trees were likely to have been planted for the practical purposes of shading the house from the intense afternoon sun and cold winter westerly winds, they also stand as a symbol of the enduring husband and wife farming partnerships that helped to define the character of Redland Bay.

The produce was taken to market by horse-drawn wagon at first, then by the steamboats Pearl, Eucalypta, Louisa and Porpoise, operated by one Captain John Burke.

The viability of these crops was reduced as larger farms to the north at Thorneside, Cleveland and Ormiston gained a competitive advantage over Redland Bay, possibly due to access to rail transport.

[9] The lots were advertised as having either a water frontage or splendid view of the bay and that there was a local sawmill able to provide timber for construction.

[11] On 7 March 1885, auctioneer John Cameron offered 161 suburban lots (mostly 20 perches) bounded by Peel Street to the north, Moreton Bay to the east, Weinham Creek to the south and Scott and Hamilton Streets to the west, in addition to four banana farms (6 to 8 acres).

[12][13] On 9 November 1885, auctioneer Arthur Martin & Co offered 780 suburban lots (mostly 16 perches) in the Torquay Estate, an area bounded by Torquay Road to the north, Moreton Bay to the east, Oakland Avenue to the south and Serpentine Creek Road to the west.

[14] As well as promising a future railway connection, the advertising also speculated "If coal is discovered, of which there is every reasonable probability, Redland is bound to become the Newcastle of Queensland, and one of the most important places in Australia".

[citation needed] Scenic Shores State School opened on 22 January 2024 under principal Sue Hendriks.

92.7% of people spoke only English at home; the next most common languages were 0.6% Afrikaans, 0.3% German, 0.2% Dutch, 0.2% Italian, 0.2% Spanish.

From 1955, Ansett, formerly known as Barrier Reef Airways also operated flying boats from Redland Bay, taking tourists to Hayman Island in North Queensland.

There was a steady decline after that until After 1971, Qantas began operating the new Boeing 747 long-haul aircraft that made the Flying Boats obsolete.