Mudgeeraba is a suburb of the Gold Coast hinterland, immediately west of Robina and eight km west of Burleigh Heads. It is thought that the name was derived from an Aboriginal expression describing muddy or sticky ground.

The Mudgeeraba district was part of a cattle run taken up in 1852 and farm selections began in the late 1860s. There was also timber harvesting.

A hotel was opened in 1883 and a Presbyterian church in 1890. The church (now Uniting) was used for the Mudgeeraba Lower primary school (1892) until a purpose-built school was erected in 1914 on the Mudgeeraba Station Estate next to the railway station. It is now the Special School near the town's shopping centre, immediately west of the old South Coast railway line (1903-61).

One of the prominent district families was the Andrews. Samuel Andrews was a councillor for Nerang shire, and probably influenced the choice of Mudgeeraba for the shire offices. The Nerang divisional board (1879) built a hall in Mudgeeraba in 1895 on a site suggested by William Laver.

West of the town, in timber-getting country, there was Mudgeeraba Upper primary school (1887-1955). Many farms went in for dairying. The post office directories recorded increasing numbers of farms during the 1920s-1930s, and the first annual show was in 1928. By 1949 there were three sawmills in the district. Electricity from Southport was switched on in 1936.

By the late 1970s the primary school was out-growing its building, and the third school was erected out of town in 1981. Several more followed: Mudgeeraba Creek State primary (1996), Clover Hill State primary (2004) and the P-12 non-denominational Somerset College (1983).

The town centre has remained at the former Station Estate. From a butcher, baker and general store, it has grown to include a supermarket and several specialty stores. Downstream of the Mudgeeraba Creek, where the ground was very muddy and sticky, modern engineering re-contoured the landscape for Robina Town Centre's shopping wonderland.

Mudgeeraba has a large public reserve with facilities for football, netball and bowls. The Hinterland Regional Park has several walking trails, and well upstream on Mudgeeraba Creek there is a golf course. Just outside Mudgeeraba, in Tallai, there is the showground. In the town there are a swimming pool and the Mudgeeraba and Springbrook memorial hall (1922).

Mudgeeraba's census populations have been:

Census DatePopulation
1911166
1933333
1966273
19864147
19968103
20018586
200612,322
201113,204

Robyn Burrows, Dairies and daydreams; the Mudgeeraba story, Brisbane, Boolarong Publications, 1989

Robyn Burrows, Bush schools and golden rules: the spirit of Mudgeeraba State School, Brisbane, Boolarong Publications, 1992

Robert Longhurst, Nerang Shire: a history to 1949, Nerang, Albert Shire Council, 1994

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