High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Rainbow Beach is a coastal town in south-eastern Queensland, Australia, east of Gympie. At the 2006 census, Rainbow Beach had a population of 999. The town`s name derives from the rainbow-coloured sand dunes surrounding the settlement; according to the legends of the Kabi people, the dunes were coloured when Yiningie, a spirit represented by a rainbow, plunged into the cliffs after doing battle with an evil tribesman. Much of the sand colors stem from the rich content of minerals in the sand, such as rutile, ilmenite, zircon, and monazite. A black dune of ilmenite sands, overgrown by dune vegetation can be found north west of the main town. This is currently being removed for sale in China with complete removal expected to take two years.