Maleny, Queensland
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Maleny () is a small scenic town 90 km north of Brisbane in the Blackall Range hinterland overlooking the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. Nearby towns include Landsborough, Montville and Peachester. Nearby places of geographical significance include the Glass House Mountains and Baroon Pocket Dam. Maleny hosted the Maleny Folk Festival from its inception in 1987 to 1994, when it was moved to the nearby town of Woodford and renamed the Woodford Folk Festival.
In transition from a timber-cutting and dairying past to a tourism and commuter future, Maleny is evolving rapidly with a population boom, a small mass of real estate developments and the controversial building of a Woolworths supermarket near a well-known platypus habitat. Some locals were opposed to the idea (79% of local residents opposed according to "Market Facts" survey 20/07/05), and despite protests and an offer to purchase the site for AUS$2 million (pledged by local residents), building went ahead. Badges and posters reading "I WON'T SHOP THERE" are frequently seen in Maleny as part of the anti-Woolworths campaign, though active opposition is declining. These events have been documented by national media and have spawned a website and "magazine" as well as an action group.
[edit] History
The area around Maleny was originally populated by two aboriginal groups, the Nalbo people and the Dallambara group. The area was known for its bunya feasts which happened every third year when the giant bunya tree was in fruit.
The first European to document Maleny was the explorer Ludwig Leichhardt who describes the area in his travel diary in 1844. The first European settlement followed in the wake of the Gympie gold rush of 1867. Maleny was a timbertown until the early 1920s. The town survived as a centre of dairy with a butter factory. This industry declined in the 1960s but Maleny reinvented itself as a New Age town in the 1970s with a large influx of people who wanted an alternative lifestyle. These people have contributed to the diversity of the town. From the late 1990s onwards, the demographic of Maleny is changing again. This time it is expanding as a Baby Boomer retirement paradise and a suburban satellite town to serve the boom economies of the nearby metropolises of Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast.
[edit] External links
- Sunshine Coast Daily - Regional Newspaper
- Maleny Voice - Community Magazine and Portal
- Maleny Online - Maleny Online Business Directory
