Kenilworth, on the western side of the Blackall Range, is a world apart from the rest of the Sunshine Coast.
For many years it was home to the famous Kenilworth Rodeo, which in itself creates an accurate image of the township – cattle, horses, cowboy boots and Akubras. There are wide open spaces, isolated paddocks, heavily forested hills, little creeks and an old town where everybody still knows each other.
Kenilworth’s heyday was the post-war years, when it was the commercial centre for the surrounding dairy and beef farmers and the entertainment centre for miles around, as locals flocked to Saturday night dances.
Its most famous son was Eddie DeVere, a local dairy farmer and councillor who went on to become a major player in Sunshine Coast history as Maroochy Shire Chairman from 1967 to 1982. He used Kenilworth as his blueprint and as a result, the town was the first to have a water supply, sewerage, sealed roads and town planning.
It remains a small town with a permanent population of around 300, a post office, a school, a pool and a hall and its main street is a step back in time to the 1950s. There’s not a four-lane highway for miles.
Taking advantage of its position on the route of a pleasant Sunday drive from Maleny down to Conondale, across to Kenilworth and back to Eumundi, a number of arts, crafts and antiques, cafes and coffee shops have sprung up.
The old cheese factory now makes boutique cheeses, yoghurts and ice-creams and opposite, is a playground which is still one of the best around.
Further west is Little Yabba and Booloumba Creek and some of the most beautiful rainforest on the Sunshine Coast, complete with cool swimming holes in running freshwater creeks.
The district includes Coolabine, Belli Park and Gheerulla, all so small that you can blink and miss them.
Summing up: Kenilworth is all about peace and quiet, an opportunity to live a rural life and raise a family in a good-old fashioned country town, while still being within an hour’s drive of the beach. It’s also cheaper. There are some superb properties along the Mary River and if the kids are into horses, then this is the place to be. There’s easy access to the highway at Eumundi or over the Obi Obi Range to Mapleton or south to Conondale and Maleny.
