Maleny, settled in the 1860s for its valuable timbers, became the service centre for the dairy farmers who followed at the turn of the century. The Sunshine Coast’s first butter factory opened in Maleny in 1903 and the town remains the business centre of the Blackall Range.
The scenic district set among green pastures on top of the range, includes Witta and north Maleny. It has a mix of guesthouse and rural resort accommodation, restaurants, and arts and crafts shops as well as main street businesses and professional services and a Woolworths supermarket built after much protest by locals. It also has a hospital, a showground – and cattleyards.
During the 1970s, Maleny suffered great growing pains with the arrival of retirees, commuters and alternates looking for a lifestyle. The dairy farmers were rubbing shoulders with hippies in the main street and resisted. These problems mainly arose because the growth was so rapid, it destabilised the older residents and farmers who began to feel disenfranchised.
Maleny has had an 8 per cent per annum growth rate since the late 1980s. The district of 8420 hectares had a population of 0.55 people per hectare at the 2006 census.
Maleny has been compared to Nimbin in that they started in the same way about the same time, however where Nimbin had the hippies arriving with plastic bags ready to drop out, Maleny attracted professional people dropping out with money in their pockets.
About 20 per cent of its population is commuters travelling to Brisbane, many via rail from Landsborough. It also has one of the highest percentages of self-employed people in Queensland.
Summing up: Despite the opening of numerous residential estates since the early 1990s, Maleny has retained its rural amenity and farms, along with its sense of community (and third generation dairy farmers). It has dream homes on 10 acres and pretty town and country estates, for its residents to enjoy the waters of Lake Baroon, breathtaking views, rolling green pastures and all the services that come with age.
