A trip to the top of the Blackall Range was the big drawcard for holidaymakers a century ago, and those who made the rugged journey were rewarded with an “exhilarating atmosphere”.
The hairpin bends of the Palmwoods-Montville Road were precarious and made for a long and adventurous coach journey in the 1920s and 30s.
But, by the sounds of it – and certainly if you believe the marketing – the mission was well worth the effort.
Miss T. Pickering, advertising her superior new boarding house Manjalda in 1925, billed Montville as “The Blue Mountains of Queensland”.
This “splendid health resort” (below) had hot and cold baths, excellent cuisine and was “lighted throughout with Quirk’s Air Gas” for £2 and 10 shillings a week.
Miss Pickering’s advertisement appeared in the Queensland Intelligence and Tourist Bureau’s booklet From Noosa to the Tweed which referred to Montville as the “Queen of the Blackall Range”.
Descriptions of the area were poetic: “On reaching the top the different quality of the atmosphere is noted. It is the genuinely cool, exhilarating atmosphere of mountain heights in a temperate climate.
“Super-richness too, is expressed by the colour and grain of the soil. Here, too, Nature’s wonderful old chemist did a rapid and marvellous work in prehistoric times, and fruitful orchards reveal richness, variety and perfection.”
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Visitors could find exercise and recreation in pleasant walks for miles through wooded lanes and already, efforts were being made to preserve the amenity, as the booklet commends “the artistic sense which decided that construction at Montville should not involve total destruction”.
It was also noted that “Montville is a much newer settlement than Buderim, which is of lower elevation but it has many similar characteristics.”
Another favoured boarding house was “Elston”, a “first class boarding establishment commanding extensive views of mountain, valley, sea and scrub … ideal for a real holiday”.
It had a tennis court, waterfall and could offer trout and cod fishing in Obi Obi Creek, a comfortable walk from Montville.
The creek rushed through a gorge or canyon known as The Narrows, hence Narrows Rd leading down to Lake Baroon, which became the Maroochy region’s major water supply in 1989.
But in 1925, Obi Obi Ck boasted freshwater cod weighing up to 1.4kg and trout up to 1kg.
And if fishing wasn’t your thing, you could always try some excellent sport with a gun in the adjacent scrubs.
On a clear night, guests could see the light of the Double Island lighthouse and the South Passage light on Moreton Island.
This was also a salad bowl, with mandarins, oranges, limes, lemons, pineapples, papaws, passionfruit, bananas and custard apples all grown profitably.
One farmer with a property extending down the steep side of the range, had almost 1000 papaw trees bearing fruit which he claimed was the largest papaw plantation “this side of the equator”.
To reach this paradise it was necessary to take the North Coast Railway to Palmwoods.
Trains left Brisbane Central at 8.10am to arrive in Palmwoods 11.07am. Visitors then boarded a coach at noon for the winding 10km journey up the range. Finally they would arrive in Montville at 2.30pm. Quite a day.
Montville became so popular as a resort town that it was necessary to “write beforehand to assure that accommodation has been secured and seats reserved in the ordinary conveyance or that additional conveyances are chartered to meet the emergencies of a rush of sightseers.”
There are still plenty of guest houses and B and Bs for guests to enjoy the fresh mountain air but for the past 50 years, the Range has increasingly been handing its “resort” title to the beaches.
This flashback is brought to you by veteran Sunshine Coast journalist and history writer Dot Whittington, also the editor of Your Time Magazine.
