Montville

Montville sits on the ridge of the Blackall Range at around five hundred metres, high enough for a noticeably cooler climate than the coast below, and its main street is a run of timber cottages and mock-Tudor shopfronts holding galleries, sweet shops, cafés and craft stores, with a lookout at the end of the street giving a long view east over the coastal plain to the Pacific. The village grew as a farming settlement and was already a popular mountain resort from about 1900. Nearby, Kondalilla Falls drops around ninety metres into rainforest on a circuit walk, Baroon Pocket Dam offers kayaking, and the range road continues south to Maleny through dairy country.

History

The first settlers came in 1887 to a place then called Razorback, and the new name, mountain village, was officially adopted on 30 November 1897, perhaps suggested by the storekeeper Henry Smith's mother, who was reminded of Montville in the United States. From about 1900 the town was a popular mountain resort, the Methodist church was built in 1912 and St Mary's Anglican in 1914, and it lived from logging and then farming (Wikipedia, Montville, Queensland).

The main sights

• The village street - timber and mock-Tudor shopfronts of galleries and cafés.
• The coastal view - the escarpment lookout over the Sunshine Coast.
• Kondalilla Falls - a ninety-metre fall on a rainforest circuit nearby.
• The range drive - the ridge road through dairy country to Maleny.

When to go

April to October for clear, dry weather; summer brings humidity and afternoon storms, and cloud often sits on the range. Weekends are busy with day trippers and parking on the main street is difficult.

Good to know

The village is small and thoroughly geared to visitors, which reads as charming or twee depending on taste. The whole street takes an hour. Roads up the range are narrow and winding, and weekend traffic is slow.

Nearby

Maleny lies south along the range; Kondalilla and Baroon Pocket are minutes away.

Key facts