Sunshine Coast Hinterland Times

Ian and Lee Lucas live on a stunning 27 acre forested property close to Lake Baroon near Montville, a property they are slowly rescuing from lantana to create a tranquil setting called Lucas Parklands.  Residents since only January, Ian and Lee have brought a unique and exciting vision to the Hinterland.

Why did you come here?

Ian- To achieve my lifelong vision of transforming an acreage block into a parklands and provide a place for young musicians who are at a professional level and need performance opportunity a place to play.  When finished, we will be surrounded by beauty and music.

The vision that’s shared by Lee and myself is basically to build a music room and a park and a place where we can eventually record music. This has been a idea of mine for many years.
The mindset of the hinterland is favourable. The environment is perfect. It’s probably the only place I’ve been to that we could start from scratch and work toward a conclusion.

 Lee-I very much embraced Ian’s idea because I wish I had learned to play an instrument when I was younger.  Ian’s mother and grandmother were very musical and our children are carrying on that tradition. I also love the isolation that you find living on acreage.

Ian- Music was my original education. I gained a degree in music fairly young. I played the piano but chose not to go on with it. The real world reared its ugly head and of course you have to make a living. Both my parents were children of the Depression and didn’t see music, dance, art or sculpture as a realistic way to earn a living, so it was not encouraged.

What did you change to come here?

Lee- A lot! We gave up jobs and a hectic lifestyle. By coming here we changed the way we thought about things. We discovered that what seemed important and necessary, isn’t now. We changed things for the better. This place offers everything.

Ian-For me this is a difficult question. I was an airline pilot from 1978 to 2008. After flying 30 years, I thought, well that’s more than 50 per cent of my life and that was enough.
By coming here I have had to move away from short term ambition and the mundane day-to-day life towards thinking and staying focussed on a long term project idea.
We both have friends who don’t understand what we’re doing.  They ask how can you possibly move from a successful career to chase an idea. Well firstly because we chose to and I don’t consider any difference between a career and a different style of work. It’s still gainful employment surely.

Lee-That’s right. It doesn’t mean you have to get out of bed to an alarm every morning and go to a 9 to 4 place to work.
Ian- What’s exciting is that we now have world standard pianists choosing to come here. They trust us and it’s as much about their intellectual security as anything else. Apart from Australian concerts in Sydney and Melbourne they are considering including Montville as part of their tour. That’s quite an achievement in our first year.
We’re trying to develop a concept where artists will come, perform live and their music will be recorded on CD.  In Europe there is quite a following for small venue performances where live recordings are made and the CD’s sold. We attended such a concert in Paris recently and purchased a CD with surprisingly high quality. This concept may take some time to be fully established.
 Either way you need to do things really well or not at all!

What keeps you here?

Lee-There’s nowhere better to live. There just isn’t. We’ve been all over Australia. We’ve looked at beautiful places everywhere but the Blackall Range is unique. This Range area is safe for our young kids, elderly people can walk around the streets and it has a wonderfully caring atmosphere.  It’s amazing to find shopkeepers who are mindful of children. I don’t know where else you would find that.

Ian-The overwhelming reason I stay here is that we can complete what we have started to a standard better than in my imagination. Parklands is really a name for the future, we are only 25% finished. The Hinterland environment and its artistic mindset makes this the only place where we can create a park and place for music. And we just love living here!