THE SECOND Sunshine Coast Hinterland, Festival of the Walks will be launched with the announcement of the Photographic Competition award-winners at 5pm at Flame Hill Vineyard in Montville on Friday August 20.
Montville Coffee is the generous sponsor of the 2010 photographic competition providing a first prize in the adult section of $1000. Second prize is a photography course and an accommodation package. There are also prizes for a children’s section of the competition.
From 21 -29 August a wonderful program of outdoor events and walks will showcase the stunning environment of the Sunshine Coast Hinterland. Here are some of the highlights.
The opening walk of the festival is a Saturday morning 10km ‘community care’ fundraising walk organised by Apex Maleny. Funds raised by those taking this scenic walk will go towards landcare and home care services on the Blackall Range. It starts and finishes at Tesch Park in Maleny.
Also on Saturday morning, the main street of Maleny will come alive with music, buskers, food tasting and novelty events. Visitors will be encouraged to walk the street and savour all that Maleny’s retail traders have to offer – from Colin James ice creams to Sweets on Maple home-made fudge, locally-made Maple 3 pasties and Top of the Range sausages.
More than 200 walkers will join this gourmet party after they complete the Hinterland Care Walk. It is supported by the Maleny Commerce and local businesses.
On Sunday there are four wonderfully invigorating walks that will take visitors through some of the most stimulating scenery of the hinterland.
At 8am you can walk in the shadow of Tibrogargan, and discover the spectacular geology beneath your feet in the ancient Glasshouse Mountains country.
This almost 6km, easy-to-medium grade walk, will take you two hours at a comfortable pace. The track highlights heath and open woodland communities of the GlassHouse Mountains. Trachyte is a type of volcanic rock, which form the Glasshouse Mountains. A short detour will lead to the Jack Ferris lookout where there are unique views of five of the Glasshouse Mountain peaks.
A more leisurely stroll is being offered through the Russell Family Park at Montville at 10am. Locals are helping restore rainforest here on several acres beside two, spring-fed billabongs. Diana O’Connor is the guide on this walk taking you through a magnificent bequest to the local community, Diana will welcome questions about this challenging plantings project.
At midday it will be Montville’s turn to entertain visitors up and down the main street with its own street party organised afternoon by local traders and chamber of commerce.
Across the Range in Maleny is the beautiful rainforest walk of Mary Cairncross Park, starting at 10am. The Friends of Mary Cairncross will surprise you with their detailed
knowledge of the rich flora and fauna within this magnificent rainforest remnant. The 1.7km walk is a leisurely stroll where the sights and sounds of this wonderland are never forgotten.
Sunday is a focus on the northern end of the Blackall Range. Mapleton’s famous three monthly market day starts at 7.30am featuring the astonishing range of home-grown products from olive oil, citrus fruits and palm wax candles to bromeliads, sandals, organic chocolate and Swiss brown mushrooms. There are bush poets in performance combined with a non-stop sausage sizzle.
Festival walkers can begin their Sunday at 8am with a 4-5 hour walk that takes in the Delicia Road conservation park or Linda Garrett Park, the Ubajee Walkers Camp and Gheerula Falls. You will pass through rainforest, a palm grove and tall wet eucalypt forest dominated by blackbutt, turpentine, brush box and flooded gum. Don’t forget to take your camera!
Throughout the following week are a host of vigorous walks and leisurely strolls including the private Dilkusha Nature Refuge on the Balmoral Ridge, a special bird walk with Burnie Collins and a children’s story-telling walk in Mary Cairncross Park.
For full calendar details of this action packed Festival of the Walks see: festivalofthewalks.com.au/events
Phone: 5478 6435
The Sunshine Coast Regional Council is a generous financial supporter of the 2010 Festival of the Walks
September 10th, 2011 at 6:24 am
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