Sunshine Coast Hinterland Times

Dorothy and Steve Hills started their Green Kitchen Cafe in Coral Street Maleny only two months ago, but already on some days people queue to get inside the door. This is a dream come true for a couple who gave away a busy, inner Brisbane city lifestyle to live and work amongst a like-minded community.

Why did you come here?

Steve: We had a business for 20 years in a busy part of Brisbane, right in the centre. But we were sick of living in traffic and smog and so forth. We used to come up here to visit, and it was the rolling hills, the ambience of the place, the community and the friendliness that attracted us.

Dorothy: Yes, there was something about Maleny that drew us back a few times. I had come originally from a farming background in Scotland and I had always had a hankering to go back to a country community. Also we’d had our daughter Georgy medically tested, and discovered she had a much higher than normal amount of lead in her system. So, we thought we would get her out of there.

Steve: At first we bought 35 acres with 600 macadamia trees and avocadoes. But it was all-encompassing – keeping the weeds at bay. We did that for a couple of years and then downsized.

Dorothy: The reality is that if you go onto the land, you’ve got to nurture it because it won’t just happen. We had a great vegetable garden there and in the back of my mind I thought I would set up a little organic cafe in Maleny. You know, cook all this wonderful produce that we’ve grown. The truth is we are not that great as farmers or gardeners …

Steve: … and there’s only so many dishes you can make out of macadamia nuts. (laughter). We used to eat out a lot but were sick of eating at places where the food was bland. We thought surely if we had natural organic products that had taste, then we could bring that good taste to other people – old-fashioned food – something that Dorothy could put her own stamp on. And that’s what we’ve done with the cafe. There’s been no advertising and it has just mushroomed by word of mouth.

Dorothy: I am refining the model in my mind every day – using the local farmers, and having people come to me with their produce … every day someone is coming in with chillies, limes, passionfruit, lemons, oranges. There are a lot of people in Maleny who are small landholders with a few acres and invariably they have something growing which they would like someone to use. I have a lady who brings me kaffir lime leaves, someone who brings mango pulp for our smoothies … all spray-free and organic.

What changes did you have to make in coming here?

Dorothy: Well, Maleny is one of those perfect locations where you’re not that far from Brisbane; not that far from the airport from where you can travel the world. So, I don’t think you lose anything by coming to live in Maleny.We haven’t changed all that much really because we were working constantly in Brisbane and now we are working every day in the cafe.

Georgy is our ballet-dancing daughter so we spend a lot of time on the road, getting her to dance classes. This weekend for example she’s at Noosa dancing with Parrish Maynard and the San Francisco ballet.

Steve: Yes, we do a lot of driving here. In Brisbane where we lived in the middle of everything, and where we walked to work, we had a car that sat in the garage. Now we’re just on the road the whole time.

Dorothy: We have always worked together so there’s no change there. There are huge advantages in working with your partner as we have alwayspreferred to bounce ideasoff each other especially when you come home at night.

So, it is important to balance work and home. That was one of the big differences between Brisbane and coming here. When we started the cafe we decided we would not work seven days a week; we will close our business and go away for periods of time. When we were in Brisbane we never did that. We worked seven days a week and we’ve learnt that while you can do it, you can’t do it forever.

Steve: People come in and say, Oh this is real food and they really appreciate it. Also we like that the same local faces come back again and again, so you get to know your clientele. Of course, tourists wouldn’t be turned away, but so often they expect hamburgers and chips and we prefer people who appreciate good nutritious food.

Dorothy: Living in Maleny has enriched our lives in lots of ways because every day you wake up you get to smell the fresh air and look at out of the window at so much that is green.

What would keep you here?

Dorothy: We’ve made friends and we’ve found like-minded friends. That’s a really big thing about Maleny that it does attract like-minded people – thinking people, people who don’t take things for granted, and are prepared to try new things. If we didn’t have the business and enjoyable work though, it would make it harder tostay here because that’s how I like tocontribute to the community.

Steve: In Brisbane we hardly knew ourneighbours at all. It was a waving kindof relationship. Up here I have got intothe Lions Club where I have madefriends. I’ve got into cycling groups.There are lots of people my own age baby-boomers who realise thatretirement or semi retirement isn’t aboutsitting on your backside, waiting for theinevitable to happen.

We’re getting known for the great foodthat the girls cook. But I have always beena coffee drinker and with this business Ihave trained down at the Sunshine Coast,done my own surveys, given each cafe arating so that I can be up there with thebest.

We want coffee to be a major part of the business and be amongst the best makers of coffee up here.

Dorothy: For me more than Steve, I havebeen able to realise a life-long dream withthe cafe, but also to live in a community thatactually gets it, which is really nice.

I am really fond of making interesting salads and the ingredients are certainly here for that – different things like the beet greens, kale – which a lot of people have lost the art of cooking. We would like to get a reputation for rustic nutritious food. We’re doing lots of gluten free, dairy free, lots of vegetarian options. But it changes every day. It’s not a factory and we don’t have a menu. We’re producing specialised dishes of limited quantity, limited ingredients which sometimes simply run out.

Steve: We don’t really want to get any bigger because we won’t be able to give a quality of service to people. Anyway, we can’t really cater for more than 30 because we only have 30 chairs (laughter).