Renee Kelly is young woman who started life 21 years ago with a huge disadvantage … a tiny 620 gm birth weight and hopelessly under-developed heart and lungs. She had only a very slim chance of survival … but survive she did.

Now Renee is making her mark on life, despite a disability that would have detered the most determined of spirits.

IN WHAT could turn out to be the adventure of a lifetime, Witta resident Renee Kelly has been invited to travel to London to play with an Irish band.

It’s a trip that even the most independent first-time traveller would find daunting. But even though Renee has a significant disability, her courage and determination to face challenges will carry her through.

Born 21 years ago in Mackay at 25 weeks (15 weeks premature), Renee weighed only 620g and her torso was the length of a pen. Given less than a 50/50 chance of survival, her first few months were a nail-biting time for parents, Donna and Tom. Tiny Renee’s under-developed heart and lungs required a number of operations and use of pure oxygen, which, tragically, caused the loss of her eyesight.

Thankfully, today, Renee is a healthy, confident and attractive young woman with a passion for all things Irish and a gift for drumming. Having climbed up on a chair at the age of three to explore her dad’s kit, she now has her own electric drum kit, which is both small and portable but still packs a punch.

Earlier this year, while cruising the Internet, Renee came across a song by Irish band, Saoirse, and sent a message to guitarist, Jamie Connors, to say how much she liked their music.

“I told him that I was a drummer and I love all sorts of music and I’m fully blind,” she explains.

Within 24 hours, Renee was delighted to receive a response, inviting her to send samples of her work.

“So I made a DVD of me playing drums to one of their songs and sent it over,” she says. “Next thing, there’s a message in my inbox inviting me to come and have a jam with them in London, where they are based. I was blown away!”

Renee is no stranger to seizing the moment: recently, through friend Kel Cork (of The Rain), she was invited to play with fellow Maleny-ite Kevin Borich, a formidable musician with a 30-year professional career. It was a nerve-wracking experience that tested even her mettle.

“A week beforehand I was a wreck – I was texting Kel about five times a day,” she says with a laugh. “Then the day beforehand, the power went out and I couldn’t practise – I was furious! When I got there, I was shaking like a leaf but the moment I started playing, I knew this is where I have to be.”

When she’s not studying, Renee enjoys listening to audiobooks and it’s no surprise that one of her favourite authors is Maeve Binchy. Many of her audiobooks are supplied by Vision Australia, which also supplies equipment for blind and low vision clients. Just to keep her on her toes, she is about to start learning the violin, having long admired fiddle players Kristin Kelly (no relation) from The Barleyshakes and Joe Murray from Sasta, both bands well known to Irish music enthusiasts.

Plenty of famous musicians have held down a day-job well into their career, and Renee is sensibly working on her fallback in the form of a business qualification. She lives part-time in Brisbane with her two elder brothers, attending TAFE where she is studying for a Certificate III in Business, with a view to working in the police force.

“I enjoy typing and hope to get a job transcribing police interviews,” she says, matter-of- factly. “The course is pretty full on – it requires a lot of reading.”

Studying is abnormally time- consuming with all text being ‘read’ by Renee using a voice synthesis program. First, every book used in the course must be turned into digital format and any pictures in the document described. The result is made suitable for her screen reading software, JAWS, which was developed for computer users whose vision loss prevents them from seeing screen content. Sadly for Renee, JAWS does not offer an Irish accent option.

With London set firmly in her sights, Renee is hoping that she might also be able to visit Ireland and listen to some of her favourite music in its homeland context. One can only imagine her excitement. And perhaps trepidation?

“I’m pretty good at overcoming my fears,” she reflects, her fine features masking an iron will. “I just live with the belief that life’s full of risks – there’s a risk in getting out of bed in the morning!” “If an opportunity comes along then you should take it while it’s there and see what happens.”

“I know I was born to play music and I want to focus on that. The business course is good, but music is the main thing I really want to do. If this London thing goes ahead, I’m going to be so stoked; it could open up doors that I never could have dreamed would happen.”

Undoubtedly, Renee has the spirit and determination to take this opportunity and turn it into a reality.

Wayne, Fran and Zach, their youngest of four children - on the Hinterland since August 2011

IT TAKES courage during these uncertain times to pack up and travel across the world to settle in a new country. But Wayne Markwort and his wife Fran and their four children Tess, Jordie, Anika and Zach have taken it in their stride. This young family moved to the Blackall Range in August from Huddersfield in the north of England. Perhaps courage is the wrong word for Wayne and Fran who are both professional artists. Because they both exude confidence and determination to establish themselves, coming as they do with an impressive breadth of skills from ceramics to stone carving, painting and digital art.

Nature Altar. Bronze

Wayne was trained at college as a stone carver and on graduation he immediately started pitching for public art commissions. He found it a very competitive area and eventually went on to further study in stone carving in Barcelona where he met Fran 17 years ago. “There’s such massive competition for public art work in the UK,” says Wayne. “I have a sense that the Australian artworld is more accessible and we will be approaching galleries with our portfolios.” Wayne’s portfolio reveals an impressive range of monumental abstract sculptures, delicate bronzes, and bold spray can images in primary colours.

“Narrative is important to what I do,” says Wayne. “I don’t think it’s really art if there is no story behind the composition. Craft and design on their own are OK but without a narrative it is simply a utilitarian object.”

With four young children, Fran is careful to find time for her ceramic sculptures, and as they settle into Range life, Wayne is planning to install a bronze foundry at home to make small bronze pieces, which he sees as more commercially attractive than large stone sculptures.

“Abstract sculpture is such an elite art. You have to work at it and I have gradually developed a style which often relies on religious iconology for its form and theme.”

Like many artists, Wayne is prepared to work at most things to sustain his creative bent, from gardening to building.

“For me, art comes first. Creative ideas tend to build up and then they rush out. For example, I have just finished about 17 spray can paintings – still lifes and very classical in composition.”

Having travelled the world with their art – making their way through America, Africa, Europe and SE Asia – Wayne and Fran have settled on the Blackall Range. That’s partly because Wayne’s father lives here but Wayne also sees things through the eyes of an artist.

Boats - spray can colours on board.

“Apart from the weather, there is something about the space and time here – every hour seems to last longer,” he adds with a smile. “There’s a solidity here, and despite the sometimes deafening bird chatter, there is a stillness about this place.”

Bob Cameron beside the completed cob oven at Maleny’s River School.

strong sense of responsibility for the well-being of our community and our planet.

Bob’s concern for the planet is rock solid…

BOB CAMERON is an enigma – a self-proclaimed corporate hippie. His business, Rockcote, which specialises in advanced architectural coating systems, was built on solid green foundations and recently signed a multi-million dollar deal with Bunnings. He didn’t complete his university studies because he didn’t ‘fit the system’ and yet in 2010 he and wife, Chris, were made honorary senior fellows of the University of the Sunshine Coast.

And while he could be lunching with high-flying clients anywhere in Australia (or the world), Bob would prefer to get muddy while teaching a group of Hinterland enthusiasts about cob ovens.

Unlike some other ‘green-washed’ business leaders, Bob’s environmental ethics are both genuine and visionary. He started Rockcote 30 years ago and from inception measured its success in terms that include, but are not limited to, financial – he believes success is about living in accordance with your beliefs, respecting the planet’s resources and encouraging others to do the same.

Resting in the shadow of towering silos, the garden is living testimony to the company’s philosophy that people live best when they are in harmony with nature.

I had met Bob a month beforehand, when I joined 15 enthusiastic workshop participants at the River School in Maleny. Our mission was to build the school a cob oven and, along the way, learn about this fascinating method of construction.

While waiting for the workshop to begin, I introduced myself to a shy man wearing a floppy hat, loose shirt and friendly smile, who turned out to be Bob Cameron.

He launched the workshop with an explanation of why he believes natural building materials are an important solution to today’s economic and social woes.

“Most of the problems we face today emanate from the difference between the way nature works and the way humans think,” Bob began.

“Although our march towards civilisation has brought many benefits there are also some very important things that we have lost, many of these just in the last generation.”

Bob is passionate about keeping alive the knowledge that helps us keep in tune with the rhythms of nature. He believes we should be identifying and preserving the skills that equip us to:

• grow food without huge inputs of fossil fuel energy and chemical fertilisers;
• process, store and prepare food without the use of modern chemical additives;
• design communities that are not reliant on cars and that function as nurturing communities for all age and ethnic groups; and
• design and construct our buildings so that they don’t rely on huge amounts of fossil fuels to make them liveable and comfortable.

Neither romantic nor devolutionist, Bob believes we need to marry traditional knowledge with modern techniques and understanding, his views reminiscent of Bill Mollison’s permaculture writings (without the larrikin anarchist angle).

“For too long we have been looking exclusively to science and the future to lead the way,” he observed sagely.

“However, many solutions can be found in traditional cultures. For example, cob (a mix of clay, silt, sand and straw) has incredible thermal properties, is genuinely sustainable, natural, plentiful and carbon neutral, and yet has been overlooked in favour of synthetic, non-renewable materials.”

Bob inside his Yandina Rockcote warehouse - the business he started 30 years ago.

Our introduction over, the workshop participants mixed and moulded the cob using our feet, hands and arms. Working side-by-side to create a functional work of art was both bonding and satisfying, especially knowing that it would be used to nourish River School children for years to come.

Sitting alongside the school’s new edible garden, ‘Myrtle’, as she is to be known, is an attractive addition to the school’s resources that support a broad range of subjects, including mathematics, physics, chemistry, environmental studies, health, food and cooking. It is for this reason that Bob is passionate about building cob ovens and introducing other traditional arts in schools.

“If we don’t keep these traditional arts and skills alive, we are in danger of losing them forever,” he warned. “We are not talking about this happening some time in the next century – it could happen in the space of the next generation.”

“It is vitally important that we introduce this knowledge at primary school level and inspire kids to understand how it can be used in the modern world to solve some of the systematic problems their forebears have created.”

Bob Cameron may not fit the traditional business leader mould but his altruistic business approach is a beacon of optimism for the future.

Actor, Director, Scriptwriter … Judy Morris

… is Outspoken with writer, Steven Lang

WE ALL KNOW writers have a hard time of it. Their business is words and let’s face it, they’re not shy of using them to let us know how difficult it is being them. But what about scriptwriters? Not only do they have to come up with an idea and put flesh on its bones, they then have to sell it to producers, directors, backers, cinema chains, all of whom, should they even choose to take it on, want to tweek the original. And then, just supposing their script gets through all that, they have to deal with actors.

Someone who knows a fair bit about the process is Judy Morris. She started off as a child star in both Australia and America. She later returned here to star in such films and television programs as Alvin Purple, Bellbird and Mother and Son. After appearing in fifty-four different shows she took up script writing. Working with George Miller and others she wrote Babe: Pig in the City and Happy Feet, the Oscar-winning animated film.

Her most recent project has been the script for Fred Schepisi’s adaptation of Patrick White’s The Eye of the Storm. Judy will be Maleny Film Society and Outspoken’s special guest at this year’s Australian Film Festival. The two organisations have teamed up to bring her to Maleny for a conversation about writing in general and the Eye of the Storm in particular.

‘The thing about Patrick White,’ Judy says, ‘Is I think he is incredibly funny. He’s extraordinarily witty, but then he turns on a dime so you’re suddenly in very serious territory. He catapults you between the two all the time. It’s what I love about him, that you don’t know whether you’re going to be laughing at something … or crying about it, he’s so multi- faceted.’

Judy Morris, in conversation with local author Steven Lang, an Outspoken event presented in association with Maleny Film Society’s Australian Film Festival, Friday 20th January. Doors open 6.00 pm. $18 or $13 for members. Maleny Bookshop 5494 3666. Passes for the whole Festival are also available.

Above: Judy Morris stars in the 1986 movie, “The More Things Change” and the writer of “Happy Feet”.

Jacques Reymond “Jacques Reymond Melbourne”

MARTIN DUNCAN’S stunning Freestyle Escape outdoor cooking school, near to Dulong on the Sunshine Coast hinterland, has attracted a swag of celebrity chefs for 2012.

Freestyle’s class sizes ensure that each participant’s experience includes valuable one-on- one time with some of Australia’s most talented chefs.

Those chefs attracted by Martin (below right) to this wonderful culinary environment include Martin Boetz of Longrain in Sydney and Melbourne, Dominique Rizzo of Ready Steady Cook, Jacques Reymond of Jacques Reymond, Melbourne and Richard Cotton of Brewbakers, Brisbane.

Dominique Rizzo “Ready Steady Cook”

Martin’s specially designed outdoor undercover kitchen is just over one hour north of Brisbane and is set amidst rainforest where amazing birdsong can be heard throughout the day.

Part of each class involves strolling through the orchard with wonderful glimpses out over the beautiful backdrop of the Sunshine Coast.

Top Sydney chef Martin Boetz of Longrain will be in Queensland for only one day for his Thai food class.

As Martin says, “For lovers of Thai food this really will be an unforgettable culinary experience. You may well lock in Sunday 19 February 2012 as the day you ‘really’ did Thai.”

The Celebrity Chef series at Freestyle Escape was launched in 2010 with French chef Bruno Loubet, and Martin Duncan has since hosted many truly talented chefs -Adriano Zumbo, Matthew Kemp and Matt Wilkinson to name a few.

Martin Boetz “Longrain” - Sydney and Melbourne

Check out the list of chefs and their dates on the Freestyle Escape website: www.freestyleescape.com.au

Richard Cotton “Brewbakers, Brisbane

Although the honour is hotly contested, the most popular chef at Freestyle so far has been patissier extraordinaire Adriano Zumbo.

“I’m not quite sure if it was the lure of dessert or the lure of Adriano himself,” laughs Martin. “Even if we’d asked him to stay with us for a week, there still would’ve been a waiting list as long as my arm!” Freestyle Escape Cooking School presents Martin Boetz on Saturday, 19 February 2012.

Cost: $295 per person for a memorable experience including lunch with wine and morning/afternoon tea.(Tickets are strictly limited).

For bookings call 07 3262 3077 or purchase online at the website: www.freestyleescape.com.au

RALPH DART was an early Montville pioneer whose generous donation of land to the Methodist Church sees that donation celebrate 100 years in 2012. Ralph Dart acquired 58 acres on Negus Lane in 1898. He named his farm Coulridge, and grew oranges with pineapples planted between the rows to be marketed, with a wide variety of fruit trees and vegetables for home use. Other paddocks were planted with paspalum to provide grass for stock.

In 1900 Ralph married Minnie Meise, of Palmwoods and they had five children. Unfortunately, the Hinterland climate did not suit Ralph and he developed a ‘chest complaint’. In 1911 Doctor Penny travelled by horse and buggy from Nambour to advise the family to move west to a drier climate, away from the dampness on the Range. The family leased out Coulridge for four years and moved to Dalby, where Ralph set up a shop to sell consignments of fruit from the Montville area. Ralph had earlier acquired a block of land in Montville which he donated to the Methodist Church, and a church was built on the site in 1911. Sadly, while he saw construcion of the building start, Ralph couldn’t be in Montville for the opening of the church in January, 1912. In 1914 the Darts returned to Montville to continue the development of their farm. They travelled by train through Toowoomba and Brisbane, and then by wagon up the Razorback from Palmwoods. By 1918 however, Ralph’s health had deteriorated to the point that his doctor advised that again, he move away from the Range, suggesting they go as far west as Roma. Ralph’s son, Will, remembered the Sunday prior to the long journey west: “We all met at the home of our grandparents… After dinner and a great deal of talking, with so much to be said, the company joined in singing ‘God be With You ‘til we Meet Again’. The next day the family set out on their journey. Ralph Dart passed away within a month. His brother, Monty Dart, and brother- in- law, T H Brown, travelled from Montville to provide support for the family, and assisted them to move to Brisbane shortly after Ralph’s death.

Ralph Dart was only 41 when he died and Minnie lived to be 92. Their children made several journeys to Montville to visit their grandparents and uncles, and their grandsons will visit Montville in May 2012 for the anniversary celebrations of the Montville Uniting Church. Ralph’s father, William Dart, lived for 26 years on the property that is now the site of local business, Montville Auto and Air.

Material for this article is taken from the book 100 Years of Blessing: Montville Uniting Church 1912 – 2012

JULIA GILLARD’S government is entering the new year with a kind of desperate optimism. After all, what’s the alternative? The Labor Party has to hope and believe that things can only get better.

2011 was indeed an annus horribilis, marked by ministers lurching from crisis to crisis, pausing only to occasionally shoot themselves (or sometimes each other) in the foot, and the chaos was reflected in the polls. But 2012 can’t possibly be as bad as 2011 was. Things have to improve, don’t they? Well, don’t they?

Sorry chaps, but here’s the bad news: no they don’t, and indeed they could actually get worse. The problem is that just as the government finally looks like pulling itself into some kind of shape, with the carbon tax and the mining tax through parliament and the beginnings of a genuine Gillard agenda emerging, the arse looks like falling out of the world economy. Europe is a basket case and the other industrial power houses – the United States and Japan – are in no position to rescue it, even if they had the desire to do. GFC Mark II looks all but inevitable; the only real questions are what form it will take, how severe it will be, and how long it will last.

Treasurer Wayne Swan comments bravely that the demand from China for our resources will insulate Australia from the worst of it, and it is true that our economy is better armoured than most to withstand a crash. But it would be sanguine to the point of nuttiness to imagine that with the world imploding around it, little Australia will remain untouched. At the very least the economy is certain to slow down considerably, and there is no longer the money available for the stimulus packages which protected both consumer demand and investor confidence last time. The Reserve Bank, unlike almost all its international counterparts, has a bit of room to play with interest rates, but that’s about the only tool left in the shed and it is unlikely to be sufficient.

Thus Gillard’s reform program will once again grind to a halt, bereft of the funds needed to grease the wheels. In particular the big ticket items foreshadowed in recent times, like a disabilities scheme, a universal dental service, or any serious tax reform, will be pushed back into the cupboard whence they emerged. And the government will have to devote much of its time and energy in not only trying to cushion the voters against the threat of recession, but in soothing, cajoling and comforting them to try and avoid a collapse of confidence – a task in communications for which both Gillard and Swan have proved themselves to be manifestly unsuited in the past.

At the same time they will continue to be haunted by their twin obsessions: the tyranny of the weekly opinion polls, an absurd distraction regarded as holy writ by politicians and commentators alike, and the ever present spectre of Kevin Rudd. The possibility of Rudd making a successful challenge for the leadership has always been miniscule and nothing that has happened in the last few months has made it more likely: he has mended few if any fences within the caucus and the powerbrokers would eat their own young before having him back.

But within the Gillard camp the foreign minister still has the status of an obsession: sooner or later, perhaps in the next few months, almost certainly by the end of the year, the matter of Rudd must be resolved one way or another. Such is the paranoia that there is even talk of a Gillard supporter moving for a spill before Rudd’s few followers have the opportunity to organise their numbers. The idea is lunacy: far from killing off the threat, it would give it credibility and split the caucus in the process. It would not be a show of strength but an admission of weakness.

Don’s View...

Look at the history of such moves. In 1971 John Gorton took on Billy McMahon by asking his part for a vote of confidence, and lost the prime ministership as a result. In 1982 Bill Hayden called a special party meeting to bring Bob Hawke’s challenge into the open; he won that round but he impetus it gave Hawke made him irresistible a few months later. And most notoriously of all in 1984 Andrew Peacock demanded that his party rid him of the menace of John Howard: the party room refused and Peacock was forced to resign the leadership – to Howard. In politics, as in commerce, you never give a sucker an even break, let alone an opponent.

Just ask Tony Abbott. It is probably too late to bring sense or logic back to the so-called debate over asylum seeker policy, but Abbott’s hypocrisy on the issue has reached truly Stygian depths. He objects to sending asylum seekers to Malaysia, because it hasn’t signed the refugees convention; well no, but nor had Nauru at the time of John Howard’s Pacific Solution, which Abbott now lauds as the acme of policy, and he still wants to turn the boats back to Indonesia, which hasn’t signed up either. The answer must be Nauru, which the professionals say would not work as a deterrent because when it was last used almost all the detainees ended up in Australia or New Zealand anyway.

Well, if it doesn’t, says Abbott, bring back temporary protection visas – the device of psychological torture by which even those accepted as refugees were not given the rights of residents, in particular the right to bring out their families. This actually resulted in more risks as the wives and children of TPV holders themselves had no alternative but to brave the boats themselves. But we’ll think of something – perhaps we could threaten to pull their fingernails out with red-hot pincers to save them from the people smugglers. All in the name of compassion, of course.

And we cannot start the New Year without congratulating John Howard for being made a member of the Royal Order of the Brown Nose by Her Majesty. He will no doubt keep it on his desk next to his boy scout woggle for Janette to dust every morning. And alarmingly, he claims it is a tribute not just to himself but to his country. No, Johnnie, it was just for you.

Most of us like our honours to be Australian.

Emma Cameron is set for a stimulating career path with Maleny-based Mondo Floral Designs. In February she will graduate as a fully qualified florist, having served her apprenticeship with Terrianne and Mondo - one of south-east Queensland’s most highly regarded floral design studios.

As the Sunshine Coast Hinterland wedding industry continues to grow, one of this region’s award-winning wedding suppliers recently moved into new premises to expand their range of client services.

Julie Shelton caught up with business owner, Terrianne Burns.

MONDO FLORAL DESIGNS is a boutique floral stylist for weddings and events on the Sunshine Coast. Established seven years ago as a home-based business, Mondo has grown into a busy enterprise, annually servicing about 400 weddings, spread across a twelve-month wedding season, and employing three staff members to assist in the floral designs.

In December, Terrianne Burns, and her team took over an old Queenslander in Coral Street, which itself had great appeal.

“We like that it is a bustling thoroughfare with a lot of professionals lining the street,” Terrianne explains. “The move to Coral Street came about after an opportunity arose – we felt we needed more of a presence and the building we have moved to has a quaint, vintage charm that very much describes who we are and what we do.”

“Although we’ve only been here a couple of weeks, we have attracted a bit of attention and people want to come in and have a look, which is exactly what we wanted from the move.”

While the wedding industry is estimated to be worth more than $12 million a year for Maleny alone, the decision to stay in Maleny was a difficult one, with Mondo doing about 50% of its business in the Hinterland and 50% in Noosa.

Image by Calli B Photography

“The pull from suppliers and venues for Mondo to move to Noosa has been massive!” she exclaims, rolling her eyes.

“But we made a decision that we will stay in Maleny – all of the clients who choose to get married in Noosa love coming to Maleny to see us. Most of our clients are from interstate and overseas, so coming to the Hinterland is a lovely experience for them, and it’s a great way to showcase the area.”

Terrianne also greatly values the support that Mondo receives from local venues, including Maleny Manor, Laurel’s, Spicers Clovelly Estate and Flaxton Gardens.

“One of the most refreshing things about moving to the Sunshine Coast was the incredible amount of support that all of the suppliers give to each other. It’s not really an ego thing up here. It’s more about being involved, working together and lifting the level of service in the entire wedding industry.”

“I’ve been here for about six years and I’ve made some incredibly dear friends from colleagues in this industry. It’s been a wonderful experience.”

At the new location, Terrianne has created a beautifully appointed showroom with Mondo Floral Design’s portfolios, wedding magazines and a magnificent collection of vases and vessels on display. It is clear from this room alone that Mondo is committed to quality – an important first impression for clients.

“Having a showroom with a lot of soul and character was important and I’ve been able to put my touches to the building and do some interior decorating to create the space to suit what we are wanting,” she says, her perfectly manicured hands holding one of the photo albums.

“The first meeting is nearly always with the bride-to-be, who may be on her own, or may be accompanied by her fiancé, mother, mother-in-law and/or sisters – there can be up to ten people in the showroom!” Terrianne says with a laugh.

After spending an hour or so with the client, gathering information about the gown, stationery and colour palette, a mood board is developed to work in the floral component.

“It’s really the only day of your life where you can get your wish of having that highlight of flowers shining through,” she describes romantically.

The next step is the preparation of a custom designed proposal, which is Mondo Floral Design’s unique quote. It is usually between four and six pages long and involves a lot of information about decisions for the client to consider, and includes descriptions of florals, varieties and colour palettes.

“We are not a florist that will supply a client with a package that asks them to choose between A, B, C or D. We take every client on individually, find out the components of their day and what they want to achieve, and then create a personalised proposal based on their requirements.”

Like many of the wedding professionals in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland, the Mondo team put in long hours during the wedding season. Working seven days a week, in the peak time they can work from 6am until midnight.“It’s very important to us to make sure that we are involved in every facet that involves the florals – we don’t give the flowers to a courier and tell them to take them to the bride,” she says disapprovingly.

Mondo’s service is very personalised – on the wedding day, the bride is shown how to walk down the aisle while holding her bouquet, all the buttonhole flowers and corsages are pinned then the ceremony and reception flowers are set up, which can take hours. For most weddings, at midnight someone will return to the venue and pack it all down again.

“It’s a very labour-intensive job but it’s a job that we all love,” Terrianne says, her passion clearly evident.

Indications are that the blossoming wedding industry will continue to provide the Sunshine Coast Hinterland with the kind of economic security that other regions can only dream of. One might say that Mondo Floral Designs’ future is looking rosy.

“We take every client on individually, find out the components of their day and what they want to achieve, and then create a personalised proposal based on their requirements.”

A H Brown loaded his truck with children for their annual Sunday School picnic at the beach in the 1960s. Ms June Brown is about to climb into the passenger seat.

Several contributors to the new Montville Methodist/ Uniting Church commemorative book, “100 Years of Blessing” recall their childhood association with that church and the community stories surrounding it.

ONE VERY dexterous young girl somehow managed to tie a piece of cotton around a March fly. She recalled then letting it go to fly around the church “while all the kids sniggered.”

Others confessed to also being rather naughty, but had only positive memories to share.

As the centre of the community, the little Methodist church, with only around 30 members, held a ‘Christmas Tree’ each December for local children for many decades. In 1931, over 150 gifts were distributed at the event by an older, white- bearded church member dressed as Santa Claus.

By the 1960s, the Sunday School teachers had the privilege of going to Brisbane to shop for gifts on Santa’s behalf. Jenny Williams remembered being in trouble one year for buying bubble blowers, because “bubbles landed on the angels’ dresses and marked the satin!”

During the 1960s the combined Montville- Palmwoods youth group had over 60 members. The group was run by the Rev Kadel, who made up little ditties to amuse the smaller children. Wendy Cuthbertson remembered this one:

I’ve stuck to Montville But as far as I can see It’s only when it’s raining That Montville sticks to me!

These were the days when anyone could purchase their own fireworks to celebrate Guy Fawkes Night, and the Methodist church for several years held November bonfire and barbeque nights on Clive Williams’ paddock on the edge of the range, much to the delight of the local children.

Clive constructed a frame for a Catherine wheel, and the church provided sparklers and Roman candles for the young ones.

In 1960, the church ordered 56 lbs of meat – mince, sausages, steak and saveloys – from Hobson’s butcher shop in Palmwoods to cater for guests at the event. The following day the Williams children and their neighbors combed the paddock to find as many unfired tom thumbs as they could in order to let them off.

It was the Sunday School picnics though that people remembered most fondly. For many years these were held at Alexandra Headland, and for most Montville children, the picnic was the only time they visited the beach and saw the ocean.

After a morning of swimming under the watchful gaze of lifesavers, a huge lunch was prepared by the mothers and Sunday School teachers. The afternoon was for sandcastle building competitions, sack, egg and spoon and three-legged races.

For those children who had come without their parents, they were piled onto the back of Mr A H Brown’s truck for the ride home to Montville, all seated on the makeshift seats of planks set on pineapple packing cases.

The truck returned its passengers to the general store on the corner of Western Avenue, where those parents who couldn’t get to the picnic waited to collect their tired and sunburnt children.

Pleasant memories indeed!

(Material for this article is taken from the book 100 Years of Blessing: Montville Uniting Church 1912 – 2012 Mapleton Library have copies of the book for sale. The cost is $20. )

Niche alpaca breeders Jeff and Jill Willis of Palmwoods have just won top awards for their junior alpaca fleeces, beating the biggest and the best studs in Australia. It has put Sunline Alpacas on the world stage.

EVER SINCE men and women first wore fur skins, they have appreciated exotic fibres close to their skin – like velvet, silk, satin, cashmere and mohair. Now the finest of alpaca fibres has become the feel of the moment and Australian alpaca breeders have made enormous inroads into the ultra-fine sector of this market.

Jeff and Jill’s 33 acre Alpaca stud is tucked away unobtrusively just outside Palmwoods. For ten years they have been breeding up to 70 alpacas and now Sunline Alpacas are in the spotlight.

At the recent National Australian Alpaca show in Sydney, Jeff and Jill astounded the larger southern studs by winning two of the six awarded age champion fleeces from animals 6-12 and 12-18 months. A total of 272 of the best alpaca fleeces in Australia were before the judges.

“It is a shot in the arm for all the work that has gone into our breeding program”, says Jeff. “We can see our youngsters now mixing it in top company. We have also managed to reduce our herd average by almost 2 micron over the last 6 years”

Alpaca wool is similar to merino but has a softer more luxurious feel and lustre to it. For breeders there’s good money to be made from the low micron, ultra-fine fleece, a sector that’s now renowned world-wide amongst the hundreds of Australian alpaca breeders.

Jill and Jeff with their rosettes for top junior fleeces in Australia. They are sitting behind a rack of alpaca scarves that Jill knits while a passenger in the family car, or watching television.

Jeff and Jill smile when you ask them if this is a high income business. While local spinners and weavers may pay up to $80 per kilo for an ultra-fine fleece, you need large numbers to make alpacas lucrative.

“Some studs in South Australia for example have over 2000 animals with breeding programs in several countries,” says Jeff.

“We simply haven’t got the numbers,” he adds. “And of course, unlike sheep there’s an eleven and a half month gestation period with one baby alpaca at a time.”

“Our market niche in Australia is in fine fibre and to be an elite fabric like cashmere and mohair. That’s where we’re trying to position ourselves in the world market.

“We have one clip each year at present. We bring in a contract shearer and I put aside the pick of the fleeces for showing because that’s where you get the kudos. The next quality level we send to a mini mill in South Australia. They process it into yarn which we can then sell.

Fleeces are always in demand for the spinners and weavers.

“The rest of our fleeces – 26 micron and above – we send to a company of which we are shareholders, and they bale it up by micron, length and by colour. They shoot it off to Peru where it’s manufactured into garments and other products and is distributed wholesale to various alpaca shops.

Jeff and Jill came to alpaca farming seeking a semi- retirement activity they could do together on acreage. Jeff was an electrical sales engineer and although Jill grew up on an apple farm in Stanthorpe she has been a teacher and administrator.

“The thing about breeding alpacas,” says Jill, “is that you learn to turn your hand to many things, or they just don’t get done.”

Like many alpaca breeders, Jill and Jeff name each of their animals. They are very appealing and friendly animals that often become pets. These paddock ornaments as Jill calls them are best kept in pairs.

Jill pulls out complex fibre charts that show the precise quality of a fleece. She reads this data with practised eyes. Then again, she reveals a skill for knitting the fibre too, showing alpaca scarves and hats that get made while watching TV or sitting in the car beside Jeff.

Alpacas have a habit of getting under the skin of those who breed them. Apart from their generally placid nature and huge eyes they are smart and make great pets – “paddock ornaments”, Jill calls them. You can now buy a breeding alpaca for about $1200.

“Mind you they’ve got as many variations in their personalities as humans,” adds Jeff with a laugh. “They’re very good mothers so they are protective of their young. But they can be stroppy and can spit at you.”

Jeff knows the importance of following a breeding program that will continue to improve the quality of the fleece.

“Nature and nurture are the key,” he says. “Nature is the genetics and nurture the feed, the environment, and how you look after the fleece while it’s on the animals back. Our superfine fleeces are finished off in New England where the higher altitudes give them nice cold nights.”

Mating alpacas has become a careful process of bringing top animals together at the right time. You need a stud male for 25 minutes, once a year and the males can be driven to the female – it’s a kind of mobile mating service. Jeff charges $600 for a mating with his stud male if females are brought to Palmwoods.

“This is an industry that will grow because the animal has adjusted well to Australian conditions,” says Jeff. “We have the feed and the expertise from the merino industry and we are getting value from the ultra fine fleeces.”

South America’s alpaca wool has been described as the fibre of the gods. It’s certainly a fibre that continues to fascinate Jeff and Jill Willis. They have just left for Patagonia to discover more secrets of this fascinating animal and its fleece.