Sunshine Coast Hinterland Times

Tree Changers…John & Rosemary Turnbull

John and Rosemary Turnbull came from a 60,000 acre sheep and cattle property near Tambo in south-west Queensland to settle on three acres in Maleny. Too many droughts persuaded this couple to finally leave their 120 year-old heritage selection. Now they marvel at a landscape that is various shades of green and at a view [...]

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From Money Man to Mosaics

Brett Campbell was a high achiever in banking before his life suddenly changed ten years ago. He discovered an artistic temperament that led to a successful new career as a mosaic artist. “At 26 years old I was a bank manager at Metway in Buderim”, says Brett. “But I decided to turn my life upside down [...]

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Stacey Bentley… our Rhinestone Cowgirl

BELIEVE IT or not, here on the Hinterland we have Australia’s top rootin’ tootin’ shootin’ cowgirl. Well, they’re not the words that 15 year-old Stacey Bentley would use, nevertheless, she is the best young Paint Horse rider in the country, and this striking young woman will soon leave for Fort Worth, Texas to prove her own [...]

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Pattemore House: a window into Maleny’s past

ROB PATTEMORE has fond memories of his first five years in Maleny around the house built for his great grand-father, John Robert in 1908. Pattemore House is now owned by the Sunshine Coast Regional Council and forms part of the 126 hectare Maleny Precinct. John Robert Pattemore was a butcher by trade and arrived in Australia [...]

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Printing green… and staying in the black

Many businesses claim to be green these days, but Brenda Matthews of Maleny Green Printery is taking her green credentials seriously. Brenda is going through the lengthy and expensive process of national certification for her printing business and, as she told the Hinterland Times, it’s a commitment she made when she first took over the [...]

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Maleny Neighbourhood Centre comes of age

After 17 long years as an itinerant community and social justice service on the Blackall Range, the Maleny Neighbourhood Centre has at last found a spacious new permanent home in Bicentenary Lane, Maleny. The Centre will be officially opened by the State Government in April but the MNC will be holding a public open day [...]

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Explaining acts of God

Book Reviews: Michael Berry ON A RECENT television news bulletin a distraught resident of Port au Prince in Haiti faced the camera to declare that, “I have lost my wife and my children. I only have God now”. The horrific earthquake in Haiti and the 2004 tsunami that devastated coastlines to our north, are only two natural [...]

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The Rebel Priest Father: Peter Kennedy

BRISBANE CATHOLIC Priest Peter Kennedy was sacked by his Archbishop for contravening aspects of Catholic doctrine in February 2009. This was a crisis that had been brewing for several years and was as much about Peter’s shedding of Church formalities as it was about his personal struggles with the relevance of a heavily doctrinal church. Kennedy was [...]

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Nambour Museum … a time warp into the past

THE NONDESCRIPT exterior of the Nambour Museum is deceptive. Once inside the front door you walk through an historical time warp. This former home for the principal of Nambour State School reveals rooms of historical insight into late nineteenth and early twentieth century Australia now unknown to many of us. There’s a parlour room, kitchen, laundry, [...]

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John Rosman … fulfilling a dream

JOHN ROSMAN is one of the volunteers at the Nambour Museum who works tirelessly to recreate working machines of a bygone era. In John’s case it is restoring tractors and engines of our mechanical past. John is currently refurbishing a 1917 Fordson tractor – machines that were sold to farmers by Henry Ford around the world, [...]

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