It claims to chart a new course away from the traditional economic generators of construction, retail and tourism, because as the strategy says, “to succeed and prosper, a new economy must be built – one that is resilient at its core.”

We’ve seen in recent times how retail, construction and tourism have been buffeted by outside forces, not the least by the GFC. In seeking a more stable economy, Council wants a, “broader and higher value industry base.”

Now, I take that to mean we should attract say, major high tech companies, food and drug manufacturers, breakthrough products for export, corporate head offices, new resorts like Club Med, an eco lodge on the hinterland – activities that generate money and growth, employ staff and attract outside interest. But that’s not so.

“A new economy will emerge,” says the strategy, “on the back of major infrastructure investments such as the delivery of a new Sunshine Coast University Hospital, an international airport, a new city centre in Maroochydore, expansion of the University of the Sunshine Coast and the upgrade of the Bruce Highway.”

OK. There’s some stimulus here but it’s overstated to claim they are the New Economy. They’ve been on the radar for years and as we have experienced lately, hospital and university employees depend on the vagaries of state and federal government funding policies. These facilities primarily spend money. They don’t make it.

As for expanding Maroochydore CBD, doesn’t that simply expand the shaky retail sector, unless you can pull in some really high-flying national and international corporate offices? Finally, it is not clear from the strategy document what upgrading the Bruce Highway will do for the Sunshine Coast economy.

It seems to me that only expansion of the airport will stimulate strong economic growth, particularly if we are allowed to bring in international visitors directly from southern Asia. It would be nice too if Virgin or Jetstar could be induced to set up an aircraft maintenance facility at the airport.

Coast people may find it hard to accept Council’s push for “a new economy” . The people who settled on the Coast in the past 30 years are in the retirement and lifestyle cultures. They didn’t come here to generate big business and make money – to set up a mini Shanghai. They were attracted by the environment, the space, clean air, the slow speed lifestyle. That’s why we have an ageing demographic and why our new hospital
and health precinct is so important.

But Council believes we need to change that culture if we are to stimulate that magic word, “growth”. No longer do we want those who see the Coast as lifestyle retirement or a place to run a quiet B & B. We want the go-getters, the entrepreneurs, the business risk-takers.

Interestingly, Council believes niche foods are part of “the new economy”. And certainly on the Hinterland we have seen an impressive growth of specialised foods and manufactured goods from preserves to meats and cheeses. Council sees this activity expanding, “in response to burgeoning national and global demand.”

Niche foods can certainly be high value exportable products but they will never be high volume and will not help solve the food needs of Asia. Like the great success of Tasmanian niche foods, the diversity of our own industry will add value to the Sunshine Coast brand, but they are too diverse, too susceptible to market trends, weather, crop yields etc. to figure as one of the nominated “high value industries”.

The creation and attraction of high value business is, I suggest, outside the realm of Council skill and remit, quick junkets to China notwithstanding. Council needs input from state and federal governments – tax breaks, investment incentives, government contracts – a tight focus on making the Sunshine Coast economy a national policy initiative.

Well, that’s not going to happen, and yet it worries me that Council does not even acknowledge the need for state and federal input in its strategy document. It may spruik a new economy but it can’t possibly do it alone.

Michael Berry
editor@hinterlandtimes.com.au

Maleny Community Gym trainers now have a swag of new skills. From left: April Adsett, Jon Presswell, Annie Hewitt and Ray Louden.

THE FOUR PROFESSIONAL trainers at Maleny Community Gym have been busy upgrading their qualifications and training skills.

Through government funding and contributions by the Gym, Jon Presswell is doing his Diploma of Fitness following on from his existing Certificate 4 in Personal Training.

April Adsett will complete a Diploma of business to add to her existing Certificate 4 in Personal Training. April has also recently qualified as a Menofitness trainer to assist Focus on Hinterland weddings … women before, during and after menopause.

Ray Louden will be lecturing at the Sunshine Coast TAFE Fitness Summit later this year in natural body building.

Annie Hewitt has just completed her Club weightlifting for Power Coach Level 1 with the Australian Weight Lifting Federation. These are the Olympic lifts that people most like to see.

Annie will also lecture at the Heal Yourself Expo and the Noosa Triathlon later this year.

The Maleny Community Gym, caters for all levels of fitness ability and ages and their Veterans and Blackall Range Care Group classes cater for people with varying issues. For more information phone: 54296911 or email the gym malgym@dodo.com.au.

Jayden has been interested in photography for only two years. From not knowing a thing about a camera to now having a collection of 32 different
cameras and thousands of magnificent photos, Jayden is now fully emersed in his future career.

Jayden has a diverse interest in things that catch his eye and imagination, from kangaroos to water droplets, portraiture and stunning scenery.

Jayden’s camera collection includes a wooden pin-hole camera which he designed and built with the help of his father.

Ruby studies at home for her last year of school exams.

AROUND 400 adults and 10 young people met last month at the Mackay Summit to discuss details about the Queensland Plan project which aims to determine a 30 year plan for the future of the state.

The summit was referred to by Campbell Newman as “a plan for a plan”. It brought together experts and community members from across the state to devise six questions to be presented to the Queensland public.

The aim is to find out how people would like to see the state in 30 years from now, and how this vision can be implemented.

Among the 410 representatives in Mackay was local year 12 student, Ruby Scott. Ruby had been selected out of hundreds of other year twelve students to join the summit as a youth representative, to lend her unique perspective to the project.

So how did Ruby Scott get involved in the Queensland Plan?

Local member for the Glasshouse electorate, Andrew Powell, wanted to include the voice of local youth among the delegates selected from the area. So he ran a competition of sorts for Year 12 students in the electorate, asking them to provide three answers to the question ‘What would you do if you were Premier?’ From the responses, he selected Ruby as a candidate based on her three answers.

As someone who is deeply concerned with environmental issues, Ruby’s answers were focussed around the environment. She placed importance on protecting the Great Barrier Reef; as it is a massive source of tourism in the state, said that they need to cease CSG Mining, and implored them to reinstate the recently abolished tree clearing laws.

“It’s just wrong that they are clearing acres of trees and not doing anything to give back to the environment.”

Ruby believes that her answers coincide with Andrew Powell’s own goals for the future, and is one of the reasons he selected her to join his team.

In conversation Ruby is a bright young woman with a clear vision about the way she thinks the state should look in the future, and is a worthy spokeswoman for the youth of the area. While environmental issues are at the top of her list of things that need to be addressed, she feels strongly that the education system needs to be reevaluated.

According to Ruby, the current education system is not relevant to the skills needed by young people once they finish school in Grade 12. As she told ABC Radio last month: “I’m taught Pythagoras theorem, but I’ve never been taught how to lodge a tax return.”

Another aspect of improving the current system, she feels, would be to educate year 11 and 12 students about politics. As it stands, people finish Grade 12 and the next year they are expected to start voting for who they think should be in government, with little or no knowledge about the process.

“My year level has about 110 people in it, so that’s 110 people that are going to vote next year that know nothing about politics whatsoever, and that’s just in Maleny. Can you imagine somewhere like Mountain Creek or Kawana where they have 1000s of people in their school…”

Ruby feels that there needs to be more youth focussed infrastructure in small towns like those in the Hinterland. In Maleny, currently there are few after school activities for youth, besides working. For most people in her year level, their plans for when they finish school are to move away
because they feel that there is nothing here for them.

“In this electorate we have the Sunshine Coast Uni, and as great as it is, it doesn’t offer all the courses that people here want, so for a lot of people my age, we finish high school and have to go interstate, and that’s a sad fact.”

When she is not planning for the future of Queensland, and hobnobbing with politicians, Ruby is a lot like most year 12 students, with this year being all about work and school. Ruby works part time at Spicers Tamarind Resort in Maleny, which keeps her very busy, but like any teenager,
she’s looking forward to the independence that a drivers licence will bring.

“I’m a waitress and I do some bartending, running food around on the buggy; that sort of thing. It’s fun, but I wish my buggy hours at work could go towards my learners licence, that would be really handy!”

The experience of working with Andrew Powell and the other delegates on the Queensland Plan project has certainly whetted Ruby’s appetite for politics. She’ll be joining them when they reconvene at the Brisbane Summit in October. While she doesn’t know for sure what she wants to do she is not ruling out going into politics herself at some stage in the future. For now though, she is looking forward to finishing Grade 12, saving up some money and heading off for a gap year travelling and doing some global volunteering.

The Mackay Summit delegates devised six questions that will be put to the Queensland public for their thoughts, and they’ll be discussed further when the delegates reconvene at the Brisbane Summit in October. The six questions that came from the summit were:
• In the context of living in the community, how do we move our focus from me to we?
• How do we create and foster an education culture that teaches skills and values to meet global challenges and optimise regional strengths?
• How do we empower and educate individuals, communities and institutions to embrace responsibility for an active and healthy lifestyle?
• How do we structure our economy to ensure our children inherit a resilient future?
• How do we strengthen our economic future and achieve sustainable landscapes?
• How do we attract and retain the brightest minds and ideas where they are most needed and capitalise on global opportunities?

For more information about the Queensland Plan or to have your say go to http://queenslandplan.qld.gov.au

The Glasshouse Mountains electorate group chosen to work on the Queensland Plan. (Ruby, third from left. Andrew Powell kneeling at the front in purple tie.)

by Natalie Brown

As Nan reaches 90 she still goes to her studio regularly to paint.

Maleny artist Nan Paterson is about to turn 90 and her lively mind and sharp wit remainas healthy as her artistic talent.

NAN PATERSON is reflecting on her life. A singular character of great presence, she is unapologetically strong in her views on life, death, art and religion. Engaging and refreshingly straightforward, she is, without a doubt, one of Australia’s most accomplished artists.

In 1995, her portrait of Dr Gertrude Langer was acquired by the National Library of Australia to be hung in the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra, which also acquired her portrait of author Kylie Tennant in 2006. The University of Queensland acquired two of her works the same year, and her remarkable ‘Genesis’ series comprising 30 works and based on the Biblical story, was hung in St John’s Cathedral in Brisbane, causing controversy.

“There was a lot of frowning because I had interpreted [the characters of Genesis] as current day people with all of their warts and foibles,” Nan says defiantly. “They didn’t like to think of the priestly class being depicted as villains, but that is the interpretation, if you read the book.

“Artists look rather more deeply into things; you read between the lines. This is the way I do it, anyway. These were mere mortals just as we are mere mortals. Humanity hasn’t changed much, we’re still greedy and violent and dishonest and all of that.”

An artist of her stature should be a household name, but she doesn’t court attention, preferring to lead a quiet life out of the spotlight, content in the company of her garden and her grandson, Jean Paul, with whom she says she’s been “closely associated ever since he opened his mouth and bleated”.

Nan speaks of her career with modesty, and when asked about the National Library of Australia’s acquisition of her work, she downplays the achievement.

“I was purchased as a person of importance, but I have never thought that,” she says. “I’m just an individual I suppose, who has a skill.”

These feelings stem from her childhood in Mackay and a mother who thought art was a waste of time, and that Nan should have been doing something far more constructive, like housekeeping, cooking, sewing and polishing the silver.

“My mother just didn’t understand,” says Nan. It’s part of your indoctrination as a child. You’re told you’re nothing special. I think in that respect, my mother was destructive.

“My mother came from a school that says you don’t praise people; it gives them a thick head. I never did anything right as far as she was concerned.”

As a child, Nan liked being alone in the bush, describing herself as a “solitary child”. She drew a lot and was often scolded for wasting paper, or for coming home late from an after-school swim in the creek, or for speaking out of line.

At 17, after a year of living with her aunt in Brisbane and studying art, Nan was sponsored to study at the National Gallery Art School in Melbourne, a world away from the cane fields of home. She studied under Will Rowell, coming first in her drawing exam each term, which won her the cost of the next term’s tuition.

Her studies were interrupted when at 19, she joined the Australian Imperial Force and was posted to Heidelberg Military Hospital in Victoria to work as a diagrammatic artist in surgery. She went on to work as an Army cook and a nurse’s aide, rejoicing when the war ended and she was
readmitted to the National Gallery Art School, where her tutors included William Dargie.

“I had never been so lonely in all my life,” she says. “I didn’t have family in Melbourne. I’d come from such companionship in the Army, you’re life is not yours, it belongs to the army and you’re all together. You’ve got all these people there and then suddenly you were alone.”

She wasn’t alone for long. She met her future husband, a Dutch naval officer, in 1946 and began a new life in Holland, where she lived for eight years and raised three children. She took commissions from family and friends and visited art galleries in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, where she found her work influenced by the High Renaissance and Impressionism.

Nan Paterson at home: “I don’t like sitting and doing nothing.”

“I do believe there is something else
— I don’t know what it is. I just look at it and say it’s an energy force.”

“I was not denied access to the best of the best,” she says, of her life in Holland. “It wasn’t a detraction to have children. I would put myself in the play pen where I couldn’t be touched with my easel.”

Initially, Nan had wanted to continue her studies in Melbourne rather than have children and not completing her studies is one of her greatest regrets.

Back in Australia with three children and separated from her husband, Nan eventually moved to Brisbane in the 70s, where she set up a studio and began tutoring at the Royal Queensland Art Society in portraiture. She had many solo exhibitions in the 1970s and in 1989, moved to a bare block of land on the outskirts of Maleny, and quickly set about revegetating it with trees and flowering plants.

“I remember when I lived in Holland there were no hills,” she says. “I could see forever but there were no hills, and that used to upset me. I’m a bushy at heart. I’m never lonely amongst trees — not ever. I’ve planted every tree that lives here,” she says, sweeping her hand past the window.

Nan has spent the past 18 months convalescing after two falls left her with broken ribs and a dislocated pelvis, but she’s beginning to work again. She spends her days gardening, reading and knitting, saying, “I don’t like sitting and doing nothing.”

She doesn’t know what her family has planned for her 90th birthday and says she has no fear of what lies ahead.

“I’m philosophical. I’ve had a life of terrible happenings but you cope with them. I’ve had my share of death — I’ve been there and it doesn’t worry me. I almost died after an anaphylactic episode. I almost died but I came back. To me, you just cut off. You just go to sleep. Why do people get worried about it?”

While she’s taken inspiration for her art from the Bible in the past, Nan insists she’s not religious.

“I think it’s a cop out,” she says. “God made me do it. No, you made you do it. Don’t blame God for your misdeeds. I do believe there is something else — I don’t know what it is. I just look at it and say it’s an energy force. It imbues everything, not only me, but trees and rocks.

“As I understand it, the electricity of the cosmos is constant and it is electricity that drives our body, so when I cancel out, my electricity is then assumed to something else. I don’t know what — could be a tree, could be a rock. It’s to keep the balance, the equilibrium.”

As she has her photo taken, Nan is not at all selfconscious and doesn’t bother to smile for the camera. Her one request: “Take some photos of me in the mess. That’s more me. I’m certainly not a housewife.”

From Nan’s series of 30 Genesis paintings: “There was a lot of frowning because I had interpreted the characters as
current day people.”

Nan Paterson’ s work is available at Art on Carincross, www.artoncairncross.com.au

by Leigh Robshaw

Dale at Shackleton’s hut at Cape Royds

IMAGINE sitting in a Zodiac on a heaving, breathing sea of brash ice in the middle of the Southern Ocean with 4000 metres of water beneath, 1,700km from the closest human presence. Yet again on this expedition, a reminder that I have voluntarily placed myself so far from my comfort zone.

Oceanwide Expeditions had engaged Australian mountaineer and geologist, Greg Mortimer, to lead a 32-day expedition on Ortelius, an A1 class ice ship. We left Ushuaia (the most southern town in the world) mid-January, then followed the coast of Antarctica south through Bellingshaussen Sea and Amundsen Sea to end up in Ross Sea.

Dale boarding the Ortelius

We reached 77o 50’50” S, the furthest south possible by boat. The voyage took in Macquarie Island on its way to its final destination, New Zealand.

What I did not fully appreciate before leaving home was what an expedition meant, as opposed to a cruise. The latter is pre-determined, all activities planned and more or less guaranteed. No surprises. The former is at the mercy of the elements, decisions are made on the run. This freedom was necessary as we hit two-year old pack ice attempting to enter Ross Sea. It took an extra three days to skirt the ice and find a way in to the Holy Grail of the trip: Scott’s Hut at Cape Evans and Shackleton’s Hut at Cape Royds, both on Ross Island beneath Mount Erebus.

With no fixed schedule and 24 hours of daylight, I found myself landing by helicopter on the flanks of an active volcano at 2am; walking the Taylor Dry Valley for 6 ½ hours at 10pm; sailing through a force 9 storm with Ortelius the only ship in the Southern Ocean.

The whole adventure was absolutely thrilling. The guides, experienced expeditioners and scientists, gently pushed us to our limits, but always in total safety. As I jumped onto the edge of a Zodiac covered in ice, with a two-metre swell throwing spray that snap froze, slapping my face and body, I thought: “Anyone who knows me would not believe this!”.

Ortelius entering the Lemair Channel

I found that being in Antarctica was like moving through another dimension. The ship, the ice, getting kitted up for excursions onshore, walking through kneedeep snow, sitting on the shore watching king penguins nibble my boots, standing on the bridge for hours – head on fists – gazing at the slow roll of the Southern Ocean; it all happened at a pace that allowed time to think, or not, if I so wished.

Before leaving, I claimed I was not really interested in wildlife, it was the ice and mountains that fascinated me. Until my first landing, by Zodiac, on Pleneau Island. Gentoo penguins, cute as cute, nesting, resting, chasing, feeding themselves and their young, dodging skuas.

But exceeding any wildlife, there was blue ice. So many magnificent towers of wind and water-sculptured beauty. One crevice shone the iridescent blue of the lights over the Gateway Bridge. And beyond the bergs, towering mountains with cascading ice, some as caps, some as glaciers, all fractured and heading seawards. Merging into the distant mist, more mountains even higher.

It rained and snowed and the wind was ferocious. I felt awkward with many layers of clothing, but remained relatively warm, even when the wind chill gave us -30oC. I had sought expert advice regarding clothing and camera gear before I left.

Despite a pact with myself to take part in all activities, I did squib on a couple of occasions. One episode that caused me to hang back was a trek up a hill to a memorial past nesting skuas on Petermann Island. These birds are big! They are aggressive! They protect their nests! They have cruel beaks! Another was on the ascent of Observation Hill behind US McMurdo Base, 230 metres almost straight up.

I climbed halfway until the road gave way to a track only wide enough for one person at a time. By then, with -14.7oC and 30 knot winds, I was short of breath and my legs short of energy.

To prepare for this adventure, I took out a three-month membership with Maleny Gym where April Adsett designed a programme to increase my strength and stamina. It was time well spent. Since returning, I have renewed my membership for a year. Feeling fit feels good.

A trip to the bottom of the world was the perfect excuse to shut myself off from life and take the necessary time and space to adjust to a future without my mother, who passed away last year. During the 32-day expedition, I focussed on living my dream with no contact from the world outside my ship, Ortelius, and 53 fellow expeditioners.

It was life-changing, as I knew it would be. For the first week I was numb, as if a bystander watching it all happen around me. There was so much to feel, I simply absorbed it all without analysing what it meant. At the end of the first week, I stepped back into my body. It was as if I had been in a state of shock, I guess I was suffering sensory overload.

resting seal on Macquarie Island

No travel will have the emotional impact of this adventure. I will never make this trip again, even if it were on offer and I had the money. The confluence of events that led to my being in this place, at this time of my life, in this ship with these like-minded people, can never be repeated. Who knows, maybe more moderate goals will now take on greater significance.

This trip has taught me one thing among many: this world is too big and beautiful to lose myself in trivial problems.

by Dale Jacobsen

When you look a bit deeper you will find that it is less about titillation, and more about performance and self expression. Natasha Reid, aka Karney Doll has been holding burlesque workshops at the Maleny Showgrounds, and several adventurous locals donned their sequined bras and learnt how to strut their stuff.

When first meeting softly spoken, unassuming Natasha, or ‘Tash’, as she introduces herself, you wouldn’t guess the colourful life that she has led, with her burlesque travels taking her to some of the biggest festivals in the world.

Here is a woman who is totally comfortable in her own skin. She has the quiet confidence to teach others in a way that inspires them to unabashedly search within themselves to find out who they are, and strut it with confidence.

The essence of burlesque, according to Tash, is “it’s all about the tease”, and individualism. She’s “big on people tapping into the core of themselves and bringing that out in their performance”.

After regular visits to the Hinterland over years, Tash moved here recently to settle with her 10 year old daughter, and reconnect with her mother who has lived here for many years.

So how does one get into the colourful world of burlesque?

Karney Doll and Flavella with a burlesque group teaching them how to, “strut it with confidence”

Tash left school when she was 16 and travelled around Australia doing performance art, street theatre and fire twirling. During this time she met what she describes as some “really out there theatre groups who were putting on free parties and needed performance artists”. Tash eagerly jumped onto this particular bandwagon.

Her first exposure to burlesque was for a friend from the theatre group, who was showing at an art exhibition and wanted a burlesque routine for the show. Tash and another woman dressed as dominatrixes and teamed up with two men who were dressed in bio-hazard suits, carrying large pieces of metal. They led the two men by chain ‘leashes’ down Hindley Street in Adelaide, whipping them as they went. Then they barged into the ritzy art gallery where they forced them to their hands and knees on the ground, and constructed a sculpture out of the pieces of metal, on top of the men’s bodies. The men remained there throughout the rest of the night, with the sculpture on their backs, as a performance art installation.

Karney Doll (left) shows Flavella how to remove a bra with one hand while still
performing.

Not long after, Tash travelled back to Victoria and started performing at the Melbourne Fringe Festival, until she was 18. While there she met a man in a pub who invited her to join a group that were doing a big fire show in the UK. So she headed off to England and it all took off from there.

When she arrived in the UK she didn’t know anyone. She took the train up to Edinburgh and started networking with the clubs in Edinburgh, getting work for herself.

Weeks later she found herself at Glastonbury Music Festival performing in front of thousands of people!

After the festival Tash went back to Edinburgh and worked regularly in the clubs until she was talent spotted by Tina Warren and Ian Single who own Club Noir, the biggest burlesque club in the world.

They invited her along to Glasgow and she started a regular gig performing every three months with their troupe. The next five years were spent performing with Tina and Ian in Glasgow, and doing big shows at Warren’s sisters club, Café de Paris, in the West End of London. During this time they went on tour performing at all the big music festivals including ‘T in the Park’ and ‘Belladrum’ (the Scottish version of the Glastonbury Festival).

Karney Doll and Flavella with a burlesque group
teaching them how to, “strut it with confidence”

For nine years Tash worked in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and it was during this time that she got involved with high celebrity clientele, performing for businesses such as the BBC, Channel 5 and working with comedian Steven K Amos. During this time she did a burlesque show with one of the original Doctor Whos and says “it was pretty exciting stuff, and even Lilly Allen came to see one of my shows”.

When her father got sick, she came back to Australia and eventually settled in Maleny.

For the Maleny workshop Tash incorporated techniques that she learnt while studying at the Bottoms Up Burlesque Academy in Victoria, under the instruction of Willow J. Like any art form, she believes it is important to channel emotion into the performance to make it more than just a dance. By having an identity as a performer it gives the audience something to connect to, and she encourages her classes to find an identity ‘face’ for themselves.

Tash, or Karney Doll, as she is known around Maleny, is currently producing a burlesque show for later this year. It will feature 12-15 performers including Willow J, Flavella L’Amour and she hopes that some of her workshop students will be confident enough to strut their stuff too.

For more information about the burlesque workshops or to learn more about finding your cheeky side, phone Karney Doll on 0481 295 232.

by Natalie Brown

Tahnee (left) and Heidi in the House of Hedwig

Having grown up together, lived and worked here all their lives, Tah-Nee and Heidi are no strangers to the area. So while it looks like a brave leap of faith for them to jump into the venture, for them it feels more like a bit of fun, doing something they love with their best friend.

The two bring their younger fashion flair to the House of Hedwig, evident in the choice of stock that they sell, which includes funky tights, kaftans and colourful dresses.

They make a great team, complementing each other perfectly.

Tah-Nee, who you may have seen working at the candle shop in Montville, has an accounting background, so she keeps the numbers ticking over. While Heidi, who until recently was a barista at The Edge café, across the courtyard from House of Hedwig, joins Tah-Nee in making customers feel welcome at the shop.

The pair had about three weeks to get the shop up and running before Christmas, and they put in 16 hour days during that time to make their dream a reality.

They transformed an empty space into a colourful canvas of fabric and style, with their own unique flair and eye for design. So how did they manage to organise stock in a matter of weeks? Over the years, whenever they’d bought fashion items, they’d keep the tags and labels, in a container at the home they share. So when they had to get it all happening in a hurry they already had an idea about the labels that they wanted to stock, and how to get hold of them. So while it seems to be an idea that sprung out of the ether, really they were planning for it all their lives, without even realising!

The pair have fitted out the Montville shop with unusual shelves and funky chairs from second hand furniture shops. Amongst the décor is a small shrine behind the counter that is a testament to the memory of their well-loved sausage dog, Diggly Wiggly. Diggly passed away just as the shop was coming together, and they regret that he didn’t get the opportunity to see the wonderful space that they have created.

“We spent a lot of the time while we were painting the walls, crying and grieving over the loss of him, so he has really become a part of the place.”

Having the shop to work on has been a wonderful way of letting go and getting on with life for the pair. These days laughter rings out from the shop and regular customers stop by regularly to see what’s new in the House of Hedwig.

Natalie Brown

Roger Loughnan is one of the most respected real estate agents on the Range, a calm and thoughtful man, brought up in country Queensland, and someone who understands the rural values that bring people to the Hinterland.

Roger also has a strong support team in Monica McLaren (pictured far right) who similarly comes from western Queensland. She has worked in real estate on the Range with Roger for 11 years and has built up a comprehensive knowledge base. Lara (pictured left) in office reception has called the Range home since she was two and is a fully licensed agent, having worked in the agency for seven years.

Over the years Roger has sold hundreds of houses and farms within a 200 kilometre radius of his office, including some of the highest recorded residential and rural sales, so he is conscious of the highs and lows in the industry.

For example, in 2007 across the Range around 538 properties were sold. In 2009 the figure was 310 sales. This went down to 202 sales in 2011.

Apart from the GFC in recent times, Roger believes the real estate world has changed and consumers these days are always “on”. Smart phones, ipads, Google Earth, sales data searches and QR codes are just some of the on-line inventions that are changing traditional real estate methods.

These communication tools are new but impersonal, and Roger says that nothing will ever take the place of one-onone meetings with buyers and sellers, brokered by the real estate agent. Nevertheless, the initial contact is now predominately web based, with Broadband and mobile devices enabling consumers access to information anywhere they are at work, enjoying leisure activities or at home.

“These days”, says Roger, “people are more likely to look online in their chosen price bracket and make decisions before meeting the agent or viewing a property. It’s also important for owners to get their properties into the right price bracket because it could mean the difference between people deciding to view your house, or simply keep clicking on.”

Roger adds that people should take advantage of the experience he has gained over 18 years in the industry. For example, his knowledge of the various village and urban areas, land aspects, Council requirements and weather patterns etc.

This is part of the reason why Roger has updated the agency website, providing more tools for buyers and sellers when they are looking for a property.

“Right now we are in a classic oversupply situation,” says Roger. “There’s the same steady level of demand but there are a lot more properties for sale.” He says the process has been slowed down by people who can’t sell elsewhere. However, enquiries and sales will eventually come from
attractively priced and well presented properties on the internet, combined with highly visible property signage.

Roger believes that like everywhere else, the Blackall Range has been affected by the global financial situation. Money has become scarce so people are a lot more careful with how they spend.

The high value of the Australian dollar has also had a significant impact on tourism spending in the area although the booming wedding market on the Sunshine Coast hinterland is injecting much needed funds into the region.

So, it’s business as usual for the team at Roger Loughnan Real Estate, having contracted five properties in the last few weeks. If a change is as good as a holiday, then their new office at the corner of Post Office Road and Obi Obi Road, Mapleton has been well worth the move.

www.rogerloughnanrealestate.com.au

Natalie Brown