Situated inland between Brisbane and Noosa, Maleny has cast its spell over the hinterland with its mix of eco-tourism, arts, crafts and co-op approach to living. By Phoenix Arrien

Originally a timber-cutting area, then a dairy-farming district, Maleny was eventually settled by people seeking to build alternative lifestyles.

This is a region plump with organic growers whose produce finds ready markets at the local dining establishments as well as in condiments and skincare products that are sold around the world.

White clouds are swirling over the Maleny-Montville Road and it is an extraordinary sight. The thick fog rushes up from the hidden blue surface of Maleny’s local waterhole, Lake Baroon, then spreads over the road into the great expanse of undulating pasture and forest that stretches all the way to the Queensland coast.

The mesmerising eddies of thick cloud make up a suitably transient and ethereal gateway to Maleny, a little township in the Blackall Range. At 549 metres above sea level, it is the region’s highest town, commanding spectacular views of the Sunshine Coast, Moreton and Bribie Islands, the Glasshouse Mountains and other landmarks. It may be only an hour north of Brisbane, but it is a world away from the city highrises and coastal developments.

Originally a timber-cutting area, then a dairy-farming district, Maleny was eventually settled by people seeking to build alternative lifestyles, followed by professionals wanting to get away from city life. Now it is an eclectic, creative, beautiful place to visit and I revel in the surroundings and atmosphere.

Imagine an undeveloped Byron Bay (without the bay, of course) snuggled into the pretty hills of the Victorian Dandenongs or New South Wales’s Blue Mountains. Add a sunny climate, clean air, the strong presence of transpersonal and cottage industries and more than a pinch of lively community and you get Maleny. It’s not just the natural beauty, but the people, too, that have made Maleny a magnet for visitors.

This is a place of dreams and development — of the personal kind — as the area is very opposed to impersonal building development. It’s the sort of place where you meet inspiring people like Terence and Deborah Bishop who have chosen to build their centres of consciousness there after living all over the world; and where a single mother such as Robyn Harper has enough support to home-school her son. This is where a community of Buddhists finds a pocket of blissful serenity in which to meditate and where nature still grows lush and unhindered.

The current Maleny population is made up of a large number of musicians and artists including glass blowers, wood turners, leadlighters, sculptors, potters, painters, spinners, weavers, carpenters, filmmakers and authors, as well as therapists of every kind. Powerful new transpersonal therapies such as expressive therapy and dru yoga have residents and visitors alike pouring into their sessions.

It is a region plump with organic growers whose produce finds ready markets at the local dining establishments as well as in condiments and skincare products that are sold around the world. It has many local environmental and landcare groups and inventors and manufacturers of several environmental solutions, such as the increasingly popular Biolytix worm-operated sewage system. Maleny is also the “co-op capital” of Australia.