Montville

Montville sits on the eastern escarpment of the Blackall Range, roughly 30 minutes inland from the Sunshine Coast beaches and about 90 minutes north of Brisbane. The village was settled in the 1880s by timber getters drawn to the red cedar and hoop pine forests, and gradually evolved into a dairy farming community before reinventing itself as an arts and tourism village from the 1970s onward.

The main street runs along the ridge top and is lined with galleries, boutique shops, cafes and restaurants set among established gardens and mature fig trees. The village has a distinctly European feel, partly because of the cool mountain climate and partly because several of the buildings were deliberately designed in Bavarian, English Tudor and Irish cottage styles when the tourism precinct was developed. The Montville Art Gallery and the nearby Flame Hill Vineyard are among the more established cultural draws.

The views from the eastern edge of the village are a major part of the appeal. On a clear day you can see from the Glass House Mountains in the south to Noosa in the north, with the entire Sunshine Coast laid out below. The Razorback Lookout just south of town is the most popular viewpoint and gives a direct line of sight over the coastal lowlands to the ocean.

Kondalilla Falls National Park is a short drive south of Montville and contains one of the finest waterfall walks on the Sunshine Coast (see separate entry). The Sunshine Coast Hinterland Great Walk links Montville with Mapleton and other hinterland towns via a 58 kilometre multi-day trail through rainforest and eucalypt forest along the Blackall Range.

Montville is pleasant in all seasons but is at its best in autumn and winter when the hinterland air is cool and the skies are often clearest for coastal views. The village hosts regular markets, the Montville Christmas Pageant in December, and the annual Montville Mistletoe Fiesta. Accommodation ranges from heritage bed-and-breakfasts through to luxury cottages and the well-known Narrows Escape Rainforest Retreat.