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from Seniors Today Central Queensland - 1st December 2021

RECIPES

Enric the Alpaca and Georgia Stekhoven of Mountain View Alpaca farm celebrates the Lonely Planet award. Pictures: NIGEL HALLETT Summer is a perfect time to visit the cool rainforest walks at Binna Burra Lodge.

Lonely Planet gets scenic

By Tania Phillips

It has been named one of the hottest destinations in the world by Lonely Planet as part of their Best in Travel 2022 and we don’t even have to leave the state to get there.

It’s the Scenic Rim area in South East Queensland and it’s been a hundreds of millions of years in the making and it’s bouncing back after weathering the ravaging bushfires that made headlines globally.

Thanks to global travel authority Lonely Planet it’s a hotspot again and back in the global headlines but unlike last time it’s in a good way with the region becoming the only Australian destination to be named as one of the top 10 countries, cities and regions to visit in 2020.

This edition places particular emphasis on best sustainable travel experiences and named the Scenic Rim eight in the Top 10 Regions. Just an hour from Brisbane and 30 minutes from the heart of the Gold Coast, the Scenic Rim stretches from Canungra to The Lost World, Beaudesert to Boonah, Tamborine Mountain to Kalbar and is home to the ancient World Heritage-listed Gondwana Rainforests, historic national parks, charming towns and villages, adventure parks, farm stays, craft breweries, boutique wineries, ecolodges, tantalising gourmet experiences, world class camping and glamping and breathtaking spaces in between. “After bouncing back from the 2019 Black Summer bushfires with a raft of new attractions and a renewed focus on sustainability, the Scenic Rim in Queensland is primed to become of Australia’s low impact tourism power players,” said Lonely Planet’s Chris Zeiher.

“It’s such an untouched and diverse eco-based Australian destination. From the amazing food and wine to the incredible rainforest and bush walks and memorable places to stay, this is an unexpected pocket of Australia that has it all.”

“The thing that has struck me about the Scenic Rim are its people. The hospitality you’ll experience is off-thescale... the community will invite you in and make you feel like a part of the family. It’s a region that’s a shining example of a connected community that’s been forced to innovate in the face of serious adversity such as drought, fire and more recently Covid travel restrictions.” Highlights of the region noted by Lonely Planet include Binna Burra Mountain Lodge and O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat, Australia’s newest Great Walk in The Scenic Rim Trail by Spicers, ecolodges Nightfall Wilderness Camp and Mt Barney Lodge as well as the six national parks. Summer Land Camels, the Scenic Rim Farm Box and Kooroomba Vineyard and Lavender Farm were spotlighted for showcasing local produce, while boutique wineries and craft breweries, farm stays and characters of the region were all championed.

Scenic Rim Regional Council Mayor Greg Christensen said being named in the Top 10 Regions in the world for 2022 was a major coup, but not undeserved.

“This is a region of plenty, of rugged ranges, valleys, winding roads and the most welcoming people in the world,” he said.

It’s the region of flavour makers, growers, farmers, foodies and tastechasers, of path-makers and of forward thinking people who have worked to create visitor experiences that are unique, authentic, educational and sustainable, and have persisted during even the most tumultuous and challenging times.”

Inclusion in Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2022 Top 10 Regions sees the Scenic Rim surrounded by outstanding company. The number one region for 2022 is the Westfjords in Iceland, followed by West Virginia, USA, Xishuangbanna in China, Kent’s Heritage Coast in the UK, Puerto Rico, Shikoku, Japan, Atacama Desert, Chile, Vancouver Island, Canada and Burgundy in France.

For more information visitscenicrim. com.au/10-best-locations-to-throwout-the-picnic-rug-in-the-scenic-rim/

Cedar Creek Glamping. The Treetop Challenge for the grand kids.

Innes Larkin on Logan’s Ridge Mt Barney. The Scenic Rim’s Eat Local event.

Anyone for pie? The famous street parade. Demonstations by chefs.

Apple and Grape festivities

One of Australia’s most loved footstomping, grape-crushing festivals is expected to ‘crush-it’ again in 2022, with plans underway to deliver the crunchiest ever Stanthorpe Apple and Grape Harvest Festival on 25 February - 6 March 2022.

In the cool high altitude of Queensland’s Granite Belt, Stanthorpe has been literally “crushing-it” since 1966, welcoming 70,000-plus visitors from across Australia to celebrate the bounty of the apple harvest and the wine region’s grape crushing.

Known for its messy grape-stomping antics, the 2022 festival program delivers all the favourite harvest events: the fun of grape crushing; a hotly contested apple peeling competition; plus a three-day Queensland Country Bank Food and Wine Fiesta on 4 to 6 March.

The Food and Wine Fiesta brings together the Granite Belt’s gourmet foods, award-winning wines and craft beer all to one location under the shady trees and picnic tables, all to the tunes of non-stop live entertainment.

Festival entertainment and the party-filled atmosphere will spill out into the streets on the big finale weekend 4 - 6 March.

Crowds will gather for the must-see Grand Parade that runs through the very centre of Stanthorpe and once it’s rolled on by, in it’s place the program of free entertainment continues with the highlight grape crushing championships and the Rebel Breeze FM Street Carnival.

A line-up of live bands and an eclectic mix of buskers will fill the air, though the most impressive musical spectacle is the gathering of hundreds of musicians grouped in brass bands, pipe bands and thunderous marching drum bands who hit the streets en-masse immediately after the street parade on Saturday 5 March.

The first weekend of the festival, sees emerging young stars join seasoned buskers as they gather in Stanthorpe for the South East Qld Finals of the Australian National Busking Championships.

Buskers on every street corner Saturday 26 February is reason enough to be in Stanthorpe on the first festival weekend, but crowds come just as much for Sunday’s Banchetto Italiano (Italian Long Lunch) which celebrate’s Stanthorpe’s Italian heritage in such a riot of fun that it is guaranteed to sell out! “Our festival is held every second year, yet the last one feels a lifetime ago, because we were actually the last festival held in Australia before we were all suddenly introduced to Covid-restrictions,” explained Festival President Russell Wantling.

“Thankfully there’s no stopping the stars of our festival - the apples and grapes, and while they are out there busily budding and bursting this spring, we are busy at work pulling together the 10-day festival.”

“We’ve come through drought and fire in recent history and it’s left our little town stronger and prouder than ever,” said Mr Wantling.

“In 2022 Stanthorpe celebrates a huge milestone marking 150 years since Stanthorpe was founded, so you can be sure we’re putting on a festival celebration befitting the occasion!”

Highlights of the festival program include the Grape Crush Championships, Queensland Country Bank Food and Wine Fiesta, the Channel Seven Grand Parade, Rebel FM Street Carnival, the Apple and Grape Gala Ball, Apple Peeling and Apple Pie Competitions, Orchard Tours, Meet the Winemaker Events and much more, filling 10 exciting days.

Stanthorpe Apple and Grape Harvest Festival is supported by the Queensland Government through Tourism and Events Queensland and features on the It’s Live! in Queensland events calendar.

Stanthorpe is just 2.5 hours’ drive from Brisbane, three hours from the Gold Coast or Byron Bay and two hours from Toowoomba.

For more information on the festival head to appleandgrape.org

All the fun of stomping the grapes.

Getting messy. The apple peeling contest. Pictures: LEEROY TODD

Looking north to Coolum from the headlands of the bays. 254744 Part of the streetscape. 254744

Treasures found along the art trail. 254744

Sand, sea and salt in the air

By Erle Levey

There was always the thrill and apprehension of running along the narrow path, through the bushland and native grasses of the sand dunes.

What would it be like? Would it be the same as last year? Would the tides have changed the sand bars?

Those were my memories of our beach holidays as kids.

Days were spent from daylight to dark at the beach or watching the fishing boats come in and getting something from their catch to take back to the camp.

There was nothing quite like it.

There were always ice-cream cones to be enjoyed from the corner shop, games of cricket on the sand, a beachfront carnival to wonder at, and the picture theatre of a night.

Coolum Beach is still that sort of place.

For many years it has been regarded as the sleeping tiger of the Sunshine Coast.

It is stirring. New shops, holiday apartments, landscaping of the beachfront Esplanade.

Yet there is also the rusty tin and plywood behind the glass and concrete facades of some of the buildings.

The beachfront caravan park takes you back to those childhood days.

Talking with long-time holiday-makers from the park, Coolum is very much what you see is what you get.

It’s the place everyone goes for a traditional beach holiday. One of the few where you can still camp on the foreshore, then pop across the road for a coffee.

It’s a place of fish’n’chips and ice creams, broad beaches and secluded coves.

Thongs and sarongs, singlets and tshirts, board shorts and straw hats.

The Dan Murphy liquor supermarket and the pub are both across the road. The bowls club, just a few hundred metres from the sand dunes.

The surf club was designed by Ken Down, who drew on his sailing experience to keep it open to the elements and benefit from the aspect for natural breezes off the ocean.

The old weatherboard picture theatre has gone … and its canvas seats. It was a place where Jaffas could be rolled down the timber floorboards.

The site is now part of an expanded community centre and parkland linking residential areas with the shops and the beach.

The picture theatre, originally the school of arts hall, has been relocated to the industrial estate for use as a men’s shed.

The changing landscape of Coolum Beach. 254744 Fish’n’chips - always a favourite. 254744

Continued next page

The beachfront shopping strip at Coolum. 254744

Coolum Art Trail: Short cut to the beach. Between the flags at Coolum Beach.

254744

Breakfast specials are still a thing to look for. 254744

From previous page

Then there is the boardwalk that clings to the cliffs and opens the beachfront up to all ... a forerunner of the future perhaps where public access is made for those not as mobile as they would like to be.

You can enjoy the dramatic views.

Yet there is the beauty of walking on the beach … a golden 16km arc stretching from Noosa Head in the north.

It doesn’t matter whether tide is in or out, there is always beach to walk on, and a place to swim or to surf.

The slope of the sand is gentle - not the deep drop-offs of beaches to the south of Mooloolaba.

Time your walk right and you can get all the way to Peregian for a coffee.

Heading in the other direction, the Coolum Beach Public Art Trail starts just to the north of the caravan park. There are 11 featured works reflecting a diversity of artists, from communityinitiated projects to artworks by internationally renowned artists.

The entire Art Trail is about a 3km round trip, which takes a couple of hours if you are to take it all in, grab some photos, stop to admire the views.

One of the works is by local artist Blair McNamara who is regarded as part of the paint work.

Blair regards Coolum as the best section of coastline on the Sunshine Coast, especially the stretch from Yaroomba to Yandina Rd.

The whole hill is a natural amphitheatre with remnants of littoral forest.

It’s a town caught between two cultures … Noosa with its natural appeal and Maroochy with its economic heart.

Originally the road in from Maroochydore was the David Low Way to Tanah St, then up Centenary Heights Rd.

Somers store was on the corner of Yandina Rd and the Esplanade.

Blair said there were several key facts about Coolum Beach, and none so significant as Mt Coolum, the world’s second largest rock behind Uluru.

The volcanic dome rises 208 metres above its surroundings and is one of the most important square kilometres in Australia with more than 700 types of plant life.

The old Toboggan Hill would run from Lows Lookout straight down to the bays. Today it is regarded as a dress circle of Coolum real estate. The bays of Coolum and Pt Arkwright give everyone a chance to enjoy nature.

Pt Arkwright is one of best areas to observe the geological changes in the cliffs and to investigate the marine life in the rock pools.

Surrounded by Noosa National Park, Coolum is in the middle of nature.

You can experience amazing sunrises, sunsets and moon rises - there are not many other places like that.

The occasional encounters with wildlife are fewer these days - koalas in the laundry, snakes in the garage.

Even so, they cannot be fathomed by the texting teenager.