TASTE OF THE TROPICS

A stylist's eye and a passion for gardening have combined to create a subtropical showpiece in the hills behind Queensland's Sunshine Coast.

- KIRSTY MCKENZIE

Hairdressing is practically a performance art as it requires constant social interaction, attention to detail, creativity and good listening and communication skills. No client wants a stylist to have an "off day", therefore it's also a pretty unforgiving profession. So it was hardly surprising back in the early 2000s when Newstead stylists Graham Young and Glenn Rogerson decided they needed an escape from their workaday world.

Glenn is a keen gardener, so their search for a bolthole from the busyness of Brisbane led pretty promptly to the rich volcanic slopes of the Blackall Range in the Sunshine Coast hinterland. "One weekend, we went for a drive to Montville and saw a property," Graham recalls. "By the next weekend, we'd bought it." While they were very happy with their weekender in the historic village, it was located on a steeply sloping site.

They started searching for a new property and found what they were looking for on the outskirts of Maleny, a slightly larger service town for the surrounding dairy country with a solid core of alternative lifestylers and a strong food and creative culture.