Maleny Historical Museum, Maleny Dairy Industry, Pioneers, Priscilla, Bryce, Isabelle, Phyllis, Hinterland Grapevine

To find a timeline of events in Sunshine Coast Hinterland - Click Here

Photo right shows "Priscilla Cottage" which is the home of the Maleny Historical Society. Priscilla Cottage was the original home of the Bryce Family. Originally it was situated on the bank of Obi Creek about 200 meters from the present site. Sisters, Phyllis and Isabell, having no direct descendents gifted the family farm to the Uniting Church as a place where a retirement village could be built to provide accommodation for the the elderly people in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland area. The original building was re-located to another section of the same farm so that the village could be built. The new role of Priscilla Cottage is to provide a look at yester-year and to help preserve some of the history of the Maleny area for future generations.

		Along with Priscilla Cottage the Historical Society has built a shed in which they have built a display of farm tools andeveryday iitems that would have been used in the era of the original Bryce settlers. Photo left shows two of the volunteers, Jack Larney and Frank Rough with some of the items on display. Jack and Frank have worked hard in bringing this display to a point where it can be viewed with some meaningful thought.

Photo right: Adjacent to Priscilla Cottage is a "cookhouse". This "cookhouse is a replica of what many of the timber workers used when working "in the bush" for extended periods. From this cookhouse the ladies of the historical society prepare food for the hungry visitors to the historical village. Today, food included hamburgers, something that I am sure was not available to those early timber workers. From this cookhouse tea and damper is often prepared for visitors who come to the village with organised day bus trips.


Scouting has been a popular boys adventure activity for over a hundred years and Maleny has had a long scouting tradition. Phyllis and Isabell Bryce whose home was "Priscilla" cottage were very scout orientated raising funds to keep the Maleny Group going. They had a regular food staall at the local cattle markets which wered situated on the banks of Obi Creek until the yards were pulled down and a Woolworths Store was built on the site. After a break scouting in Maleny is once again training our young people about fun and adventure.

		Not everybody was lucky enough to be able to afford a tractor and much of the work was done by horse. The McCormack "Farm All" tractor was a common tractor sold in rural Australia.

Well, I'm not too sure about the car, photo right, but I did not think that they were painted this colour as an original but it does look spectacular.

		The hearse, photo left is owned by local undertakers "Gregson + Weight" of Caloundra. It has bewen a hearse since purchased new and is still in use by the original family owners. It was bought to Caloundra by the Weight family. If you wish to be carried to your final resting place simply see John or Royce Gregson and they would be "the last people to let you down".




		Click here to view a "quicktime" movie giving an over view of the day. WARNING - not for the feint hearted as the file is 9.2mb in size. It requires Quicktime Viewer to play.

Keeping our local heritage alive......