MALENY Maleny is a small country town in the high country in the hinterland of the Sunshine Coast. The drive to Maleny from Landsborough is a steep but safe incline. Maleny is an old town, but most of that heritage has been lost to development. The town has a strong wealth profile. Prior to European settlement, the area was covered in thick sub-tropical rainforest with huge hardwood trees. Timber-getters in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries opened up the area seeking valuable timber, which was prized locally and in Europe. Heavy logging led to the almost complete denuding of the rainforest clad hills in the district around Maleny. The first European to document Maleny was the explorer Ludwick Leichardt who describes the area in his travel diary in 1844. The first European settlement followed in the wake of the Gympie gold rush of 1867. Maleny was a timber town until the early 1920s and then was a centre of dairy production with a butter factory which declined in the 1960s. The Maleny churches are of the modern era and design. The War Memorial is near the creek and opposite the Hotel. The Maleny Hotel is an ‘old’ hotel. Maleny is a great place to visit when touring the Glass House loop of towns.