Heaven in the Hills, Reesville, near Maleny

The short ride to Heaven.

Carol Curtis is a remarkable woman in her 50’s who owns 10 hectares of bushland in the Sunshine Coast hinterland in Reesville, near Maleny. On it she has set up Heaven in the Hills, an eco-friendly, sustainable, retreat environment where people can come to create, learn, transform, change or just relax, rejuvenate and heal. A qualified Reflexologist and Cranio Sacral Therapist Carol is the perfect host and a real inspiration as we found out.
Gareth cements a stone facade

She contacted us as a wwoof host. She said she'd have enough work for us and that she loved the sound of our project. Come over and tell me more, she said. So we said we'd make some time to say hello. A short ride from Kenilworth where we'd just been, and a little back on ourselves in terms of distance covered, but we figured we couldn't miss out, and it turns out we were right not to.
The lovely Carol curtis
We found Carol to be one running dynamo of a woman. Not content with running the her retreat, the healing side of things, and as a business, she has landscaped the property, taught herself to stone-face walls, and elaborately decorating the front of the complex of buildings on the property (the three guest cabins, the railway-carriage-cum-chalet, the shed, her home and veranda) with ornate ceramic and glass mosaics, filling the garden with plants and flowers, carving out pathways and managing the scrub that leads onto the bushland that backs onto the property.
Phil sweeps a roof
Finding time to make friends with a family of insistent, cawing Butcherbirds who encroach at mealtimes, waiting for her to come out to the garden at the front porch to hand feed them one at a time, by throwing bits of bread one at a time up for them to catch, she told us of the difficulty of working alone, and, for the most part without help, in setting up her Heaven in the Hills. When some people talk of difficulties and obstacles the permanent sigh signals an air of defeat; that some problems just aren’t meant to be bested.
Our accomodation on Heaven in the Hills
With Carol her energy is the most impressive thing about her. She is lively and creative enough to add the touches that make the retreat a reflection of her calm and nurturing qualities, but on a scale that staggers a little when considering she did it off her own back and mostly unaided. Which leads onto the personification of determination she embodies. The retreat just grew she said, from being a place for herself to relax, to a place where others could come too, and enjoy what she’d created and wanted to create. She’s worked damned hard to do it too.
Yet, you always need a little luck. But isn’t luck found where you least expect it and when you most need it? Struggling for finance, the local bank manager, reluctant to back a lone female operator, bailed out at the last minute, happy to have another sneaky peak after two years numbers. The other banks followed suit, procrastinating, then dismissing not her idea, which they liked, but her situation, her position.
The old train carrieage , which carol convertedDevoid of answers, and running out of time, Carol carried on regardless, wondering if she was doing the right thing, concerned that she’d have to send the builders home very soon, and leave the retreat complex half-built, but content that if not, then she could still live on the property, have a roof over her head, and think again about what to do.
King Kev with Gareth and Phil
Then the luck she needed fell out of the sky. A friend and neighbour called Eric came over one day, with a friend of his, up from Sydney visiting, who had heard of her plight and wanted to meet her. He asked Carol if she minded if he listened to her story, so she told him of her plan to turn the site into a retreat, and the problems she was having, and the money she needed to complete it.

“How much?” he asked.
“A lot”, she replied.
“I can give it to you” he said. “Whatever you need. No conditions. Pay me back when you can. I like the sound of this project. You should do it”.
“But…”
“No buts. It’s no problem. I’ll sort it out my end, and give you the money at the end of the week”.

This done, he went to Sydney. This was three years ago, and she hasn’t seen him since. She pays him back every month, every so often phoning him up to offer more money, to no avail. It may be coincidence, it may be sheer luck or random happenstance, but it enabled her to continue, to finish the project and to grow the retreat into a popular, growing business.
Phil and Anne Grout Mosaic Tiles on Home made Scafolding, it's worth a mention that Anne is Scared stiff of heights

The finance enabled her to complete the building work to her specifications, to build her vision of the kind of place she wanted which included ensuring all the buildings were built to ensure a balance of comfort, practicality and sustainability. Using passive solar energy, cross ventilation, thermal and acoustic insulation, wood heaters and fans the construction materials were chosen as much for their practical benefits as anything else. It's interesting that the use of strong chemicals for termite protection has been avoided where possible by using cypress timbers, termite mesh and some quirks of design.

Another design feature was the incorporation of underground water storage tanks beneath the buildings, collecting up to 382,500 litres (or 85,000 gallons for those of us who still think that way). The grey water is all reused in reforestation and in the gardens. Another remarkable addition to this property is that it's completely off the grid, producing all its own power.
Just so people know we are working hard, a picture of Anne's dirty feet
The system is based on a renewable energy sourced from solar generation. The energy is stored in 48 gel cell batteries and converted to 240 volts by an inverter. There's no shortage of power either, and no blackout periods, as gas and wood are used for heating and a bit of good planning has ensured the efficient usage of power, with gravity fed water, and low wattage light bulbs complementing the design features.

We were certainly exceptionally well looked after there. From the get-go she welcomed us warmly and soon after settling us into our cabin met us by the campfire for a beer and nibbles, where we met with Kevin and Jenny, her friends, helping her out while the retreat was busy, who were telling us stories of the crawling things that bite. The Aussies certainly know how to make people feel at home.
Some of Carols Mosaic Work
Asking Carol what she wanted us to do the next day work wise, she politely said there wasn't much to do. Kevin, who knew differently, having spent the past two weeks at herculean labours alone, laughed, and made it clear, that, actually, Carol, if they're offering, and they want to then... So we offered again. Give us work, we want to help out. So, she thought for a minute, and reeled off a rapid fire list of things to do in an intense minute of release that had Kevin visibly more relaxed and Carol thinking about more

The work itself was a pleasure. Having done a little stonework before I was visibly thrilled to be asked to do some stonefacing. Now, a visibly thrilled Welshman is a sight to behold. All redfaced and blundering in there, there's not much grace, less delicacy, more elephantine Mr Bean, and a thrilled one is like that boulder Indiana Jones runs from in the chamber in Temple of Doom. But as happy as a sandfly I was nonetheless. With Phil and Anne grouting between the ornate and hand-crafed (again by Carol) mosaic design on one of the cabins. It was all mixing cement by hand, choosing rocks, discarding others, placing, taking off, picking up the same one again, turning it, putting it down, picking it up, spinning it, and repeating. Phil and Anne, a little nervous on home-made scaffolding were beavering away regardless.
Carol, Gareth and Phil
We thoroughly got stuck in, with Kevin supervising, we worked away happily. Morning tea? We didn't even chew. Lunch? Inhaled it, mate. With only a short spell at each place we visit we want to be able to finish what we start, and actually have made some small contribution by the time we come to leave. It usually means we have to work heads-down and get on with it which suits us fine. King Kev, as we'd now nicknamed Kevin, told us to come for a beer once we'd finished, which we duly did once the last stone was placed.
Kev and Jenny
Working the next day too, in the morning at Carol's friend Suzie's house, an arrangement Carol told us, she'd arranged for us to earn an donation towards a video camera Carol was getting for us. Suzie made us lunch after we painted her office and weeded her garden and it really made us think, how people were coming to our aid so readily and without affectation. So much time has been spent thinking about this trip, so much planning in the weeks leading up to it, such a lot of energy expended making it happen, that now we're doing it, and people are responding to us positively, it really seems we're on the right track.

It's a humbling experience to be taken into someone's life and watch as they take over your problem, or, as we have it, our challenge, and make it their business to join in and help out. Carol and Suzie, her pizza making husband Giancarlo, Kevin and Jenny all made our visit to Maleny and Heaven in the Hills a memorable one. Carol also gave us a jerry-can to use on the long stretches of road that Australia is so famous for. By the time it came to our leaving, we were happy to have had the pleasure of meeting everyone, and a little disappointed at having to go so soon.
Giancarlo showed us how to make pizzaWe can only hope that the people we meet and the places we go after this are as easy-going. We're optimistic. So far, we've met the best of Aussies. So far so good.