This is very sad news, because Maleny in Queensland is a particularly beautiful, self sufficient town. Located close to the Glasshouse Mountains,
Maleny started its own credit union, there is a beautiful permaculture village nearby Crystal Waters" ( hand built solar powered homes in the rainforest )and lots of people have moved there for a life away from the corruption, pollution and noise of the big cities. They have had a fantastic food co-op there for decades, that has served the locals very well.

last time i went there (in early 2000) I went walking at Mary Cairncross Reserve, which preserves 52 hectares of the natural rainforest which once covered the Blackall Range. There is a walking trail through the rainforest, and if you're lucky you can see .. pygmy mouse, bats, bush rats, possums, pademelons, wallabies, gliders, bandicoots, echidnae, geckos, goannas, skinks, bearded dragons, pythons and a plenitude of bird species such as brush turkeys, willie wagtails, the black-faced flycatcher, the eastern whipbird, the satin bowerbird, kookaburras, parrots, rosellas, owls, currawongs, pigeons, lorikeets, kestrels, kites, goshawks and the rifle bird. The holes which can be seen in the ground have probably been dug by spiders, giant earthworms, pademelons or bandicoots. A large, hollow strangler fig is 400-500 years old and there are two rose gums aged 350-400 years.

I myself had a wonderful encounter with the natives leeches while walking!!

This reserve was donated by the daughters of Mary Cairncross, in memory of their mother. Mary was a 19th-century conservationist who fought to protect important natural areas from development and destrucion. She would turn in her grave if she could see what is happening in Maleny today.

good luck with it all , Rich-Joy. in Newtown, close to where I live, we had a similar problem with McDonald's setting up. the locals didnt go there, and we were very pleased to see trhe business close down. it, however, was located on a busy city street, not in a platypus area.