History of the Shute
From its origins to its present-day charm, delve into the captivating history that shapes this special location.
John McCarthy became the second person to establish a selection of land in Maleny in the area to the north of Mountain View Road.
During his early days in Brisbane around 1823, John Oxley noted a previously undocumented species of pine, later described as the hoop pine due to the distinctive pattern of the bark of the tree. Of all of Queensland’s natural resources at the time, timber was considered the most viable and abundant to the first Europeans of the Sunshine Coast and Hinterland.
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Descriptions of extensive stands of timber, which lined both the coastal regions and up into the hinterland of the Blackall Range, are well documented in the early history of the area.
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In Maleny and surrounds, the dominant species were the soft woods such as hoop and bunya pine but also the much more prized cabinet timbers like the mighty red cedar. Many specimens were greater than 3 metres in circumference.
Drawn to the area by the potential to exploit this timber, John McCarthy became the second person to establish a selection of land in Maleny in the area to the North of Mountain View Road. The land was covered with these highly sought after trees.
The trees were cleared using the tools of the day including axes and crosscut saws. The timber was so large that bullock teams were needed to move the logs.
While bullock teams were essential for hauling logs long distances, the steep terrain located south of Mountain View Road posed a challenge. Here, logs were launched down shutes, sliding to the bottom and often crashing into trees and boulders.​
At the bottom, other bullock teams transported the timber to Campbellville, at the junction of Mellum and Coochin Creeks. From there, it traveled by boat to Bribie Passage, where it was loaded onto ships bound for Sydney, Melbourne, or other destinations. After the railway opened in the 1890s, logs were transported to Brisbane for shipment. It's hard to imagine the chaotic scene of logs crashing down what is now the serene McCarthy Shute Road.
By 1906, commercial cedar was nearly extinct, and a third of Queensland's hoop and bunya pine had been cleared. Once the valuable timber was gone, the land was primarily converted to farmland.
