Understand
Maleny is a mixture of elements. You will encounter both old-time hippies and salt-of-the-earth farmers, newly arrived urban professionals and long-time locals. However, there's still relatively little 'multi-culturalism' of the kind that you'll find in Brisbane or Noosa.
History
No-one seems to know the exact name of the Aboriginal people who were living in the Maleny area before the arrival of Europeans. They have been called the Bonyi Bonyi, Gubbi Gubbi or Kabi Kabi, and they gathered the area's famous bunya nuts. In their time the whole Maleny area, indeed the whole Blackall Ranges, was covered with rainforest.
The German explorer Ludwig Leichhardt first visited the area around the 1840s, after which it was settled by timber industry workers. Maleny's streets are still named after types of trees. The first selection of land at the present site of Maleny was made by one Isaac Burgess in 1878. Dairy and beef cattle were the next important industry, encouraged by Maleny's usually good rainfall and rich soil.
The origin of the town's name remains a mystery. One guess is that it's a misspelt version of Malleny in Scotland.