Melbourne Age
November
2001
by Philip Game

Climbing into a treehouse for the night seems to satisfy our primal instincts. Philip Game reveals some high-profile cabins, Treetops Cabins.

Montville is one of the towns dotted along the blackall range, the forested hills behind Queenslands Sunshine Coast. It is a popular tourist region where Bed and Breakfasts, wineries and restaurants are sprouting like mushrooms. Waterlillies, Two Frogs, possums, The Bower, Lizards Lair and Wait-Awhile - these 6 treehouses, each extravagantly decorated with finely executed carvings and motifs in the signature design theme, nestle into the forested slopes above Lake Baroon to form Treetops Cabins on the Lake, near the Kondalilla and Mapelton Falls National Parks.

George and Aldy Johnston, with a small band of dedicated carpenters and woodcarvers, created this romantic forest retreat after their Kiwi fruit orchards disappeared under the rising waters of Baroon Pocket Dam in 1989.

The lake is well stocked with bass, spangle perch and yellow belly. Canoes stand ready for use under a boathouse, a delightful Queenslander cottage on the lawns above the lake.

We wallow in a spa bath as the golden light of the afternoon gives way to dusk. Our picture windows facing out over the boathouse lawns and the waters beyond, and we can enjoy almost total privacy.