Maleny Botanic Gardens & Bird World

Frank Shipp bought cattle land on the Maleny escarpment in 2005 and spent seven years turning it into 23 acres of terraced gardens before opening the gates. The slopes drop toward the Glass House Mountains through lakes, waterfalls and 25-million-year-old rock formations, with eight kilometres of paths winding past rare cycads, orchids and remnant rainforest. Bird World arrived in 2013 after Shipp started taking in unwanted parrots — four walk-through aviaries now house over 600 rescue birds, every one of them named. Golf buggies available for the steep bits.