Kalbar is a neat, wee town on the northern end of south-east Queensland’s Scenic Rim. Settled by German immigrant farmers in the 1870s, Kalbar’s pioneering heritage can be seen in historic buildings and welcoming cafes, pubs and providores that offer hearty homestyle food made with locally grown produce; especially Germanicky is 2 m8’s BBQ Cafe with its rather porky-loaded menu.

To me, our visit on Saturday was reminiscent of a visit to Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills. Indeed, Kalbar used to be called ‘Engelsburg’ until WWI when the name was changed in an attempt to de-Germanise the area’s image. Driving into Kalbar from the direction of Roadvale, I spied a row of old houses running up the hill which I just bet once had an address in Engelsburg in the days when the mailman trekked out on horseback once a week from Ipswich, a distance of about 44 Klicks.

For specialty gifts, local produce and handmade collectibles, Kalbar’s main business area is brimming with character ‘finds’ including Postmaster’s Sweets, located in the Post Office, and having a mouthwatering selection of fudges and old-fashioned designer sweets such as bullseyes, on display. It would have been a mistake going in there before lunch except that there didn’t seem to be anyone to serve us, even though we shed our indoor voices and cleared our throats a few times. Total open honesty. We went back later and the shop was closed.

We brunched at The Country Soul Collective Cafe and Giftshop. The nostalgia for Loz’s Coffee and Gifts (my little shop in Ivanhoe NSW for a time) was overwhelming, although there’s a subtle motif of sunflowery gifts which allude to the annual Kalbar Sunflower Festival (google it—there’s a special story attached) held in mid to late autumn each year. Glad they chose that festival’s theme for the decor rather than the rather allergenic alternative— the ‘Hay Bale Festival’ held on the third weekend in October. We drove around looking at all the hay sculptures at that time, but couldn’t get a park in Kalbar, so mozied on to Boonah, just a short schlepp away, for lunch.

In Kalbar, Country Soul has a small range of vacuum-sealed local wurst near the the till and more staff than Loz’s had. Lunch arrived in a flash. My steak sandwich on gluten-free bread was delectable. It would’ve given the legendary Ivanhoe Sanga a run for Lionel’s money by my reckoning. The verdant-plant-festooned Lovetts’ Cafe across the main drag was also thumping.

All the usual small-town businesses—bakery, butcher, pharmacy, motel, Spar Supermarket and a thematically muralled (spelling?) Vets’ — are interspersed with the boutiquey places catering for the day-trippers from Brizzy, The nearby ‘swich and The Goldie. The friendly proprietor of the tempting Nanny Lou’s Lane dress boutique told us that the weekends are her briskest days. Hubs was keen to leave with his wallet intact or I could’ve contributed to her unofficial stats.

Our favourite shop was the Empire Emporium, located in the spacious Wimm Bros building and crammed with, but not cluttered by, an ecclectic range of everything you can imagine from saddles to chess sets, and flowing out the back into a whimsical gallery area. We loved what the artist had done with a variety of old musical instruments, which almost made up for the Emporium’s lack of collectible dragons. How refreshing it was for me, anyway, to walk out of such a place beside a man NOT clutching a dragon!

‘Kalbar’ (pronounced almost like ‘Cow Bar’ ) means ‘bright’ or ‘star’ in a random Indigenous language, but noone seems to know which one or even if it’s local. The name fits the personality of the locality though; at least on a sunny winter’s.day. You drive away from Kalbar with a smile in your heart.

If doing a day trip, maybe you’d like to include a stop at nearby Harrisville to check out Summer Land Camels. They have slightly realistic camel stuffies and Hubs is a sucker for the camelmilk vanilla icecream.

*The Blue Bunyip is our new Skyline Campervan.