I doff my cap to ‘The Witch’s Hat’
- montvillehistorygr
- Jun 24
- 5 min read
Updated: Jun 27
While walking down Main Street Montville, I overheard a snippet of conversation that got me wanting to set the record straight. “Why would you build a roof that looked like a witch’s hat?” a youngster quizzed his Dad. “It’s just a gimmick,” the Dad replied off-handedly. My answer would be, Yes, partly true, but ‘The Witch’s Hat’ in Montville is so much more. It is a second iteration of the iconic business that Russ and Jill McDonald established at Mooloolaba almost 60 years ago.
The entrepreneurial couple first met in Perth in 1956; Russ was a WWII Royal Australian Navy veteran and Jill was an eye-catching, adventure-loving teen ready to take on the world. She brought Russ home to meet her parents and they wed in Nambour on 14 May 1958 when she was twenty-one. They settled in Aspley, Brisbane, and Russ worked as a copywriter and later manager of several advertising agencies.
But Russ loved the water, and when construction was due to start on the Mooloolaba Boat Harbour, they purchased land behind the Mooloolaba Life Saving Club and tasked Steven Trotter to design a tropical resort-styled low-rise of five units and a little beach kiosk. Lack of funds meant the development began more modestly; over the years becoming five shops and two restaurants as they purchased more of the little triangular corner property. Russ observed over breakfast one morning from their onsite caravan that the quirky roofline of the little corner structure looked like a witch’s hat and so Jill’s shop was named. “Our future was mapped,” she smiled.
They opened on 13 December 1967 and Jill remembers being very pregnant and up a ladder trying to decorate the window of the shop with fish netting and shells late into the evening the night before, until Russ came and hustled her away to have dinner! Their son Rohan made an untimely arrival just three weeks later on 5 January. Jill recalls, “Russ and a young school girl managed the shop for a few days. Then, returning from hospital with a new baby I fitted out a nursery in one of the two fitting rooms in the shop!!” Jill quickly learnt to juggle her daughters Sali and Terese, the new baby and the new business.
She had a small range of sisal and Madagascar straw hats and bags she had made as a hobby along with a few bra dresses and remembers her first customer – a lovely lady from the Cilento family who bought a hat for £5. The shop took £50 that first day! Jill expanded her offerings to include some designer labels such as Paula Stafford bikinis, but eventually produced her own labels. While Jill managed the shop, Russell developed Seasport Chancery and helped establish the Mooloolaba Yacht Club.
For 20 years ‘The Witch’s Hat’ was a Mooloolaba icon, but moving with the times, they sold it to the developer of Newport, the adjacent 16-floor high rise building. Although Jill sold the business, she kept the name, knowing she would use it again. She returned to Montville, her childhood town where her grandparents Emily and Jack Aird and her great-grandparents Fred and Bessie Smith where early farming pioneers. Jill started school in 1941, and she and her older brother Ross have fond memories of curling up to sleep under a table listening to their Dad’s band, (John Aird’s Band) providing dance music at the Sunshine Coast halls. More often, they stayed home with their Gram and enjoyed her homemade pineapple pie.
Jill explained, “Russ and I purchased a house along Balmoral Road. It was built by a fellow for his family. He was a wood worker but only had one leg. Why would he build a house with five levels with soaring timber ceilings and support posts as high as a mast? It was a beautiful home with views from Mt Coolum to Caloundra, and it was perfect for us with a huge workroom and even a cellar. This was designed for water storage under the house but something went wrong, not in our time thank goodness. It was the first house we saw for sale in Montville and we bought it. Russ was a bit of a timber man as well so there was no argument with me. The land in front of us was slip country so we planted a forest. I can remember slipping down the hill with newspaper and mulch trying to plant the scrubs and trees. There were koalas in the trees. I loved that house but not the five levels of vacuum cleaning. The beautiful pointed brickwork has now been covered with render.”
Jill and Russ also bought the business property, Lot 37, now 182 Main Street, Montville from a Dutch lady and a German gentleman. There was a worker’s cottage that was very old and run down. It was demolished to make way for the 5-shop building designed by their friend, Mooloolaba architect, Ken Down.
Jill recalled, “Helen Price Dinning and her husband Stuart Dinning were constructing the Montrose Building on the adjacent Lot 38 at the same time as us, so we usually consulted the architect together. This enabled us to have the easement between the two buildings. I remember going down to the property very early in the mornings trying to get the garden in the front established, then rushing back home and returning again for a day’s trading. I can remember Helen Shirley of ‘Gumnuts and Lace’ wanting the small veranda shop. All she had for sale were a few hobby horses and some dried flowers. We nearly declined her future tenancy. But what a successful business woman she turned out to be.”
On opening in 1993, ‘The Witch’s Hat’ was an exclusive fashion boutique selling one-off hand-dyed garments in beautiful colours. Another shop in the building was ‘Scarecrows of Montville’ selling clothes for children and adults featuring natural fibres. A Dutch restaurant called ‘Oma’s of Montville’ was run by John and Anne Hesseltine. ‘The Frog Shop’ was an exquisite clay sculpture gallery featuring the work of Lindsey Muir. There was even a miniature art gallery owned by Brenda Gray. Jill took the opportunity to construct a little gazebo overlooking her great-grandfather Smith’s farm (now Russell Family Park) and added an explanatory plaque about Henry’s lagoon. She wanted visitors to linger and reflect on those early pioneering days.
Jill enjoyed ten years in retail at Montville, but Russ was not a mountain man and his boat sailed into Tin Can Bay one day and there it stayed. Russ helped Jill establish her gallery, Tin Can Bay Art, and create the lush garden surrounds. The gallery features her decorative paintings, hand painted bowls, lazy susans, scarves, table runners and more. Russ was 94 when he died in 2016, still very much involved in his community and Jill is still busy creating beautiful artwork for her beloved gallery.
Russell and Jill have strongly influenced the commercial development of Mooloolaba, Montville and Tin Can Bay. They have created opportunities for artisans to share their art,
and Russ’s idle comment to Jill about the shape of the roof on the quirky little corner structure certainly put the pair on the Sunshine Coast map as well as mapping their working lives for the next 60 years. It has been a wonderful legacy.
P.S. Local, make sure you visit The Witch's Hat next month when the new French restaurant opens and the headquarters of the Rangebow Festival relocate to the Witch's Hat as well.
Cate Patterson, June 2025
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