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An ice rink in the city mall? Log fires in December? David Gibbs believes it's time Queenslanders chilled out
FEELING the summer heat? Losing your cool? Whacking on the air- con?
"Air-conditioning! What's that?" scoffs Phil Sowter, who runs a Tamborine Mountain guesthouse called Polish Place with his wife Ania. "We don't need air-con up here! We just leave the doors open and the cool breezes flow through."
Listen to Phil awhile and you get the impression the mountain climate is more like Poland than Queensland. In fact, Phil is still stoking the fires in the evenings.
"We can get cold snaps right up 'til Christmas," he says. "Even at the height of summer, the temperature drops below 20C at night."
Elsewhere, others are banking on temperatures like this, literally. A guaranteed cool Christmas getaway in Queensland. Where? Try the Granite Belt.
Famous for its Brass Monkey Winters campaign, the enterprising Granite Belt Tourist Association recently launched a Cool Summer Bet initiative running until March 1.
In a bold bid to underline its cold attractions, local tourism businesses are betting on the local temperature dropping below 20C at some point within any 24-hour period. And if it doesn't? Tourists who sign up at the association's Stanthorpe bureau will get a "refund" on any purchases such as accommodation, food, wine and tours. You don't actually get your money back -- you get whatever you bought then for free next May.
Of course, the Granite Belt is on to a good thing. At 800m, the region is the state's coolest. According to Meteorological Office statistics, the Granite Belt's average minimum temperature in January is just 15.5C -- compared with Brisbane's 21C.
The Met Office says some inland areas of southeast Queensland plunged to 5C the other night. Which is how guests at Phil Sowter's Polish Place like it.
Listen to Phil talking and you can be forgiven for thinking you're somewhere in frozen Europe with his Cool Yule package. So what do you get for your money?
Each of the chalet-styled cottages at the Polish Place has a fireplace. "Many Queenslanders simply have never seen a fireplace," he says. "It's a real novelty and often it's cool enough to light...