NTH TAMBORINE North Tamborine is the main centre for the Tamborine Mountain vicinity. North Tamborine is such a difficult place to visit the town will never be deemed a Gold Coast or Brisbane suburb. Nth Tamborine is a relatively high altitude location. The traveller will decide to visit North Tamborine. This one place you will not stumble across. The first Europeans known in the area were timbergetters with a sawmill established at Cedar Creek in the 1860s. A school was opened at Cedar Creek in 1874 with settlement proceeding at Mount Tamborine itself from about 1878. The name derives, not from the musical instrument, but from the Koori term for the area. Tamborine Mountain is both an actual geological phenomenon (the result of an outpouring of lava from Mt Warning) and also a collective term for a number of small villages stretching along the 8-km ridge of the mountain range Many early settlers grew maize and grazed dairy cattle. The first guesthouse on the mountain was open in 1889. A tourist road to the mountain was completed in 1924. The road brought visitors to the area and the North Tamborine village became the centre for social and business activities. The main attractions of the district are the beautiful views which exist on both sides of the ranges, the number of rainforest areas with quiet streams and attractive waterfalls and the many craft and antique shops, galleries, wineries, tearooms and restaurants of the area's villages which attract an artistically/craft-oriented community and a tourism focus. The rich volcanic soils also support a diversity of horticulture. Commercial crops include avocado, kiwifruit, avocado and macadamia nuts. There are just the two churches in the town. The Nth Tamborine War Memorial is within the centre of the town. There is no pub within the Nth Tamborine precinct but the Irish Bar and Restaurant serves as the town watering hole. For the traveller a trip to Nth Tamborine would not be deemed essential, but the views and the coffee may make up for the very steep ascent/descent.