Professionals Tamborine Mountain 
There are few businesses on the mountain with such a unique offering as Smellbound: from its signature fragrant candles to its variety of home décor items and even a new café, there really is something for everyone. Pam Gill, owner, shares the story of how such a fascinating collection came to be.
by Kyle Hitchmough
How long have you owned Smellbound?
About seven years, but it’s a very new location. We moved here in January, when we bought these three shops and converted them into one.
What was your inspiration to open the store?
I started making candles as a hobby after I retired, and it just grew into a website, then into a shop, then from a little shop into a big shop. Then I integrated other products that customers told me they wanted. And now there’s a café to top it off.
You also have a sizable number of other items in stock?
That’s right. Home decor, gemstones, it’s a bit of everything. People can come in and it doesn’t matter what they like, they’re going to find a little bit of something they want. From coffee plants to Buddhas to gems to candles to homewares, a nice cup of coffee while they’re here, and we’ve just applied for a liquor license, so hopefully local wines, cheeses and antipasto.
Can you tell us more about the café that you’ve just opened? What kinds of food and drink do you sell?
Gourmet pies, homemade salads, continental cakes— again, homemade by a local lady. Any sort of coffee or milkshake or frappe that you can imagine. And it’s growing as we get people coming in asking for different things and we think “Good idea! We’ll pop that on the menu.” We’re open to change.
Do you intend to further expand this lineup, especially with the liquor license you mentioned?
People queue for food up here, so we’re going to put a barbecue out the back and they can come in and have anything from just a sausage sandwich, right up to an eye fillet with homemade salads. We’ll have someone out the back cooking it in that rotunda, and a nice glass of wine or beer on tap. It’ll be inexpensive and give another opportunity for something different to do up on the mountain.
You have a number of items that fall under the spiritual umbrella too. Can you tell us more about that?
That’s my daughter’s input. She also works here with me, which is great because she does the clothes, the fashion, the spiritualistic things. She’s in her 30s and I’m 70, so I appeal to the older people with what I put into the shop, and she buys what the younger generation want. I trust her implicitly, and it all goes together well.
Tamborine Mountain is known for its subculture of spirituality. Why do you think that is?
I think it’s well known for it. There are quite a few shops that cater for it, including this lovely new one that’s being built next door to us. I think it’s the sort of thing people come to the mountain for. They want that something that’s a little bit different, and they want something that says Mount Tamborine, that’s why nearly every single one of our products has got ‘homemade with love on Mount Tamborine’ on it. It’s a huge selling point.
What’s your most popular or bestselling item?
Definitely the candles. We have a rather original concept too that nobody else does, which is very environmentally friendly and also economical, in that when people buy a candle from us we encourage them to bring the container back and we’ll refill it for around half the price of the original purchase. We’ve got over 300 different fragrances and essential and fragrant oils, they can choose whatever fragrance they like, we refill the candle with top quality soy wax and reuse the same container so they’re saving money themselves plus it’s extremely environmentally friendly.
Is there a notably popular option amongst the candles?
Is there ever! It’s been the fragrance of the week for three and a half years, and its lemongrass and Persian lime. It’s a very nice blend that’s not overpowering, so it suits men and women, it’s just a very fresh fragrance that everyone seems to like. People come back for it every time.
Do you have a personal favourite thing to do on the mountain?
Oh, the walking and the botanical gardens are absolutely stunning. I take my grandchildren and we go down there for lunch. It’s really stunning, and it’s all free.
What do you think a store like Smellbound really provides to the area?
I think it’s a very big draw card for Gallery Walk, because the people who come to my shop specifically to have their candles refilled or for breakfast will do the whole street. The other thing I offer is a fair bit of parking. That’s a great attraction. Having the access ramp here is something else a lot of shops don’t have, and we get a lot of people with disabilities coming in bus tours, and they’re able to access the shop. We’ve got a nice garden bar out the back which we’ve just set up, and they’ll quite often sit out there, and they’re able to access it all, which is great.
Do you have any other plans for directions Smellbound might expand?
We’ve been asked a lot by people “where can we learn how to make candles?” and I’ve decided to start candle making classes since the demand is huge. People come up here in groups on weekends or for a wedding and they want to do something together. We’re going to limit it to 5 people per class, make it very personalised. It’ll be about two hours and they’ll walk away with about $75 worth of candles to keep, so it’s an experience.
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