UP BEYOND Queen Mary Falls, over by the rainforest, Ken Watts made cream.

In fact, in 1991, Ken's lush Killarney mountain-top property saw the last cream delivery in Australia depart his dairy.

Ken's son Darryl, who operates the dairy, said Ken didn't strive to be the last cream producer in the country.

"He couldn't get a dairy buyer to come up here to pick up the milk, so he had to keep making cream and run it down to Dairyfields in Warwick," Darryl explained.

Finally, in 1991 a buyer agreed to bring collect the milk from his dairy and that was the end of the cream.

These days, Darryl is the fourth generation dairy farmer to rise at four and brave the mountain's cold misty winter mornings to milk a mixed herd that includes Fresians, Illawarras, Jerseys and Swiss Browns.

Darryl will be one among a scrumptious platter of local producers whose goods will fill baskets at the Killarney Picnic Basket Day on April 22.

The event, which last year saw a leisurely crowd of 2000 smooth out their rugs for an old fashioned day out, is set to return to the gardens of Melrose Station this year.

Picnic-ers are invited to bring their blankets and an empty picnic basket which they can fill will delicious produce grown right there in the region's patchwork farmlands.

The event celebrates family fun and community spirit; values synonymous with country life. It also raises funds for Livin, a charity that seeks to wipe out the stigma of mental illness and raise awareness of suicide prevention.