Maryborough

A classic Queenslander home.

From Woodgate Beach we headed to Maryborough for a long weekend stay, before heading for Palmwoods and Christmas with Carolyn's family. What a wonderful surprise is Maryborough. Full of so much history. We were quite frankly amazed at how much there was to see and do, and quickly realised a long weekend would not do it justice.


Most people know about the beautiful old Queenslander homes that are all over town, many magnificently restored, but equally as many with peeling paint and run down. There is a lot of maintenance with a Queenslander! But what we did not know, was the rich history and industry that has been, and still is, such a major part of the town.

Inside City Hall's Theatre

We checked in at the Wallace Caravan Park. It wasn't much. Very unkempt and tired looking. Still the amenities were clean. The other 3 parks in town looked just the same. We think that most caravanners bypass Maryborough, and stay at nearby Hervey Bay, which has a host of excellent caravan parks.


Our first day started with a FREE guided walking tour, that started at 9.00am out side City Hall. It runs every day but Sunday. It lasted 1.5 hours and was excellent. If you are ever in town, this is the perfect introduction to Maryborough. The guide, dressed in 19th century workman's clothes, was knowledgeable and passionate, a wonderful combination. We started with a tour around the magnificent City Hall building, a gift to the city from a wealthy guy named George Ambrose White. Grand old building in wonderful condition, and still in use today. There is so much history to be told.

Bollards depicting the
 history of immigration.

Maryborough was first settled as a port to allow the shipping of timber to the cities, as the overland route was long and arduous. No coastal road existed. When gold was found at Gympie, this was also shipped out through the port. It became a major ship building centre, which continued up until the 1990's. Many warships were built here during WW11. In 1859 it became an official port of entry into Australia, and between then and 1901, 22,000 immigrants arrived into the country through the Port of Maryborough. There are some wonderful old buildings and museums around the port area. Our tour ended at the old Bond Store Building which had some wonderful exhibits depicting the import and export of produce as well as the history of immigration. Manufacturing industries grew and the town prospered. Even today some rare manufacturing in a country town occurs, with the building of the High Speed Tilt Train, taking place in Maryborough. The Tilt Train runs daily between Brisbane and Rockhampton.

Band Rotunda in Queens Park.

The city is full of wonderful old buildings and parks such as Queen's Park which has a lovely Rotunda and fountain, both gifts to the city, as well as a magnificent Banyan Tree, and other exotic species of trees. The last Sunday of every month the local band plays in the rotunda, amid a party atmosphere. Every Thursday is Heritage Market day complete with Town Crier and Steam Train rides. Unfortunately we arrived on Friday!

Mary Poppins in bronze.

One of the other great stories in Maryborough is that of Mary Poppins. The author, PL Travers was born in Maryborough. There are personalised tours with Mary through the streets of town, and a beautiful bronze statue. July each year, the Mary Poppins Festival is held, and they tell me the place is really poppin!!!!

Brennan and Geraghty's Store.

Another really unique place was the Brennan & Geraghty's Store Museum. This is one of only 3 preserved retail stores in the world. Talk about a step back in time!
Apparently the owners just shut the doors and left every thing as it was. The shelves are still lined with those iconic brands now owned or lost by multinationals. Out the back are the barrels, tea chests and wooden crates full of bulk goods. There is even an old piano that was never bought. We think we were the only visitors for the day. The dear old lady at the counter followed us and described every item in the store, as if she had purchased it. Come to think of it, she may have!

Military and Colonial Museum

The last museum we called at was the Military & Colonial Museum. We arrived at a couple of minutes to 3.00pm, just as they were turning out the lights. There were 2 guys on the counter, who were most offended when we said we'd come back tomorrow. They said they were staying to do some work anyway. They were two of the many volunteers responsible for one of the best military museums we have ever seen. Talk about passion! It begs the question of who will keep up the work when they are gone? It has been described as the best in Australia after the Canberra War Memorial, and we could believe it. You could spend a month there. They even have a research library where many war historians come to work, or get the volunteers to do the research for them. The medal displays were amazing. They have 4 Victoria Crosses on display, and the detail surrounding them is very moving. We spent an hour and a half there, and only scratched the surface. The caretakers kept an eye on us and made certain we saw the best of the best. We would love to come back and spend some real quality time here. As we left, we were told that we were the only visitors for the day! Those two guys had sat there all day talking to each other, and doing things around the museum. No wonder they were glad to welcome us!

Mary River Cruise

There are so many other sights it is impossible to list them all. The oldest working Post Office in Queensland. The oldest family owned and operated Ford Dealership in Australia, started selling Henry's first models and only recently sold the dealership outside the family. Some grand churches. St.Paul's Anglican Church has a huge freestanding stone bell tower, a gift from a wealthy parishioner. It has 9 bells, which are soon to be removed, transported to England, and re tuned. The process is both time consuming and costly and has already been postponed once due to a high demand for bell tuning because of Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee next year! 


Last must do, is a cruise on the mighty, muddy, Mary River, to look at all the port history from the river, as well  as take in some of the exquisite Queenslanders built along the river banks. It is the most casually run cruise we've ever done, with a Captain who walks and talks at a speed somewhere between stop and a tortoise, but it was fun despite some of the worst jokes we've ever heard!

Workers and Bicycles. 

Maryborough is quite flat, and has a long history of transportation by bicycle. Some of the stories our guide told us about the hundreds of workmen all leaving work at knock off time at 5.00pm, on their bicycles, racing to the pub which closed at 6.00pm, were priceless. "The 6 o'clock swill", was the term given to  getting as much grog into you as possible between 5 and 6! Apparently the cops closed off the streets to cars to give the bikes right of way. Maryborough became known as the City of Cycles, and there is much evidence of it still being a cycle friendly town. Unfortunately, being flat, it also has a long history of getting flooded! There are signs on buildings all around town, showing the levels for all the major floods. The biggest was in 1875, and the last one was in January 2011.  Much of the town goes under, including parts of the CBD. The interesting thing is that they get to prepare well in advance, as Gympie is upstream, and they monitor the level at Gympie to determine how bad it will be, then have two days to prepare!

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There are dozens of pubs all over town, resulting from its working class history. It must be very competitive. We loved the Post Office Hotel's innovative approach to increasing customers. Check out the sign in the photo! We thought it was priceless!


Somehow we managed to fit in a drive out to Hervey Bay and surrounds. We even got out to Tin Can Bay as well. All of it has really gone ahead since we last saw it about 6 years ago. We will have to come back to do it all properly.


As we hadn't stopped since arriving in Maryborough, we decided to try the RSL Club for a leisurely dinner on our last night. We arrived around 7.00pm, sat down to have a quiet drink, and were met by the PA announcement that the club would be closing early for the staff Christmas party. Last orders would be at 7.30pm and all patrons were  asked to vacate the club by 8.00pm! It seemed only fitting that as our time in Maryborough had been a blur, so would be our last dinner! It was tasty though.