Maryborough
See art, history and military memorabilia in Queensland ’s significant Heritage City Stories of loss, triumph and unbreakable spirit from its captivating colonial past right up to modern times are dispersed throughout Maryborough via its heritage buildings, striking public art, statues, memorials and museums. Maryborough was Queensland’s industrial powerhouse in the final decade of the 19th century, producing naval ships, heavy castings for sugar mills and railway locomotives and rolling stock. It was also the centre of significant agriculture, including timber milling and sugar cane growing. Bronze statues of military man Duncan Chapman and Mary Poppins illustrate the contrasts of Maryborough’s turbulent and enchanting history. The Gallipoli to Armistice Memorial opened in Queens Park in 2018, features at its entrance the sculpture of Lieutenant Chapman – the first Australian ashore at Gallipoli. The memorial is just one symbol of the tough military and industrial roles of the city built with fierce passion that often
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strayed into brutal, bizarre, risqué and haunting realms. The Mary Poppins statue, standing beside the 137-year-old heritage-listed Australian Joint Stock Bank building where author and creator, Pamela Lyndon Travers, was born (named Helen Lyndon Goff) in an upstairs bedroom in 1889 is on nearby Richmond Street, also known as Cherry Tree Lane. The bank has recently been transformed by a major renovation into the Story Bank of Maryborough and is now the keeper of the tales, yarns, myths and legends that make up the rich fabric of one of Queensland’s oldest cities. Beyond its doors, visitors can discover where this Mary Poppins magic began on the self-guided Magical Mary Trail starting from Richmond Street, or take a private tour and have morning tea with your own Mary Poppins-inspired character.
Hear the tipler’s tales
Everywhere in Maryborough there are signs of the city’s colonial past. In Wharf Street on
most weekends, you’ll find a tippler telling tales of tasting the liquor content of kegs at the old Bond Store – where alcohol imports (and opium in the day) were impounded until the government duty was paid. Bookings for Tipples and Tales are essential. The nearby Customs House museum faces the street where more than 21,000 immigrants trudged from berthed sailing ships, when Maryborough was one of Australia’s major ports of entry between 1862 and 1890, taking their first steps on the new land they would call home. Their lives are chronicled at the nearby Maryborough Family Heritage Centre, where, with help you can make your own family history searches.
Free guided city walks
A free guided walking tour, where a storyteller will bring more of the city’s history to life using the backdrop of the many outstanding colonial buildings in the CBD, is a “must do” introduction to Maryborough’s past that will make your visit much richer for the experience. The guided tours leave from Maryborough’s City Hall at 9am every day except Sunday.
