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.
See art, history and military memorabilia in Queensland ’s significant Heritage City
About Maryborough
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 children’s favourite 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 soldier 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 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 1899 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 tippler’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.
Guided city walks
A 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. From July 1, 2024, the walking tours will be $10 per person - payable at time of booking. Bookings can be made through the Maryborough Visitor Information Centre by visiting in person, emailing [email protected] or calling 1800 214 789.
Steeped in Military History
More visitors and students are coming to the Fraser Coast to study military history as Maryborough builds its reputation as the most important place to connect with the nation’s military past outside the Australian Capital Territory housing the Australian War Memorial.
The jewels in what is now showcased as the Fraser Coast Military Trail are the spectacular Gallipoli to Armistice Memorial in Maryborough’s Queens Park and the 10,000-artefact collection of medals and the personal stories of war held by the Military and Colonial Museum in the city’s Portside Precinct. These two attractions head a list of significant reminders of the nation’s war sacrifice spread throughout the region, not the least Australia’s single largest artefact from World War I, the rusting hulk of the Gallipoli hospital ship, TSS Maheno, lying beached on the eastern shore of Fraser Island. Also of significance are the remnants of the World War II Z Special Unit training camp, also on Fraser Island, a rare memorial bridge at Brooweena in recognition of the district’s war casualties and the dramatic, life-size statue in Hervey Bay of an Australian Light Horseman from the Battle of Beersheba.
The Gallipoli to Armistice construction is at the heart of the trail, where a bronze statue of Maryborough’s son, Lieutenant Duncan Chapman – the first Anzac ashore at Gallipoli – stands before the stylised cliffs above Anzac Cove in the form of towering, rusted, steel columns, as high as 8m. The sounds of marching boots and the softly told personal stories of soldiers lead a visitor from the Gallipoli landing to the deadly battlefields of the Great War, where Australia suffered 60,000 dead in the fighting and as many more after the war as returning soldiers succumbed to shell shock, war wounds and disease.
Military Museum
The $17m Maryborough Military and Colonial Museum, packed with artefacts from the Boer war to the Afghanistan conflict, including an original Victoria Cross medal group from Gallipoli, is a “must do” on the Fraser Coast Military Trail. From the poignant letters home, some from men dying in the field and writing their last, scratchy farewells to loved ones, to the medals for bravery and service, the museum focus is on the personal stories and contributions of the men and women who fought, rather than the campaigns and the machinery of battle. Now considered a national treasure of Australian military history, the Maryborough Museum is open seven days a week, staffed by more than 100 volunteers.
Take a Look around
The heritage city of Maryborough is a fantastic spot to explore on foot or behind the wheel.
The city’s informative walking and driving trail maps can be picked up at the Maryborough Visitor Information Centre inside the City Hall in Kent Street. The grand, heritage-listed hall, built in 1908, is the first stop on each of the trails. An ideal way to fast track your knowledge and gain an introduction to the city is to join a guided walking tour leaving at 9am daily (except Sunday) from the City Hall. The tours last about an hour when expert guides use the backdrop of the city’s magnificent colonial buildings to tell the stories of the region’s industrial past. From July 1, 2024, the walking tours will be $10 per person – payable at time of booking. Bookings can be made through the Maryborough Visitor Information Centre by visiting in person, emailing [email protected] or calling 1800 214 789.
If you plan to visit all 47 points of interest listed on the City Walking Trail, which includes historic buildings, memorials and parks, make sure you’re wearing comfortable shoes. If you are walking independently, a good place to start is the Bauer and Wiles Memorial Fountain in the grounds of City Hall, built as a tribute to nurses Cecilia Bauer and Rose Wiles who volunteered to nurse victims of Australia’s only outbreak of the pneumonic plague, which occurred in Maryborough in 1905. Both died of the disease.
Stroll along Wharf Street’s Walk of Achievers in the Portside Precinct to read plaques set into the footpath celebrating the accomplishments of more than 80 current and former Maryborough residents, whose endeavours have led to outstanding success and often national and world-wide recognition. Pioneers, Olympians, Rhodes scholars, inventors, war heroes and others are honoured. The Maryborough Mural Trail of 39 murals and installations is another very worthwhile walk in the CBD, where through art, you will discover many of the quirky stories of the city’s past. Informative mural trail maps are available from the visitor centre. The Maryborough Driving Discovery Trail takes motorists further afield. Ululah Lagoon, once an Aboriginal corroboree ground and now a lovely park, is one of the highlights of the 51 stops on the tour along with former Walkers Ltd shipyards, where 70 ships, barges and dredges were built between 1870 and 1974 – including 30 for the Australian Navy. Both the walking and driving trails take about one and a half hours to complete. In addition to these, the Visitor Information Centre stocks at least 10 more trail maps which guide travellers to various attractions around the region – so take your pick and go exploring!
