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Rotunda in Queens Park
Queens Park in Maryborough was established in 1860, with many of the trees being planted soon after. The lace-trimmed ornamental band rotunda with its cast iron ogees was originally exhibited at the Glasgow International Exhibition in 1888. It was erected in the park in 1890, and I can easily imagine it as a setting for a Mary Poppins fantasy scene.
It was pure serendipity that lead me to spend two nights in the little city of Maryborough, in Southern Queensland, Australia.
I had spent two days on a tour of Fraser Island off Australia’s east coast (see: Living Sands and Rock), and the ferry was scheduled to return to the mainland early evening. I was heading back through Brisbane, some 300 km south, and didn’t fancy driving too far in the dark.
It was after I decided to make nearby Maryborough my stop-over that I read about the Mural Trail. I had really enjoyed hunting out the murals in the little town of Chemainus on British Colombia’s Vancouver Island some years before (see: The Little Town that Did!): so I booked an extra night to allow me a full day in the city.
The Murals of Maryborough were launched in 2015, and the Central Business District now features 37 murals and installations. They depict whimsical and serious stories from Maryborough’s colourful past as an industrial city: building naval ships, sugar-mill machinery, and railway rolling stock; and as one of Australia’s largest ports: serving as a commercial and immigration hub.
Ideally situated on what is now called the Mary River, there is evidence of human habitation in this region stretching back at least 6,000 years. Maryborough was first settled by Europeans in 1847, making it one of Queensland’s oldest and most historic cities. Known as a ‘Heritage City’, it is home to a number of fine old buildings that are listed on the Fraser Coast Heritage Register. And, for serious history buffs, the city and its surrounds is home to a number of quality museums and collections on a range of topics.
Serendipity.
Such a Mary Poppins kind of word …
And, as it happens, P. L. Travers, author of that magical book – a favourite of mine from my late-childhood – was born, as Helen Lyndon Goff, in Maryborough in 1899. She grew up in the Australian bush before going to boarding school in Sydney, and then emigrating to England at the age of 25. Although the fictional Banks family lived in Depression-era London, Travers drew a lot of inspiration from her family and her early surrounds. Tributes to this legacy live on in the city’s buildings, murals, sculptures, and even in the annual Mary Poppins festival in July.
Come with me on a hunt for some stories in art and architecture – and just a smidgen of history:
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Maryborough City Hall
Any walking tour of Maryborough is best started by collecting maps at the Maryborough Visitor Information Centre, located in the distinctive American-Colonial style City Hall (1908) ;on Kent Street. The elegant clock was added in 1935.
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St Paul’s Anglican Church
A short walk around the corner, we come to the heritage-listed church (1878) and hall (1921).
Gorgeous Gum Tree Trunk
I can’t guess at the age of this beautiful eucalyptus tree on Lennox Street, …
Maryborough Railway Station
… but the elegant heritage-listed timber railway station complex behind it dates to 1882.
Electric Charging Station
Even a city that takes pride in its heritage can look to the future!
Brave Lexie and ‘Foxie’
– by Brian Tisdall
The first mural I find is on the wall of the Maryborough Fire Station and recognises the bravery of 12-year-old Lex Casperson. In 1927, he and his dog ‘Foxie’ saved his two brothers and a sister from a house fire.
Ellena Street Pavement Art and Sculpture
– by Susie Hansen
As a tribute to Maryborough industry, this half fly wheel that was part of the gas engine in the powerhouse of Walkers Ltd – a local engineering company that built ships and railway locomotives – is part of a street installation.
J M Monsour
The Monsour family was at the forefront of Maryborough commerce for many years. Cousins Fred and JM both built two-story shop-houses on Adelaide Street. This one, built in 1914, houses the ‘The Bee Hive’ emporium on the ground floor, and residential accommodation upstairs.
Shoes and Stays
– by Mela Cooke / April Spadina
A bronze shoe sculpture sits outside Langers Broadway Shoe Store, a family-run business for almost a century.
The Whip Cracker
– by Shanay Scarlet
Country towns love their colourful characters! Barbara Dalton was a whip-cracking part of the Dalton Family Whip Cracking Show, which performed at the local markets.
Prime Minister Fisher
– by Brian Tisdall
Queenslander and founding member of the local Labor Party, Andrew Fisher (1862-1928) served as Australia’s Prime Minister and Treasurer for three terms between 1908 and 1915. We are not looking at the mural – which is across the road – but at its reflection.
The Legends of Moonie Jarl
– by Fiona Foley
First published in 1964, this was the first book written and illustrated by Indigenous Australians. The mural, unveiled outside the library in 2016, depicts the cover of the book of Butchulla creation stories about K’gari (Fraser Island) told and illustrated by Maryborough-born siblings Wilf Reeves and Olga Miller.
Comet Man and Horsburgh Lane
– by Nigel Zschech
While scanning the western skies with binoculars, amateur Maryborough astronomer Mervyn Jones found an unnamed comet on 1 July 1967. In the laneway behind him, you can see the mural dedicated to the endangered Mary River turtle.
The Girl and the Croc
– by Dan Krause
This whimsical mural in Horburgh Lane was inspired by a photograph taken in the early 1900s of a girl sitting on a four metre crocodile. It is believed the croc was one shot in the Mary River and on display at the Iindah Sugar Plantation in 1903.
Mary Poppins Crossing
On the corner of Kent and Richmond Streets, the pedestrian crossing lights are little figures of Mary Poppins, …
Mary Poppins Statue
– Dr Rhyl Hinwood AM
… and a statue of the nanny, as she is depicted in the books, watches over. This location was chosen because the building behind – formerly the Australian Joint Stock Bank – is where Travers Robert Goff was an unsuccessful (and, reputedly, alcoholic) bank manager and where author Helen Lyndon Goff (P.L. Travers) was born in 1899.
Old Customs House
Built in 1899, this beautiful heritage-listed building with its terracotta-clad Dutch-gabled roof now houses a Portside heritage interpretative centre. On the corner opposite, you can see the quirky stainless steel, bronze, copper, and electro-mechanical match-making machine – an installation by artist Russell Anderson.
The Kanaka Memorial
In the late 1850s, the Mary River region was found to be ideal for the cultivation of sugar cane. As sugar became more profitable, plantation owners too often relied on importing cheap, sometimes blackbirded, labour from islands in the South Pacific. The first South Sea Islander workers arrived in Maryborough in 1867, and before the practice was stopped in 1904, some 50,000 Kanakas passed through here. This memorial on the Mary River Parklands pays tribute to their cultural heritage, their huge contribution to local economic development, and the appalling ways in which they were treated – leading to their death rates being 400% higher than white Australian workers.
The Post Office (1866) and Post Office Hotel (1889)
Mary Poppins
– by Steve Falco
This mural depicts a number of the magical episodes that take place in the Mary Poppins books.
Colourful Pharmacy
The Dong Sisters
– by Dan Krause
The daughters of Chinese migrants who came to Maryborough in search of gold in the 1870s, Ellen and Maud Dong were born in their parents’ home near here.
A Dong Sister
– by Dan Krause
The family turned to market gardening, and in 1915, the sisters took over the business of selling vegetables, plants and seeds to the Maryborough community.
Electricity Box
Even the Maryborough electrical boxes have their own personalities.
“Portside”
Old Customs House is so intriguing: it looks different from every angle!
Flight Commander Frank Lawrence
– by Benjamin Higgins
This mural on the side of the Maryborough Military and Colonial Museum commemorates the city’s most decorated World War II veteran.
Tubby Clayton
– by Akos Juhasz
Army Chaplain, Maryborough-born Reverend Philip Thomas Byard “Tubby” Clayton co-founded Talbot House, a place of respite for Allied troops serving on the Western Front during World War I.
St Mary’s Roman Catholic Church
The first Roman Catholic services were conducted in 1852 by a visiting Father James Hanley from Brisbane in the house of the local chief constable. The now-heritage-listed St Mary’s Roman Catholic Church was finally built on donated land between 1869 to 1872.
St Mary of the Cross
– by Patrick Phillips
Mary MacKillop was declared Australia’s first saint in 2010. In 1870, the Sisters of St Joseph – the religious order she founded – established a school and residence in Maryborough: the Catholic Church’s first formal education presence in the area.
Maryborough City Hall
I end my explorations in the same place I started: at the City Hall.
There are whole chapters behind any one of these, and the many other stories illustrated around the city, and you could easily spend days exploring the richly diverse history.
But, I had other places to be, so I pointed the car south, leaving Maryborough behind.
Happy Rambling!
Photos: 09June2019
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