LANDMARKS AND BUILDINGS MARYBOROUGH

Once a favourite spot for aboriginal corroborees, the area is now a beautiful park, centred on the Ululah Lagoon. In 1852, the first land sales were held for the new town here, in a simple slab hut. Horse-drawn scoops were used to clear the lagoon to form Maryborough's first water supply in 1859. The lagoon is now surrounded by a walk and cycle path which is also frequently in use by the abundant wildlife who make the lagoon home.

Anzac Park being Maryborough's major playground contains a skate bowl, children's fort, flying fox and other play equipment, barbecues, picnic facilities and toilet blocks. The park also has facilities for visitors with a disability including a liberty swing.

Maryborough's Glory Hole is now a featured part of the Ululah Lagoon. It is believed to have been built as early as the 1880s. The Glory Hole is of a rare design and outdates any other work in Australia by 80 years, making it historically significant as an engineering work of art.

A deeper site was selected to replace the first shallow port of Maryborough which was located upriver at the original township. Wool, tallow, hides and timber were exported through the busy port and many coastal vessels brought supplies for the settlers. At one time the wharves stretched from the far end of Queens Park to beyond the Granville Bridge. At the marina you can see the last remnants of the original wharfs. Between 1859 when Maryborough was declared an official Port of Entry and 1901, more than 22,000 immigrants from Great Britain and Europe entered Australia through the port. Ships also brought Kanaka labour from the South Sea Islands to work on local sugar plantations. Ship building and repair industries added to the liveliness of the port. The derelict sheds behind the marina are remnants from the site of the Walker Shipyards which closed in 1974.

Built in 1882, the heritage listed Maryborough Railway Station features a Victorian design. The stationmaster's residence has much of the character of larger Queensland houses of that era. The railway complex also houses the Whistlestop Museum, which documents Maryborough's impressive rail history. The first sod for the railway line from Maryborough to Gympie was turned in 1878, with pick and shovel gangs completing the project in three years. In 1895, the district boasted 300 items of locally made rolling stock. Maryborough has long been a major supplier of steam, diesel-electric and electric trains and train carriages in a railway history that began in 1873. The railway station also has an air raid shelter built during the Second World War in viewing distance.

Featured on Maryborough's Walk and Drive Tour. Built circa 1918, the Maryborough Branch of the Waterside Workers Federation used this heritage listed timber building with its unusual recessed doorway as a meeting place and centre for members. This building, used until 1963, saw the last work performed by the Maryborough Waterside Workers. Afterwards this the building was used as a training centre for weightlifters and rehearsals for bands. The building is now used for storage.

Miss Janet Melville bequeathed the Fairy Fountain and Band Rotunda in memory of her brother Andrew who was Mayor of Maryborough in 1863. The entire structure was imported from Scotland in 1890 after the Hon. A.H. Wilson MLA saw it at the Glasgow Exhibition and acquired it as a suitable memorial. In 1905, the fountain was moved from under the ornate roof of the rotunda to its present site to allow the use of the rotunda as a performance area. Last Sunday of the Month activities in the park feature live brass bands performing in the rotunda and miniature steam trains.

The Heritage City of Maryborough comes alive on market day, every Thursday, with stalls lining Adelaide and Ellena Streets in the Central Business District. The shopping experience begins at 8.00 a.m. with fresh home grown fruit and vegetables, plants of all varieties, home made craft available. The central location of this market means that you also have the opportunity to browse the retail shops nearby. Every month the markets are themed for the public's entertainment, with various activities taking place on the Town Hall grounds. You can experience a train trip on the Mary Ann which operates every Thursday. Don't miss the firing of the time cannon by the Town Crier and Mary Heritage in Adelaide Street at 1.00 p.m. The atmosphere is vibrant, with plenty to see and do. Looking forward to seeing you there!

If you want to get up close and personal with Australian native animals, Fraser Coast Wildlife Sanctuary is the place to visit. Enjoy a great day out. Be greeted by Charley, the long billed corella. Take a walk through the free flight aviary and the sanctuary where you will experience genuine Australian fauna such as kangaroos, wallabies, emus, turtles and native birds and ducks. Check out our reptiles and dare to hold a python. Meet and learn all about Australia's largest land predator, the dingo. Take a guided walking tour and experience "true blue" dingo interactions. All ages welcome and discounts available for group bookings. Their dedicated volunteer staff are happy to guide you.

Pioneer graves help to create a sense of history when visiting the Original Maryborough site, known as the Wide Bay Village, it was first settled by Aldridge and the Palmer Brothers in 1848, although George Furber had set up a store and wharf on the opposite bank a year earlier. It was largely abandoned by the mid 1850s in favour of the deeper port downstream, the city's current location. The town was renamed Maryborough in January 1849 after the death of the Governor's wife, Lady Mary Fitzroy. Located on the banks of the Mary River, about four kilometres from the city centre, the 30 hectare site has interpretive signage, walkways and trails along the creek frontage, pioneer graves, picnic tables, barbecue facilities and toilets.

Alpha31 Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden showcases art by award winning professional artists, in a variety of mediums to please the most discerning tastes. Alpha31 exhibited art comes in oils, water colours, pastels, acrylic and mixed media. The sculpture garden continues to evolve with sculptures in stone, concrete, timber and mixed media. Alpha31 also has a new section in leadlight art.

For a different type of experience, walk through one of the last remaining wetlands in the Maryborough area, Fay Smith Wetlands. There is a series of walking bridges and walking trails through the Fay Smith Wetlands, allowing visitors to enjoy the abundant bird life on offer. Fay Smith was a nature lover and photographer, along with her husband Ted.

Australia's only outbreak of the pneumonic plague was in Maryborough in 1905. This fountain, situated to the Lennox Street side of City Hall, is a memorial to the two Nurses Cecilia Bauer and Rose Wiles who courageously volunteered to nurse victims of the plague. Whilst looking after their patients both nurses fell ill and died from the deadly disease.

Featured on Maryborough's Walk and Drive Tour - this rendered brick building, the Former Australian Joint Stock Bank, was built in 1882 for the Maryborough Branch of the Australian Joint Stock Bank. The Union Bank occupied the building from 1906. The classic revival style includes an arched entrance and upper level Corinthian pillars. In 1899 during the time her father was the manager of the bank, Helen Lyndon Goff was born in the residence above. Later using the pseudonym P.L. Travers, she wrote the Mary Poppins series of books.

The Maryborough Flour Mill was the most northerly flour mill in Australia when it was built in 1890, for the Maryborough Milling Company. In 1919, the Dominion Flour Milling Company who now owned the mill bought the remaining relic of Aldershot smelting works, the chimney. After having it dropped the recoverable bricks were used to build the smoke stack, the remaining bricks were then used to build the fence. The Co-operative Milling Association bought the mill on 1 March 1938 and the mill ceased operation in 1977.

Lenthalls Dam is an ideal picnic and fishing spot with barbecue facilities, picnic shelter and tables, walking tracks and a small boat ramp provided. Built in 1984 on the Burrum River, about 30 kilometres northwest of Maryborough, Lenthalls Dam is reached by turning off the Bruce Highway about halfway between Torbanlea and Maryborough, and then travelling seven kilometres along a sealed gravel road. The lake is officially stocked with Australian bass, barramundi, golden perch (yellowbelly), and silver perch. But there have been reports of saratoga being caught, along with eels, eel-tailed catfish (jew) and the introduced spangled perch. Bass are the main species caught, but barramundi are starting to show and will no doubt make this a noteworthy fishing location in coming years.

The Elizabeth Park Rose Gardens was the site of Maryborough's second official cemetery, which closed in 1873. As the town expanded the cemetery was deemed a public health risk, and by 1907, moves were made to remove headstones and remains to the new cemetery. In 1921, the land was converted to a public park, and now is full of beautiful rose gardens.

The beginning of the First World War saw the Royal Australian Navy begin the process of updating its armoury. They presented the three guns, located in Queens Park overlooking the Mary River, as a gift to the City of Maryborough. The three guns were relocated to this position in 1914.

Around Maryborough's Portside heritage precinct is a series of plaques embedded in footpaths in Richmond and Wharf streets, known as the Achievers Walk. Follow this Achievers Walk to discover how ordinary Australians can achieve extraordinary things. Each plaque is a tribute to the remarkable and varied accomplishments of around 80 current and former Maryborough residents. This list includes pioneers, Olympians, Rhodes Scholars, inventors and others who have turned adversity into success.

The Prickett Aquatic Centre is the main access point to the Mary River for water activities, be they just going for a fish in the dingy or a paddle in a canoe for the more experienced. The pond is also used for canoeing and remote control model boats. The centre has picnic tables and toilets, and is also a great place to just sit and relax and watch the coffee-coloured waters of the Mary River float by.

Settled way back in 1847, Maryborough was the place more than 22,000 free settlers took their first steps on Australian soil after months at sea. Visitors can relive those early years with a visit to the City's historic port area - Portside. The port may be long dormant, but its history and gloriously preserved buildings remain - along with a sense of time suspended. The Portside Centre - part of the Queensland Heritage Trails Network -provides a professional, colourful and entertaining representation of Maryborough's history as major port and one of Queensland's oldest cities. Interactive displays include listening posts with first settler stories, time capsules and a multimedia Pepper's ghost display revisiting the time when sly grog running was rife and opium was a legal import. Just a few doors away is one of the largest museum collections celebrating this early history and one of the city's oldest buildings: the Bond Store Museum. Walk through the Bond Store, and you're stepping on history. The earthen floor and ancient handmade bricks in the original 1864 building downstairs still exist, as do many of the liquor barrels left over from that time.

Maryboroughs Bollards are seven colourful bollards overlooking the Mary River. They represent a sea captain welcoming a family of immigrants landing at the Port of Maryborough in the 1860s. In 1855 approximately 18,000 square metres of decking and warehouses were constructed creating the new wharves that would later become the Port of Maryborough.

Queens Park was established in 1860 and many of its beautiful huge trees were planted before 1900. Features of the Park are the fernery, waterfall and lily pond, lace-trimmed band rotunda built in 1890 and listed by the National Trust and the 13 centimetre Gauge Model Railway built by the Model Engineers and Live Steamers Association. On the last Sunday each month the Association meet in Queens Park to relive the steam age in the chug of engines, the glow of brass and coal fires and the cheery sound of the whistle. Also to be heard and seen are Maryborough's Brass Bands playing in the rotunda. The Park is a cool retreat with a waterfall, flowers, shrubs and trees, it is situated within an easy stroll of the City Hall and overlooks the Mary River.

Enjoy the wonders of nature on the Teddington Weir Vineforest Trail taking you through some of the interesting features in a patch of remnant vineforest scrub. Points of interest are highlighted with numbered posts. Facilities at Teddington Weir Picnic Reserve include small swimming pool, picnic tables, barbecues with wood supplied, playground, walking tracks and public toilets. The Teddington Weir Vineforest Trail is a joint project of World Wide Fund for Nature Australia, Wide Bay Burnett Electricity Corporation, Queensland Department of Environment, Maryborough City Council, Maryborough Environment Group and Australian Trust for Conservation Volunteers.

The Royal Bank of Queensland opened its Maryborough branch in 1888 in this Kent Street building known as Windsor House. In 1922 the Royal Bank of Queensland merged with the Queensland National Bank. The building features the Baroque revival style with broken curved pediments atop the facade and above the entrance.

The waterfall area of Maryborough's Queens Park was originally a quarry, which was later converted into a pond, that is regularly home to several ducks swimming on its surface or even catching some sun on the edges. The waterfall feature was constructed in the 1970s. It is a popular spot for picnics and frequently used as a backdrop for weddings.

Featured on Maryborough's Walk and Drive Tour - Mr Stupart purchased his first business in Maryborough in 1871, unfortunately he lost it all in the 1876 fire. He soon rebuilt the two-storey Criterion building, Former Stuparts Building, facing Kent Street (est 1871 on facade). Then the two-storey block on the Bazaar Street corner was completed in 1883 which he called The Drapery Palace. The business expanded along Bazaar Street in 1914 and a third storey was added to this extension in 1920. The firm of David Jones traded here in 1977 until 1981.

Brooweena War Memorial, found in the Woocoo Historical Museum's grounds, has a one-off soldier statue erected by the residents in late 1922. The origin and designer of this soldier statue is unclear, although produced by Maryborough monumental masonry firm FW Webb. The pedestal is of a style not found elsewhere in Queensland and it bears an unusual inscription, a verse: On fame's eternal camping ground/ Their silent tents are spread/Where glory guards with solemn around/The Bivouac of the Dead. WWI had an immense impact on the Australian population. Brooweena's war memorial notes that 39 local men enlisted. Nationally, 60,000 Australians (or one in five soldiers) died in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Curiously the Bridge Pylon memorialises nine soldiers and the soldier statue mentions 10. The soldier statue is not this tiny rural community's only war memorial, nor was it the first. A local station owner paid for a memorial bridge and honour roll, south of the village, a year earlier. Brooweena also funded an ambulance for France as a further memorial tribute. A set of plates recording 43 men and women from the district who served in WWII has been added to the soldier statue memorial.

The historic Port of Maryborough area has been transformed into a stunning public park complete with outstanding public art works. The Mary River Parklands forms part of the historic Portside Precinct. It plays an integral role in the City's urban renewal plans, providing a naturally beautiful link between Queens Park, the multimillion dollar Brolga Theatre, the Wharf Street heritage precinct and the river. The 500 square metres of landscaped parkland offers natural terracing, community forecourt, winding pathways, gardens, magnificent royal palms and shade trees of the same species found in nearby Queens Park. A new 23 metre long wharf, known as Queens Wharf, matches one of the original timber wharves that were scattered along the riverbank during Maryborough's heyday as a thriving river port.

The Mary River has been known by many names, with the Aborigines calling the river Booie, Moonaboola, Numabulla or Mooraboocoola. It was named the Wide Bay River until September 1848, when Governor Fitzroy renamed the river in honour of his wife, Lady Mary Fitzroy. The Mary River is unique in that it flows from south to north with its headwaters near the Sunshine Coast hinterland and its mouth at River Heads just south of Hervey Bay.