Maryborough, Queensland, Australia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryborough,_Queensland We hired a car (Can’t say “rented”. This is Australia, mate!) in Sydney intending to make our way north to Gladstone on the Queensland coast. After several fun-filled days in Brisbane, we were looking for a place to stop
Maryborough, Queensland, Australia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryborough,_Queensland
We hired a car (Can’t say “rented”. This is Australia, mate!) in Sydney intending to make our way north to Gladstone on the Queensland coast.
After several fun-filled days in Brisbane, we were looking for a place to stop before we were due to arrive in Gladstone. Maryborough seemed like a good choice, being a convenient distance from both start and finish. We were there for three days. I could have stayed longer.
This now quiet country town was once the primary immigration portal for non-convicts. Lots of commerce, both human and agricultural, passed through Maryborough. Up until it didn’t.
The first thing to say is that Maryborough was the birthplace of P.L. Travers, creator of Mary Poppins.
No, that’s not where the town’s name came from. The name Maryborough was derived from the Mary River which runs through the town. The river lost its original name when Sir Charles Augustus Fitzroy, the then Governor of the colony of New South Wales, decided to rename it after his wife Lady Mary Lennox.
So — how come I’m showing you a town we visited in Australia after a post about small museums? Because, to me anyway, Maryborough feels like a citywide museum.
I originally included Maryborough in the Museum post, but it didn’t quite seem to fit. So, here it is broken out into its own post.
There’s nothing fancy in Maryborough, nothing a guide book is likely to write about. But the people are friendly, there’s interesting history, and lots of fun stuff to see and do.