Maryborough - Culture and History

While the coast near Maryborough was chartered by Captain James Cook and Matthew Flinders, it was really Andrew Petrie who explored the present city site. In 1842 Petrie sailed up the coast from Moreton Bay in a whaleboat to investigate the economic potential of the harbour which lay behind Fraser Island. He was specifically looking for substantial stands of bunya trees. Petrie travelled nearly 80 km up the Mary River and, although he did not find the bunya trees, one of his crew, Henry Stuart Russell, declared after the journey that he had 'seen what looks like a first-rate harbour, and a river in which I yet hope, if I can but find fit country on or near it, goodbye to drays, bullocks, Cunningham's Gap and hells holes - hoorah! for immediate water carriage for wool.'

It is remarkably fortuitous that both Russell and Petrie have left very detailed accounts of the journey. Tom Petrie's Reminiscences of Early Queensland by Constance C Petrie was published in 1904, while Henry Stuart Russell's Genesis of Queensland was published in 1889.

The hinterland was settled extensively in the 1840s and in July 1847 the government surveyor, J. C. Burnett, surveyed the river, declaring that it was 'an eligible position for the establishment of a town as parties will no doubt settle there as soon as there is prospect of trade'. Governor Fitzroy decided to name the river Mary, after his wife. Prior to that it had been known as Wide Bay to the Europeans and Booie, Numabulla, Mooraboocoola or Moonaboola to the local Aborigines.

In September 1847 George Furber, an enterprising Ipswich businessman, arrived at Wide Bay and built a store, a house for himself, and a jetty. By December that year he had shipped out his first load of 65 bales of wool. The next year Furber found himself in competition with Aldridge and Palmer who had set up on the opposite bank of the river and were offering easier access to the port. The story goes that Furber was attacked and wounded by an Aborigine, forcing him to ride south to Ipswich for medical attention. By the time he returned a new settlement had been established on the other side of the river. He had no choice but to join it.

The infant township acquired a life of its own. Within a year over 1000 bales of wool were being shipped out and hotels, stores and shops had sprung up.

The original Maryborough site, occupied until 1855, is located between the Bruce Highway (at the Gympie end of town) and the Mary River.

Maryborough was already a thriving township when it was proclaimed a municipality in 1861. Two events in the 1860s ensured that it would continue to grow and prosper. In 1865 the Maryborough Sugar Company was set up and, when gold was discovered in 1867 at Gympie, Maryborough became one of the major access points to the fields.

By 1869 the town's superb post office had been built and for the next decade the commerce of the town was sufficient to prompt the construction of some major buildings. In this Maryborough was well ahead of Rockhampton and Charters Towers both of which developed later in the nineteenth century.