Maryborough - Culture and History

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This was published 15 years ago

Maryborough - Culture and History


Artefacts found in the area testify to the ancient occupation of this land by the Jajowurrong people. The first Europeans were the Simson brothers who set up a sheep station in 1840. It was known as 'Charlotte Plains' after one of the Simson wives and this was initially the name by which the district was known to whites. The first settlement on the run was Carisbrook.

Prospectors arrived in the area amidst the gold fever of 1851 (the first gold in Victoria was allegedly found 13 km south-west at Amherst) and a rush occurred near the future townsite in 1854 with the discovery of payable gold at White Hill, about 4 km north of present-day Maryborough. Other major finds followed and there were soon somewhere between 25 000 and 50 000 diggers on the local fields. At first there were plenty of nuggets which encouraged shallow alluvial mining.

A survey took place in 1854 and a police camp, Methodist church and canvas hospital were set up. The settlement was initially known as 'Simson's' but it was soon renamed Maryborough by gold commissioner James Daly after his birthplace in Ireland. The Maryborough Advertiser, one of the state's oldest newspapers, was also established in 1854.

In 1855 the so-called Tipperary Riots took place between Irish prospectors and other groups, leading to the formation of the Maryborough Mutual Protection Society. That same year the good fortune peaked with the discovery of a nugget weighing 32 kg.

By 1856, when land sales commenced, High Street had emerged as a business thoroughfare and Maryborough had become the commercial and administrative centre of the goldfields (it was probably chosen over Carisbrook because of opposition from local squatters).

Maryborough became a borough in 1857 and reef mining began in the late 1850s. The railway arrived in 1874 and it became a municipality in 1875.

The last gold mine closed in 1918 but Maryborough developed a strong manufacturing base in the 1920s with the opening of the Maryborough Knitting Mills (1924), a printery and some engineering enterprises. It became a city in 1961.

The Highland Gathering has been held on New Year's Day since 1857. The Agricultural Show is held in in March., the RACV Energy Breakthrough (an energy expo with machine races) in November.


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