Maryborough

Maryborough is a city on the Mary River in the Fraser Coast region of Queensland, Australia, south of Hervey Bay. P. L. Travers, the author of Mary Poppins, was born in the town in 1899, and a bronze statue of her character stands on the main street.

The Butchulla people are the traditional owners of the Mary River and the coast. A wharf was built on the river in the 1840s for shipping wool from the inland stations, and the town grew as the port for the region. In the second half of the 19th century ships brought immigrants from Britain and Germany directly to its wharves. Sugar cane, timber and gold from the Gympie fields passed through the port, and its prosperity can be seen in the grand public buildings and timber houses of the old town.

Downer builds and repairs passenger trains for Queensland at its rail works in Maryborough, a works that began in the 19th century as the engineering firm of Walkers. Sugar cane from the farms of the district is crushed at the mill in the city. Timber from the plantations of the Fraser Coast is milled for building.

The Portside precinct, along the river, keeps the old customs house, bond store and wharf buildings as museums. Brennan and Geraghty's Store, a general store that closed in the 1970s, is kept as a museum with its old stock still on the shelves. Queens Park, beside the river, has fig trees and a fernery. Each winter the Mary Poppins Festival brings theater, music and a parade of umbrellas to the city.