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Maryborough,
Queensland
Maryborough
is one of the oldest cities in Queensland it is located about 200km
north of Brisbane. It is part of the Wide Bay region.
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Maryborough
was settled by Europeans in 1847 as a wool port with the construction
of a wharf on the south side of the Mary River (then known
as the Wide Bay River) by George Furber, and the arrival of
the schooner "Sisters" to take wool sent from stations on
the Burnett. In 1856 the settlement that grew up around the
original Mary River wharves was officially moved downstream
a few kilometers to where the City of Maryborough stands today.
The move was made to allow bigger ships easier access to the
port.
In
the early days of European settlement in Australia, it was
Maryborough, rather than Brisbane, which served as an immigration
port for free settlers and was second only to Sydney on the
eastern seaboard in terms of immigrants recieved. When the
colony of Queensland separated from the colony of New South
Wales in 1859, Maryborough was gazetted as a port of entry
and not long after, in 1861, the township was proclaimed a
municipality.
The first
inhabitants of the Maryborough area were the ? people. The
arrival of the English caused violent disruption to their
lives. Ambitions of the European squatters and settlers to
acquire the land around Maryborough, without thought or reference
to the Aboriginal inhabitants, resulted in predictable conflict.
The actions of a few Aboriginals were more than outweighed
by the horrors inflicted on local peoples by white settlers.
Poisoning of waterholes and serving up meals of flour and
bran laced with strychnine and arsenic were among the ways
the whites dealt with the black "problem". Wholesale slaughter
of hundreds of innocent Aboriginals took place in retribution
for the actions of a few. Settlers enlisted renegade blacks
from further south to act as native police, assisting their
mass killings of fellow Aboriginals and providing a convenient
excuse when blamed for the bloody raids. Mainland Aboriginals
were exiled to Fraser Island, but here too they were persecuted,
with many being driven into the sea to their deaths on Christmas
Eve of 1851 by native police under the local white commandant.
Immigrants
from Europe continued to arrive; by the end of the 1860s the
total number of such arrivals had reached 23,000. Sailing
ships carrying immigrants rarely attempted to navigate the
Mary River to the place where the city stands today. Normal
practise for them was to anchor in
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Hervey Bay upon
arrival off the White Cliffs of Fraser Island where quarrantine barracks
were established, and trans-ship passengers to small coastal steamers
for the trip up the river.
The Maryborough
Port city of Hervey Bay began developing shortly after the city
of Maryborough itself. By around 1865 the first five white settlers
had taken possession of seaside leases stretching from Point Vernon
to Urangan. Each of the land leases developed into small townships,
with seaside lots being bought up by wealthy businessmen from Maryborough
and Gympie.
Numerous ships
and shipping companies were establishing regular services to and
from Maryborough. Between 1862 and 1864 something of a price war
developed between the Australasian Steam Navigation Company and
the new Queensland Steam Navigation Company for the passenger trade
between Maryborough and Brisbane. During that time it was possible
to travel steerage class to Brisbane for one pound or less.
The timber industry
began its development in the area with the establishment of a sawmill
in 1861. Logs were towed up river from as far away as Hervey Bay,
Fraser Island, and Tin Can Bay. The Maryborough Sugar Company was
formed in 1865, heralding the start of a sugar industry which is
still active in the region today. In October 1867 gold was discovered
at Gympie, some 90km south of Maryborough. The township of Maryborough
became practically deserted within a week, but most of the supplies
for the new goldfield passed through Maryborough, generating some
prosperity. Another result of the gold rush was the establishment
of Walkers heavy engineering works at Maryborough to supply mining
equipment. Walkers later became a significant builder of ships on
the Mary River. Walker's made its first locomotive in 1873.
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The Mary
river flooded in 1893, rising some 12.2 meters above its normal
level. It washed away more than 100 houses, devastated farms
and plantations, and destroyed Hyne's sawmill in Kent Street.
Maryborough suffered Australia's only outbreak of the deadly
Pneumonic Plague in 1905, the same year Maryborough was gazetted
a city.
In
the 1890s and well into the 1900s, oyster farming was a big
business in the port. Oyster beds were established around
the mouth of the Mary River, and down the Great Sandy Straight
as far as Inskip Point. A big fleet of small sailing ships
serviced the industry, sometimes coming up the river as far
as Maryborough township to unload into steamers at the town
wharves. Sea trading & transportation ceased in 1950.
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Maryborough
Boys Grammar
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By the 1920s
Hervey Bay's local industries included sugar cane, citrus and pineapple
plantations, cattle and fishing and the whole region became increasingly
popular as a holiday destination was recognised even at this point
in time.
Howard
Little
information is known about Howard and the Burrum River District
before 1850. Pioneers from Maryborough made trips to Burrum both
by land, sea and river, but visits were always hasty as they were
met by hostile aborigines protecting their rich hunting grounds
along the Burrum River. Visitors to the region in this time did
note the great abundance of hoop and kauri pine trees as well as
hardwood timber. They also took keen note of the river flats - surely
excellent areas for farming. Two brothers, Robert and John Miller,
decided to act on this and proceeded to the Burrum to set up a timber
mill. There was a good demand for timber, and they set up their
mill on the banks of the Burrum River. During this process, they
discovered coal by accident.
The Burrum coal
mining industry was established in about 1886 and a market was found
supplying coal to the Gympie gold mines, and for blacksmiths, iron
foundries and river and coastal streamers. This became the major
industry in the Burrum area for the next 100 years. Timber and coal
were transported via steamers and cutters down the Burrum River,
across Hervey Bay and up the Mary River to Maryborough. This method
of transportation was slow and no doubt inhibited the rapid development
of the area. However, with the opening of the railway line from
Maryborough to Howard in 1883, mining and farming operations expanded
rapidly. The Howard region was famous for the Burgowan Coal Mine,
which was the last hand dug coal mine in Queensland.
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