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Published: July 28th 2014
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Mary Poppins on the Footpath
This is just a small section of the colourful chalk artwork on the footpath of Queens Park, Maryborough. The town had just celebrated its Mary Poppins Festival to honour the author, PL Travers, who was born here. We were up at 8am and soon packed up to continue our interrupted trip to Maryborough. The drive was reasonable, although we encountered a few lots of roadworks and had to wait about 10 minutes at one. The ideal time to have Ginger Bar and juice box each.
Along the route some stretches of the road were labelled as “Fatigue Zones”. The first we saw had a board to say that playing trivia games helps keep you alert. About 500 metres further along was another board with a trivia question on it about Queensland. Then about a kilometre later was the answer. They did 4 questions and answers in that zone. We saw 2 more “Fatigue Zone Trivia Games”. Very cleverly they promoted special features of the area, as well as keeping the drivers awake.
We arrived at the Maryborough Showgrounds and set up the van. We had to pay the council for the site using a credit card over the phone as there is no caretaker. First time that’s happened. They also had a strict policy of only 48 hours stay allowed.
We had lunch in the van with some of the Cheese and Chive Bread topped
Fatigue Zone Trivia Game Boards
These are spread along the Bruce Highway in places that have been found to be accident prone. They ask trivia questions and then later give the answers. Unfortunately, when you're travelling at 90 kph it's very hard to photograph a clear one and this is the best I could do. this starts the Game. with strong cheddar cheese, tomato and lettuce and followed by toasted Fruit Bread which went down really well.
After our usual visit to the Tourist Information Centre, we took a walk around the attractive town centre sort-of following the Heritage Walk guide paper we’d been given. There were a few buildings from 1842, when the area was settled, to the1880s, especially around the old port area, and many from the early 1900s, some very impressive like City Hall. There is a deep natural harbour here which made it an ideal place for the port and, when gold was found nearby at Gympie in 1867, the Port of Maryborough greatly increased in importance while commerce thrived. It was even a rival to Brisbane as the new Queensland capital at one stage.
The town also has lots of sculptures of all types and plaques decorating it. Some of the sculptures pay tribute to the industries that have shaped the town, like the street table which is made of the train wheels from a B15 from 1889. Another, by Susie Hansen, is a fly wheel that has been cut in half, from a suction gas engine in the powerhouse of Walkers
The Mary Poppins Sculpture
This stands outside the old bank where the author of the Mary Poppins books was born, in the residence above, as her father was the bank manager. Ltd, a local ship building company from 1877. Engraved plaques, showing many aspects of life in the town, line the rims of the two pieces and local primary school children have decorated bricks that form the pavement alongside.
Maryborough is also very proud of being the birthplace of P.L.Travers (originally named Helen Lyndon Goff) who wrote the Mary Poppins books, among others. She was born in 1889 in the residence above what was then the Union Bank where her father was the manager. She moved to Europe in 1924 to further her career. There are tributes to her in a number of places. My favourite was the statue of Mary Poppins standing on the corner of the street next to her birthplace. They even have an annual Mary Poppins festival!
Next to the Mary River (named for Lady Mary Fitzroy
not Mary Poppins), was Queens Park where there were mangroves growing along the bank. We walked through the park quickly (there was a storm cloud rapidly approaching) and saw a group of bollards painted to look like a Ship’s Captain welcoming a migrant family from the 1860s to the area and a lovely mosaic column showing a detailed
A Street Sculpture and Table
This is one of the several sculptures around Maryborough to pay tribute to the industries that helped form the town. It is made from the train wheels of an 1889 B15 Locomotive. and colourful map of the area. There was also an amazing and colourful chalk picture of Mary Poppins on the footpath that showed a few of the scenes from the movie. It was so long I had trouble taking a single photo and had to climb on a seat. It was really well done, too. We then felt a few drops of rain so we legged it back to the ute before it really got started. I hope the chalk picture survives.
On reading the brochures we’d been given we discovered that Maryborough was famous for another reason – it is where the only ever outbreak of Pneumonic Plague (Black Plague) took place in 1905. It was started when a drunken dock worker, a widower with seven children, took some infected sacking from a Hong Kong freighter and took it home to use as bedding. His children soon got sick and, when two died, a doctor recognised what the disease was. He isolated the victims, but not before quite a few more people had been infected. Two young nurses who looked after them were among the six people who died and there is a tribute to them near City
Another Industrial Street Sculpture
This sculpture, by Susie Hansen, is a fly wheel, cut into halves, from a gas engine that was in a local ship-building company. It has engraved plaques all around it paying tribute to various aspects of town life and history. Hall.
It was getting late by the time we’d finished the tour and so when we saw a sign for cheap Seniors’ meals at the RSL Club – a roast for $9, we decided to treat ourselves, as I don’t have an oven to do roast meat. I had Lamb and Barry had pickled pork, both served with lots of fresh steamed vegetables and boiled potatoes. It was delicious and filling.
I do enjoy meals I haven’t cooked!
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