Fraser Coast

The Maryborough butter factory

31 July 2026 / 3 Comments

Cream, co-operation and the making of a Wide Bay industry

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when Maryborough was one of Queensland’s busiest regional centres, a visitor approaching the town would have found the air filled with the scents of industry. Timber mills lined the river, the clang of engineering workshops echoed, the whistle of locomotives sounded, the sweet aroma of sugar cane wafted through the air and the faintly sour smell of milk and cream arrived at the town’s dairy works.

Roy Rufus Artificial Reef – a vision beneath the waves

29 May 2026 / 4 Comments

A Bay in decline

In the mid-1960s, Hervey Bay’s once-abundant fishing waters showed worrying signs of decline. The prawn trawlers still worked the inshore grounds, and weekend anglers from Maryborough and Hervey Bay launched from Urangan to chase mackerel and coral trout. However, old-timers noticed a disturbing trend. There were fewer fish, smaller catches and lifeless stretches of seabed once full of coral and sponges.

A forgotten history – cyclones on the Fraser Coast

30 January 2026 / 6 Comments

Many Australians see tropical cyclones as a northern phenomenon — storms that belong to Cairns, Townsville, or the Kimberley. Yet, the Fraser Coast, stretching from Fraser Island through Hervey Bay to Maryborough, has long been within their path. Cyclones are not uncommon visitors here. In fact, they have shaped our coast, forests and local stories.

The plague that stopped at Maryborough

31 October 2025 / 3 Comments

Australia’s only outbreak of pneumonic plague

On a damp May night in 1905, the O’Connell children coughed and wheezed in their cramped weatherboard cottage at the corner of Sussex and Pallas Streets, Maryborough. Their neighbour, Mrs Letetia Edwards, heard the rasping sounds through the thin walls and crossed the street to help.

The rise and fall of Hervey Bay’s swimming enclosures

29 August 2025 / 8 Comments

In the early 20th century, Hervey Bay was not the bustling regional hub we know today. Instead, it was a picturesque cluster of seaside villages along the foreshore, stretching from Urangan in the east westwards to Torquay, Scarness, Pialba and finally Point Vernon. As tourism grew, particularly during the long summer holidays, safe swimming became a serious concern for both visitors and locals.

The engineering giant that helped build Queensland

30 May 2025 / 5 Comments

Nations are not built by those who sit down and ask for doles or alms, but by the daring and the bold. They are not built by the timid, but by the dauntless and adventurous.

R. S. Maynard

Maryborough was truly an essential industrial city in Queensland’s early history. It served as a pivotal distribution centre that supported three major industries: agriculture, manufacturing, and timber.