Built along the banks of the Mary River, Maryborough is one of Queensland’s most historically rich and visually captivating regional cities. The Mary River remains the city’s lifeblood, winding through the landscape with both beauty and power. Once a bustling trade route, the river now frames the Portside Precinct, where remnants of the original wharves and customs infrastructure still stand. The Port of Maryborough was once lined with ships exporting wool, timber, and sugar, and importing goods and people from around the world. Today, the area has been transformed into a vibrant cultural zone with riverside parklands, public art, and historical attractions.

Maryborough’s Post Office, built in 1865, is a striking example of 19th-century civic architecture. Designed by Charles Tiffin, it remains a functioning post office and a heritage-listed landmark.

The Customs House, completed in 1899 and designed by John Smith Murdoch, reflects Maryborough’s importance as a trade hub. With its Queen Anne and Edwardian Baroque influences, the building once processed goods and immigrants arriving by sea. Today, it forms part of the Portside Heritage Gateway, offering insight into the city’s maritime and economic past.

After a few days camping at the expansive Maryborough Showgrounds and Equestrian Park we transferred to the Wharf RV Park near the city centre.

Late Sunday morning was a perfect time for brunch with a view!

Turning back the clock 150 years, this same area was the main port for all of Queensland!

Just a short stroll away stands St Paul’s Anglican Church, whose free-standing bell tower houses one of Queensland’s rare full peals of bells. The tower’s chimes echo through the city before Sunday services. Gifted to the city by Edgar Aldridge (one of the city founders) each bell is inscribed, “To the Glory of God and to the Memory of Mrs Maria Aldridge 1886” (Died aged 65 in 1886). Six weeks after the dedication of the tower in 1988, Aldridge died aged 70, but not before also building (a smaller) St Thomas’s Church of England in Pallas Street, also bearing the inscription, “To the Glory of God and to the Memory of Mrs Maria Aldridge 1886”

When English-born servant Maria Steele (maiden name) was convicted of the theft of two tubs and sentenced to seven years servitude in Van Diemen’s Land, it must have been a nightmare for a 17 year old. However, a change of fate saw Maria finding romance with Maryborough’s prosperous pioneer Edgar Aldridge and their love still peals out over the city.

Maryborough’s City Hall is a striking example of the abundant heritage buildings and varying architecture styles. See the full story in the short video below.

Adjacent to the river lies Queens Park, one of Australia’s oldest botanic gardens. Gazetted in 1873, this 12.7 acre heritage-listed park features towering banyan trees and a lace-trimmed rotunda from the 1890s. It’s also home to the Gallipoli to Armistice Memorial Walk.

The Maryborough Mural trail tells of the quirky and serious stories of this colourful city’s past. In 1870 the Sisters of St. Joseph, a religious order founded by St Mary MacKillop, established a school and residence and so began the Catholic education in Maryborough. Known as Mother Mary, her mission was to teach disadvantaged children in many regional and rural areas of Australia. The mural depicts the story of St Mary’s Maryborough ministry and the arrival of the first parish priest, Frenchman Father Paul Tissot, who built the first Catholic Church in the town.

Providing meals, accommodation and quenching the thirst of hundreds of hot and weary workers, the “Maryborough of old” boasted over fifty licensed premises. The rather quaint looking “Engineers Arms” would have been a welcomed sight at the end of a hot Queensland summers day labouring on the wharf!

Coming up, forty minutes to Hervey Bay!