Maryborough: Our first stop in Australia



A scene from Ullula lagoon



Lenthall Dam Area




A close encounter with a whale

 

Maryborough Court House



Pub Fest 2010 - a group of participants

Fraser Coast Show 2010 

Fraser Coast Show 2010 - Wood chipping contest

Fraser Coast Show 2010 - Waiting for the rodeo



Maryborough City Hall





Maryborough is the city we are living currently. So I thought to write a blog post about the city and its surroundings.

Maryborough is in Queensland and it is located about 250km north of Brisbane, off the Bruce highway. It’s only 30km to Hervey Bay. Anyone visiting to Maryborough or Hervey Bay has several trasporation options:

• By Car – Best option in this part of country.
• TravelTrain – Maryborough has a railway station, anyone visiting Maryborough city or Hervey bay should get the coach connection from Maryborough station.
• Coach/Bus - Tory’s tour coach – This runs twice a day from Hervey Bay to Brisbane and return. In my opinion this is the second best option to travel because it takes only 4 hours from Hervey Bay to Brisbane and 3.5 Hours from Maryborough to Brisbane.

• Coach/Bus - Greyhound – They have many buses going through Maryborough both from Brisbane and to Brisbane. Greyhound’s travelling time is bit higher since it goes through all the cities on the route.
• Plane – Hervey Bay has a airport which has connections to Brisbane, Sydney and Lady Elliot island.
• Car Rentals/Taxi – After coming here, you can find many car rentals and taxis operating. So getting around is not difficult.

Maryborough is a self-styled heritage city in Queensland. According to the records, it started in 1847 and it had a port with ships coming from all over the world. Once it was suggested as the capital of the state (should be long ago).

 After all it’s busy days, now it is a clam and peaceful city with traces of history everywhere. Mary River is an important icon of the city with flowing through the city and making a scenic display. People here are very helpful and friendly, noticeably different than other places I have been.

The city has an information centre. Anyone visiting city should visit them, the staff is really friendly and helpful. They will give you a good insight to the city and surroundings, but I thought to list few things you can here:

• See Maryborough city – see the old buildings, museums and the sleepy city. When you walk on the wharf street you might think you are walking in past.
• Queens Park (at the edge of the river and next to the CBD) and Anzac Park/Ululah Lagoon – These make a relax feeling with it’s lush green. Also you can feed the ducks in Ullulah lagoon.

• Thursday’s heritage markets – every Thursday Maryborough turns busy with it’s heritage market. It has a variety of stalls. Also the steam train and river cruise are operating on Thursdays.
• Lake Lenthall– a popular recreational park just 20km north of Maryborough. It is in the Wongi forest and it is popular for fishing and camping.
• Teddignton weir – This is a good picnic area next to the weir. I have seen people fishing on the dam, but the sign says not to. So, I am not sure about fishing in here. But it is a good picnic area with a small swimming pool for children and a patch of rainforest type trees.

And few more things you can do around here:

• Fraser Island – most popular tourist destination in the region. We are yet to go there, but this is in the top of priority list.
• Whale watching in Hervey Bay - Hervery Bay is a very good location to watch whales. We went on 'Spirit of Hervey Bay' ship and it was amazing to whales playing and swimming around.
• Lady Elliot Island – Tourists can get flights from Hervey Bay airport to Lady Ellito Island.
• Childers – Just 50 km north of Maryborough. There are few wineries near the city. Also Childers is popular for it’s multicultural festival held on last week of July each year.
• Rainbow beach – it’s about 70km to Rainbow beach from Maryborough. Rainborw

Important events in Maryborough:

• Sunday in the Park – on last Sunday of each month, Queens park turns in to a busy place with brass bands, stream trains (both mini train and historical stream engine) and lot of crowd. River cruise is also operates on Sundays.
• Pub Fest – thousands of participants crawl from one pub to another to complete all the pubs in the pub trail. All of them wear decorated costumes and with music around, it’s a party day for Maryborough
• Mary Popins Festival – Maryborough is the birth place of P.L.Travers, author of Mary Poppins children’s books. So, city has a one day celebration with various type of events which will take you to the time of Mary Popins.
• Fraser Coast Show - this is an annual event with lot of activities, events, races and rodeos (last time they had different types of rodeos).
• There are many more events in the regions. You can find everything in http://www.frasercoastevents.com.au/

There are many more places and things to do in Maryborough and Hervery Bay area. It is very easy to find details from an information center. Also I tried to add many informative links as possible. Feel free to comment/email your ideas and corrections. All are wellcome.