Maryborough, Victoria

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Maryborough is a city in Victoria, Australia, located on the Pyrenees Highway, 70 kilometres north of Ballarat, 186 kilometres north-west of Melbourne, in the Central Goldfields Shire. It has a population of approximately 7 500.

The area was originally inhabited by the Jajowurrong people. The first Europeans to settle were the Simson brothers, who established a sheep station, known as Charlotte Plains, in 1840. Gold was discovered at White Hill, 4 kilometres north of Maryborough, in 1854, leading to prospectors rushing to the area. At its peak, Maryborough had a population of up to 50,000.

The town site was surveyed in 1854, with a police camp, Methodist church, and hospital amongst the first infrastructure. The settlement was originally known as Simsons, but later changed to Maryborough by the gold commissioner James Daly, after his Irish birthplace. One of Victoria's earliest newspapers, The Maryborough Advertiser, was established in 1854. Land sales commenced in 1856, and Maryborough became the administrative and commercial centre of the area. The town became a borough in 1857.

Maryborough was connected to the railway network in 1875. In 1885 American writer Mark Twain visited the town and remarked;

Don't you overlook that Maryborough station, if you take an interest in governmental curiosities. Why, you can put the whole population of Maryborough into it, and give them a sofa apiece, and have room for more. You haven't fifteen stations in America that are as big, and you probably haven't five that are half as fine. Why, it's perfectly elegant. And the clock! Everybody will show yon the clock. There isn't a station in Europe that's got such a clock. It doesn't strike--and that's one mercy. It hasn't any bell; and as you'll have cause to remember, if you keep your reason, all Australia is simply bedamned with bells.

The last gold mine in Maryborough closed in 1918. In 1924 the Maryborough Knitting Mills opened, which established the town as a centre for the wool industry. Maryborough became a city in 1961.

The town hosts a market on the 1st and 3rd Sunday of each month, a Highland Gathering on New Year's Day (which has been held since 1857), the Golden Wattle Festival in August or September, the Gourmet Grapes & Gardens Weekend in October, and the Australasian Goldpanning Championships in October or November.

Maryborough also plays host to the RACV Energy Breakthrough in which thousands of students, teachers, parents and spectators from around Australia come to the town to witness a Human Powered Vehicle race where teams can complete up to 900 kilometres in 24 hours.

In early February 2007 transmission of Goldfields FM 99.1 commenced.


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