Port of Maryborough
| Port of Maryborough | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
| Country | Australia |
| Location | Maryborough |
| Coordinates | 25°32′S 152°46′E / 25.533°S 152.767°E |
| Details | |
| Opened | 1859 |
| Owned by | North Queensland Bulk Ports |
| Type of harbor | Natural |
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Website www |
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The Port of Maryborough,Queensland, was opened in 1847 and in 1859 it was declared a port of entry, meaning that overseas and intercolonial vessels could arrive and depart direct, although there appears to have been considerable uncertainty about the name of the port outside Queensland for some years. Customs officials elsewhere and such publications as the Mercantile Navy List frequently called the port "Wide Bay" well into the 1860s.
The native name of the stream upon which the port is situated was named Moonaboola River by Andrew Petrie, which he discovered on his boat trip in 1842 while looking for good grazing land suitable for sheep. Later Mr Joliffe R.N. became the superintendent for John Eales, a prominent land owner in the Hunter Valley, and brought a flock of sheep across the Darling Downs, blazing a track over the Brisbane Range to establish a head station near Tiaro. This venture was short-lived as the local aboriginal tribes took a liking to the taste of lamb.
George Furber became the first white settler on the south side of the river in 1847, where he set up a trading station and Inn. When Edgar Aldridge, Henry and Richard Palmer, Enoch Rudder and their party arrived in 1848, they crossed the river and settled on the north bank, which was later to be named the Wide Bay Village, now the Old Township Site.
The river became known as the Wide Bay River until after the untimely death of Mary Fitz Roy, Wife of the Governor of New South Wales at that time when it became known as the Mary River. To honour her memory Governor Fitz Roy renamed the stream, Mary, and the post office at the settlement was then called, Maryborough.
When the river became unnavigable to larger vessels a new township was surveyed by Surveyor Labatt in 1852 and in 1854 the small iron-hulled screw steamship William Miskin, built in 1852, 124 tons discharged cargo at the Old Township and was possibly the first steamship to visit the Mary River.
In 1856, the people officially moved down to the new township, where the port was established. Wool became an important commodity and exports through the port in 1860 totalled £107,000 with wool accounting for £98,000 of that figure and imports totalled £71,456. At this time Maryborough was the only port in the colony with a favourable trade balance. Within the next ten years which included the discovery of gold at Gympie and the commencement of the sugar industry, gold took the lead with £756,000, or nine tons, transported in a little over two years, while vessels totalling 163,532 tons visited the port during 1869. The gold was stored in the vault of the Bank of New South Wales. The building now used as the Maryborough Heritage Centre was the second Bank of New South Wales to be built on this site.
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Wikipedia