The area was originally inhabited by the Dja Dja Wurrung people. The first Europeans to settle there were the Simson brothers, who established a sheep station, known as Charlotte Plains, in 1840. In 1854, gold was discovered at White Hill, four kilometres north of Maryborough, attracting a rush of prospectors to the area. At its peak, Maryborough reportedly had a population of up to 50,000. However, the late historian Betty Osborn, of Maryborough-Midlands Historical Society Inc., using a range of contemporary newspapers and government reports, placed the peak population at closer to 30,000.
The town site was surveyed in 1854, with a police camp, Methodist church, and hospital amongst the first infrastructure. The post office opened on 19 October 1854.[4]
The settlement, originally known as Simsons, was renamed Maryborough by gold commissioner James Daly after his County Cork, Ireland birthplace, which still retains that name. One of Victoria's earliest newspapers, The Maryborough Advertiser, was established in 1854. Land sales commenced in 1856, and Maryborough became the area's administrative and commercial centre. It became a Municipal Borough in 1857.
The last gold mine in Maryborough closed in 1918. In 1924 the Maryborough Knitting Mills opened, manufacturing whitewear (cotton underwear), gradually extending into a wider range of cotton, woollen and artificial fibre garments. The Borough of Maryborough became a City in 1961. In 1995 Maryborough became the administrative centre for the post-local government amalgamations Central Goldfields Shire of Victoria.
Climate
Maryborough enjoys a temperate climate with four distinct seasons and is typically dry and mild. The mean minimum January temperature 12.9 °C (55.2 °F) with the maximum a balmy 28.8 °C (83.8 °F). Temperatures above 35 °C (95 °F) are commonly recorded during the summer months. The highest temperature ever recorded was 45.4 °C (113.7 °F) on 7 February 2009.
The mean minimum temperature in July is 3.4 °C (38.1 °F), with and average maximum of 12.2 °C (54.0 °F). The lowest ever recorded minimum in the city was −4.6 °C (23.7 °F) on 21 July 1982. Although the city experiences little snow due to its low elevation, frosts are common during the colder winter months.[5]
The city averages 528.1 millimetres (20.8 in) rainfall annually, with a slightly more rainfall falling in the second half of the year, generally only experienced in short bursts of showers, rather than extended periods of rainfall. The dryness of the area, due to poor topographical features places significant pressure on water reserves. Maryborough ended of one of the longest droughts on record during the 2010/2011 summer when it experience some of the highest rainfall on recorded which caused flooding throughout the local area. The city is currently on permanent water restrictions.
Climate data for Maryborough, elevation 249 m (817 ft), (1991–2020, extremes 1965–present)
Maryborough has been in or around several bushfires, most notably a January 1985 one which killed three people and burned 180 homes.[7]
Demographics
At the 2016 census, 7,921 people resided in Maryborough. Like many regional centres, a high percentage of the population (83.1%) was born in Australia, followed by England (3.2%), New Zealand (0.7%) and the Netherlands (0.5%).
Technicians, trade workers and labourers are the bulk (34.4%) of the workforce. Professionals, salespeople and managers make up other large portions of the employment base.
Maryborough Education Centre Years Prep–12 and specialist
St Augustine's Primary School Grades Prep–6
Culture
The town hosts a market on the first 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 and the Australasian Goldpanning Championships in October or November.
Maryborough also plays host to the 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 888 kilometres (552 mi) in 24 hours.[citation needed]
Music
Maryborough has a number of community bands including the Maryborough City Brass Band, the Maryborough Big Band, the Maryborough and District Pipe Band and the well-known Maryborough Traditional Jazz Ensemble.
Three founding members of electronic music group The Avalanches, Robbie Chater, Tony Di Blasi and Gordon McQuilten, first met in Maryborough as school students. Their three studio albums, Since I Left You (2000), Wildflower (2016), and We Will Always Love You (2020), have received critical acclaim and commercial success internationally.
Media
The Maryborough Advertiser is the local newspaper in the Central Goldfields region, circulating to over 4000 homes. The 'Addy' as it's known locally, employs 13 local people. It is published every Tuesday and Friday. In 2015–2016 The Maryborough and District Advertiser celebrated 160 years as the printed voice of the community.
Maryborough receives all the major free-to-air television stations (ABC, Prime7, WIN, SC10 and SBS), as well as all new digital channels (ABC2, ABC3, ABC News 24, SBS2, One HD, GO!, 7Two, eleven, 7Mate and gem). Prime7 and WIN are simply the regional affiliates of Channels Seven and Nine, and re-broadcast their network signals. There are slight differences, as Prime7 and WIN each broadcast their own local news bulletins from the Bendigo or Ballarat stations. Both stations also make sure to watermark everything that airs with their own logos — at a larger scale than the Seven and Nine logos.
The pay television service Foxtel has been available to the residents of Maryborough since 2012; pay television was previously available in the Maryborough disttrict via satellite on the Austar network, beginning in the 1990s.
In early February 2007 radio transmission of Goldfields FM 99.1 commenced.[9]
Maryborough has a soccer club, with local teams competing in Under 9, Under 13, and Under 17 competitions, and a senior team that competes in the Ballarat & District Soccer Association.[11] Social and competitive futsal competitions are held throughout the year.
Maryborough Harness Racing Club conducts regular meetings at its racetrack located at nearby Carisbrook.[12]
Golfers play at the course of the Maryborough Golf Club on Park Road.[13]
There are three cricket clubs in Maryborough. The Colts Phelans Cricket Club, the M.K.M. Cricket Club, and the Maryborough Cricket all compete in the Maryborough District Cricket Association.
Maryborough, after years of having a strong competition in grass hockey, folded in 2013, leaving them with only the one team competing in the B women level in the Hockey Central Vic in Bendigo. Maryborough were premiers 2011 and 2012.
In basketball, the Maryborough Blazers compete in the Country Basketball League North East league, with a team in both the men's and women's competitions. Australian NBA athlete, Matthew Dellavedova who currently plays for the Cleveland Cavaliers, grew up in Maryborough.
Notable people
Phillip Adams – Australian farmer, broadcaster, and public intellectual
Maryborough is connected to both Ararat and Elphinstone via the Pyrenees Highway, with connections to the capital Melbourne and Northern Victoria and beyond.
Maryborough station is located on the Mildura railway line. In 2007 the station underwent a $1.2 million upgrade to conduct vital repairs to the historic bell tower, clock and roof which was built in 1890.
In 1895 American writer Mark Twain visited the town and remarked about the station upon his visit.
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 you 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.
Daily train services to and from Ballarat, with onward connections to Melbourne's Southern Cross station commenced in 2010.[17]
