29/08/2026
In the leadup to the anniversary of the opening of the Granville Bridge the Maryborough Wide Bay and Burnett Historical Society is publishing a series of articles about the bridge’s history. A short outline of each article will be published in The Maryborough Sun newspaper. After which the full article will appear on our Facebook. Here is Part 1.
All photographs from the collection of the Maryborough Wide Bay and Burnett Historical Society Inc.
From ferries to concrete: 100 years of the Granville Bridge
On 11 December 1926, thousands of people gathered to celebrate the opening of the Granville Bridge. For the first time, Maryborough and Granville were permanently united by road. This six-part series commemorates the bridge’s centenary by tracing the story of the ferries that first connected the two communities, the decades-long campaign for a permanent crossing, its construction, opening and enduring legacy.
Part 1 - Across the river
From the time the settlement was established at a new site downstream around 1852, the Mary River served as the town’s commercial lifeline. Sailing vessels and steamships carried timber, wool, tallow, sugar and agricultural produce from the district, while bringing in people, goods, equipment and so on. The growing port attracted merchants, tradesmen and new settlers. Yet the same river that brought prosperity also divided part of the community. As settlement expanded across the eastern bank into what would become Granville, every journey between the two communities depended upon a ferry.
For more than 60 years, before the Granville Bridge finally spanned the Mary River in 1926, the ferrymen were among the district’s most important public servants. They carried workers to town before sunrise, children to school, families to church, drays laden with produce, livestock bound for market and, eventually, the first motor vehicles. Their ferries operated through moderate floods, storms and darkness, becoming an indispensable part of everyday life.
The first public ferry
As settlement grew during the early 1860s, pressure mounted for a permanent public crossing. In 1864, the Queensland Government approved funding for a ferry and approaches linking March Street in Maryborough with Napier Street in Granville, recognising the importance of opening the eastern bank for settlement and commerce. Construction of the approaches began early the following year, and by October 1865, the new Government punt was ready for inspection.
During his visit to Maryborough, Queensland’s Governor crossed the river aboard the new punt and officially named it the Victoria Ferry. It was an optimistic beginning for what was expected to become a vital public service.
The optimism proved short-lived. Only weeks after entering service, the Victoria Ferry sank. Rumours quickly spread that the punt had been deliberately scuttled, prompting an official investigation. The inquiry found no evidence of foul play, concluding instead that the ferry had become trapped as the tide rose, allowing water to wash over its deck.
The Maryborough Chronicle was considerably less sympathetic. While acknowledging that the punt had been well built, it observed that it appeared capable of carrying little more than its own weight and suggested that it needed steam power to be truly useful. When the vessel was eventually recovered, the newspaper could not resist a final jab, remarking that it was “nearly as useful—we mean useless—as it ever was.”
Despite the embarrassment, the crossing was far too important to abandon. In January 1866, the Government formally transferred responsibility for the ferry to the Maryborough Municipal Corporation, the forerunner of the Council. It immediately sought improved operating equipment, advertised for tenders to lease the service and established regulated tolls based on those charged at Prince’s Ferry across to Tinana. From that point onwards, the ferry became a municipal enterprise operated by private lessees under Council supervision.
The Gordon family and the March Street Ferry
Among the earliest and best-known operators were Stewart Gordon and later his son William Gordon. By the late 1860s and early 1870s, the Gordon family had become closely associated with the March Street crossing, managing the hand-operated ferry that linked the town with Granville.
The work was physically demanding. The small wooden punt was guided across the tidal river using heavy ropes and chains, requiring considerable strength and skill, particularly when carrying horses, small drays or livestock. Every crossing depended upon the judgement of the ferryman, who had to contend with tides, currents and changing weather.
The work could also be hazardous. In June 1870, one of the municipal punts sank after a team of bullocks became frightened and surged to one side of the vessel, overturning it. Fortunately, there was no loss of life, but the incident highlighted the risks faced by both ferrymen and passengers.
A second crossing at Guava Street
As Maryborough and Granville continued to expand, a second and larger ferry crossing developed between Guava Street in Maryborough and Raglan Street in Granville. Whereas the March Street ferry primarily served passenger traffic, the Guava Street crossing increasingly catered for commercial transport, carrying wagons, timber, livestock and heavy freight between the two communities.
Initially, this larger punt also relied upon manual operation. Guided by cables stretched across the river, it was hauled between the banks by hand. The system worked, but only just. Every time a steamer travelled upstream, the cables had to be lowered, interrupting both ferry operations and river navigation. Newspapers regularly complained of cables snapping or being damaged, with one report noting that such failures had become almost a weekly occurrence.
Recognising that the old system could no longer cope with increasing traffic, the operators sought a more efficient solution. During the late 1870s, plans were advanced to modernise the service, and by the late 1880s, the Guava Street ferry had been transformed through the introduction of the locally built steam launch Alert. Constructed by Maryborough’s Vulcan Foundry, the steam-powered Alert propelled the large iron punt across the river, replacing the cumbersome manual hauling system and significantly improving the efficiency of the crossing.
The Guava Street ferry soon became the principal crossing between Maryborough and Granville.
The ferrymen
Like many public services of the nineteenth century, the ferries were operated under lease from the Municipal Council. Over the years, a succession of lessees and ferrymen managed the crossings, including Thomas Madsen, Mr Griffiths, Messrs French and Gordon, and later Fred von Hein and his son Hugo, whose names became almost synonymous with the Guava Street ferry.
The von Hein family operated a continuous 24-hour service. Passengers arriving after dark rang heavy metal bells fixed to timber piles on either side of the river to summon the ferryman. Local folklore recalls that mischievous youngsters occasionally rang the bells for amusement, forcing the ferryman to cross an empty river in the middle of the night.
The ferrymen became familiar figures in the community. They knew the regular passengers by name, watched children grow into adults and worked through floods, storms and long nights to keep Maryborough connected with Granville.
Floods, growth and the limits of the ferries
The Mary River was never entirely predictable. During the devastating flood of February 1893, the Guava Street ferry was torn from its moorings while much of the Granville riverfront, including hotels and dozens of homes, was swept away by the floodwaters. Although the ferry service resumed, the disaster demonstrated just how vulnerable the community remained.
By the early twentieth century, however, Maryborough had outgrown its ferries. Granville was developing into an important industrial and residential suburb. Timber mills, engineering works, businesses and homes generated increasing traffic across the river. The ferries continued to serve faithfully, but they were struggling to cope with the growing number of passengers, wagons and motor vehicles.
What had once been regarded as an innovative solution was increasingly viewed as a bottleneck.
As one newspaper observed during the 1920s, the ferries had become “antiquated”. Residents no longer wanted simply a better ferry. They wanted a bridge.
Part 2 – The River Barrier to appear shortly. For a preview see The Maryborough Sun article in the Thursday 20th Aug issue on page 13.
