Maryborough Wide Bay & Burnett Historical Society Inc.

21/05/2026

🥺Sorry, we will be closed on Wednesday 28th May 2026. Hope to see you when we reopen on Thursday 29th May.

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04/05/2026

May Day Post.
Today we take the 8-hour day for granted but in 1800s this wasn't the case. While doing some research on Unionism and Worker's rights in Maryborough I came across this amusing "quote" in the Maryborough Chronicle from 1866.

Source: Maryborough Chronicle, Wide Bay and Burnett Advertiser (Qld. : 1860 - 1947), Wednesday 22 August 1866, page 4 (10). (National Library of Australia, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article147938104)

29/04/2026

Crafty Maryboroughers. Craft and intelligent recycling have been well established capabilities for the residents of Maryborough since the 1860s.
A latest donation is one more example to add to our collection of artistic reuse of materials. This quilt was made in the 1950s by Edna Holmberg using material from the dresses that she had worn.

Top half of image shows the top of the quilt. Bottom half of the image shows the back of the quilt - where you can see the stitching.

02/04/2026

Latest donation included a 1962 telephone directory with this advertisement for the Picadilly Restaurant on an inside page (the cover is missing). Other items included a homemade handbag with bamboo handles and 4 Australian home journals from 1949 to 1959.

09/03/2026

Items placed above 2013 & 1974 flood heights

09/03/2026

One objective of the society is to preserve our heritage. We have now activated our Disaster Management Procedures due to the current extreme weather event and potential flooding in Maryborourgh.

All Photographs, manuscripts and other items have been stored above the 10 metre mark, above the 1974 & 2013 flood heights, just in case the predicted flood height is exceeded.

For a visual approximation. The 1974 & 2013 floods came to about knee height when standing on floor in the Old Library (Museum). The 1955 flood reached the window sills and was the second highest flood since colonisation of the district. The highest flood was in 1893 and reached a height of just under 12.5 m or halfway up the ground floor windows as seen from Kent St.

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27/01/2026

The society has started the process of doing a complete audit of our collection. Amongst the collection are some items where their connection to Maryborough and district is unclear. Hopefully you can help us re-establish that connection.

We have a number of Music certificates for Brenda Jessie Tuckwell awarded by the University of Adelaide in 1946. There is also a photograph of her wedding. A search of TROVE suggests that she may have married Len Beinke around 1949.

Did they move to Maryborough at some stage. Does anyone know the family - Beinke. Perhaps Brenda was a music teacher or in the choral society, etc.

03/12/2025

An end of year message and present.

The society's museum will be closed from the 5th December 2025 to the 16th January 2026. Tomorrow, Thursday 4th December, is your last chance to visit the Museum in 2025.

For those who can't make it, here is an early Christmas present ;-).

While cleaning the books on the School of Arts library shelves we found a copy of a 1902 Valuation Notice for the Shire of Granville. Mr M Liebau was a Hairdresser/Barber. He had a hairdressing saloon in Bazaar St (near the PO) and later in Kent St.

The valuation notice was used as a bookmark for page 258 in Charles Darwin's (1875) The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication.

19/11/2025

We are opening the Museum in the School of Arts during the Maryborough CBD Street Party. Entry by gold coin for Adults, Children free.

We are also hosting pop-up displays by the Wide Bay Hospitals Museum Soc. Inc., the Maryborough Military Aviation Museum, and the Maryborough State High School Museum.

19/11/2025

Latest donation thanks to Jerry's Op Shop. A range of Military books originally donated by Mrs Banks Antiques and other donors. Some quite unusual, so we are expanding our small ANZAC display to include these items and others in our collection.

The AMF List of Army officers has a page listing the officers of the 47th Battalion (Wide Bay Regiment) in 1959.

27/08/2025

Display of Historic images of Maryborough
With the support of Station Square Management, we are once again showcasing some of the historic images from the archive of the Maryborough Wide Bay & Burnett Historical Society Inc. This year we have also included examples of some examples of the work of the society over the last 70 years.
In the display cabinet (at the Big W end) we have provided a selection of autographed ribbons from the Back to the Banyan event which was held in 2005 to mark the 100th anniversary of Maryborough becoming a city.