Derailing the Myth of the Maryborough Station

By Riley Upton

Figure 1. The Maryborough Railway Station, photographed shortly after construction.

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What about Maryborough?

In 1895 Maryborough was described by the

Weekly Times as “thriving, populous and
prosperous”, with the railway station being
the centre of “one of our chief railway
systems”.1 The township was to become a
central hub for gold and industry in Victoria,
with the Station enabling the transportation
of goods and people to and from Melbourne.
Maryborough was booming economically
during the 19th Century. Yet the history of
this building is contested within the public Figure 2. Maryborough as described in the
sphere, as many people believe that the Weekly Times.
Station was instead meant to be built in
was built in Maryborough incorrectly has
Maryborough Queensland.
become a common misconception. Through
With its red-brick structure, ornate clock briefly exploring the origins of
tower and one of the largest railway Maryborough and the significant role played
platforms in Victoria, the Maryborough by the Gold Rush in the birth of the town,
station stands as a reminder of the wealth this project will show why there was a need
throughout Victoria during the 19th Century. for a station, both from an economic
The station, now nearly one hundred and standpoint and a community oriented one,
fifty years old, has a rich history of and how it continues to influence the region.
prosperity and growth amidst the new era of A contributing factor in the false
industrialisation. The station building interpretation of the stations history is the
overshadows much of Maryborough, with lack of academic research surrounding the
many people believing that it is out of place, topic, which this project aims to appease.
so much so that the belief that the station

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Prosperity & Population
When Goldfields commissioner John Bull
wrote that gold had been discovered near
Four Mile Creek, as the miners had begun to
call it,2 he scarcely understood the economic
boom that would soon descend upon the
region. Bull was the first man to officially
document the discovery of gold in
Figure 3. A map depicting the various locations of gold discovered throughout Victoria. As can be
seen, Maryborough is at the heart of it.
Maryborough, where on the 30th May 1854
he wrote that “150 miners [were] there”, and
within a week commented that there are
“prospects of increase” in the mining
population.3 This proved to be a serious
understatement, as by early June a reported
700 miners were operating in the area,4
swelling to some 3,000 in July.5 This
marked the beginning of a gold rush in the
Maryborough area that would have a lasting
impact on the region.
With the widespread discovery of gold, the
population was increasing rapidly. By late
September of 1954, Maryborough boasted a
population of 25,000, with thousands more
in the surrounding towns of Carisbrook,
Avoca, Dunolly and Alma.6 This huge
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growth, born out of the gold rush, ties in
with the broader narrative of immigration in
Australia, particularly in areas where gold
had been discovered. Within ten years of the
first discovery of gold, some 400,000
immigrants were attracted to Victoria.7
During this same decade the Victorian
population skyrocketed from 97,000 to
540,000,8 accounting for almost half of the
Australian population during the mid-19th
Century.
Maryborough was not a standalone location
for the discovery of gold, but rather placed
in the centre of the goldfields with reports of
Figure 4. An aerial view of the rear of the station. Note the length of the platform, designed to support large
populations.
gold in Clunes, Ballarat and Bendigo before
the end of 1851.9 The Victorian goldfields
produced gold to the value of £100
million,10 which by today’s standards is just
under $200 million. By 1963 the total value
of Australia’s gold production had risen to
an astronomically high £975 million.11
There was a sense that Australia was a
“shining El Dorado” and a perception that
this gold would provide endless wealth.12
This perception that the wealth gold
produced would never cease to end certainly
informed the construction of the
Maryborough railway station.
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The Octopus of Central Victoria
With this historical context in mind, it
becomes clearer as to why there was a need
for a railway station in Maryborough. As
discussed, the centralised locality of
Maryborough saw that it was to become the
centre of a large railway empire, according
to the Railway Act of 1884, known as the
‘Octopus Act’13. The image of an octopus
with its tentacles covering Victoria is a
fitting symbol for the proposed railway
lines. The Ballarat Courier commented that
of all the interconnected lines proposed,
none were as promising as the Ballarat-
Maryborough line:
Unlike the others, which propose to connect
distant centres of population and pass
through long stretches of country in which
there is little or no population, this proposes
to carry a line through a country thickly
Location, Location… Local Station
The introduction of a rail line to
Maryborough, in conjunction with the
station, enabled the community to at last be
connected to Melbourne and the other
surrounding towns. During the second half
of the 19th Century, Australia was still “a
collection of far flung colonies”15, the same
can be said for the largely isolated regional
municipalities. The Octopus Act enabled not
only the streamlined transportation of goods
and people around the state, it also turned
populated. There is not a district in the
colony which has so many advantages as the
one surrounding Creswick and Clunes.
There is to be found the finest agricultural
land, whilst mineral wealth is being
developed on a scale unsurpassed in any
part of the colony”.14
The aim of this act was to connect all of
Victoria via railway line, enabling a
streamlined connection with Melbourne and
increasing potential for the exportation
industry. Maryborough’s prime location
between Bendigo, Ballarat, Clunes and
Avoca – as well as some smaller townships
which also produced quantities of gold, was
to become the central hub for the region.
many “sleepy country towns into thriving
communities”.16 Adam-Smith furthers this
notion, commenting that the Victorian
railways not only linked isolated
communities, but also brought about an
overarching sense of community and unity
to these rural areas, which prior to the
railways, was lacking.17 The railway
industry, of course, was a booming industry
in its own right, and with the decline in gold
production post-gold rush era, the threat of
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Victoria losing much of its population was
serious and real. The continued construction
of railway lines and stations, their
maintenance and upkeep, as well as the need
for train drivers, station masters and other
affiliated occupational positions largely
combatted this threat. Even a century later in
1975-76 there was an average of 25,000
people employed through the Victorian
railway system, a testament to the power of
connectivity and community across the
state.18 However, there were many who
opposed this connectivity, and the
Maryborough station proved to be a point of
controversy.

The Talk of the Townships

As plans for the Maryborough station were

being proposed as early as 1959,19 there
were many who were not happy with the
idea of another station in the area. It seems
that having a railway station was a claim to
fame for rural towns, and there were fears,
particularly from Castlemaine and Bendigo
about the newly proposed station. The
Figure 5. The architectural design for the
Bendigo Advertiser ridiculed Maryborough,
Maryborough Railway Station, 1859.
writing that an extension of railway line to
Maryborough was an extension to a Station should be constructed with the
“wretched little village, in a scattered Maryborough building in mind.21
district”.20 However, when discussing the Conversely, the Age wrote in 1859 that the
proposed upgrades to the Flinders Street proposed station would be of great benefit,
Station decades later, the Advertiser working to connect a population of some
conceded that the station at Maryborough 150,000 people between Maryborough and
was palatial in its appearance and was “the Castlemaine.22
envy of the whole state”, Flinders Street

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Not One Station, but Two?

The station referred to by the Bendigo
Advertiser is not the initial station that was
built in Maryborough for a paltry £4,000,
but rather the later station built in 1890. The
initial station, built in 1874, was deemed
inappropriate and thus plans for a new
station were designed, with the new building
boasting twenty-five separate rooms, taking
two years to construct and all at the princely
cost of nearly £22,000.23
Built in the Anglo-Dutch style, the station is
one of a kind in Victoria, as many of the
other Victorian stations have been built in
the Queen Anne style. Queen Anne
architecture is indicative of the inclination of
Australian architects to mirror overseas
trends, particularly trends from Britain.24
This style, which is now better known as
Federation style, saw great focus on exposed
brickwork, encouraging a greater
appreciation for its quality and variety.25 The
Anglo-Dutch style also encouraged the use
of brickwork, but produced more ornamental
and decorative buildings. Being one of a
kind, the station has been further alienated
from the more conventional architectural
style throughout the region. Whilst it can be
interpreted as appearing to be out of place,
the originality and individuality of the
building further adds to the narrative of the
Maryborough station being the centre of the
regional rail industry.

The Queensland Counterpart

The Maryborough railway station had been

present in the public sphere ever since its
construction was first proposed in the late
1860s, yet the misconception that it was
supposed to be built in Maryborough,
Queensland remains. There are several
factors that work to inform this false
understanding. Firstly, Maryborough
Queensland has a larger population than its
Victorian counterpart, with the 2016 census
registering a population of just over
15,000.26 Maryborough Victoria, by
contrast, has a population of just under Figure 6. The Maryborough, Queensland Station.

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8,000.27 It would logically make sense for
the large station in Victoria to be built in an
area with a higher population, yet as has
been discussed, the booming days of the
gold rush informed the stations construction.
Beyond this, there has been much coverage
regarding the Maryborough station being the
grandest in the state. The Maryborough and
Dunolly Advertiser, in reporting on
parliamentary discussions surrounding the
Maryborough station in 1914, quotes that a
Mr Warde argued that the “station should be
removed to Spencer-street”.28 Whilst this
should be interpreted as more of a comment
on the grandeur of the Maryborough station
compared to the Melbourne buildings, rather
than the actual proposition to move the
A Station with a Town Attached
Writing on the Maryborough station in
1980, Adam-Smith explained that the station
welcomed three hundred sightseers and
tourists each week, a testament to the
architectural marvel that is the station29. One
of the most notable visitors to the station
was Mark Twain, who in 1890 famously
commented that “Maryborough is a railway
station with a town attached”30. Yet this was
not meant as an insult to the township, but
rather a comment on the extravagance of the
building, one that is “an opulent testimony
to nineteenth century architecture”, with its
polished cedar ceilings, fireplaces of marble,
large waiting rooms and a “platform half a
kilometre long”. Twain acknowledged the
building, it provides insight into societal
views of the station at the turn of the
century. What one can derive from this is a
perception that, much like Maryborough
Queensland, the station would make more
sense to be in the capital, rather than a small
rural community. However, as I have
reiterated throughout this essay and as my
research contends, this view ignores the rich
history of the area during the gold rush era,
the immense population growth and the
isolation of rural communities. History
shows that the station was in fact, built in
the right place. The station still stands as a
remarkable building to this day, attracting
tourism from all around the globe.
sheer size of the station, musing that all the
population of Maryborough could fit into the
station with room to spare.31
The Maryborough Railway Station serves as
a gateway for tourism to the Central
Goldfields Shire. With train lines reopening
to Ballarat in June of 2010,32 Maryborough
again has a direct route to Melbourne and
the station has become a hive of activity
once again. With both freight and passenger
trains operating out of the station, a museum
and art gallery, emporium and café all now
attached to the station, it appears that
Maryborough has begun to return to its
former position as the central hub for the
region.
8
Figure 7. The Maryborough Railway Station as seen today. The building stands proud in the centre of
town.

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Bibliography

Primary Sources
Cleary, J.N., Weekly Times, 23 Nov. 1895, 12, in Trove [online database], accessed 1 Oct. 2018.
Flinders-Street Station’, Bendigo Advertiser, 25 Jan. 1905, 4, in Trove [online database],
accessed 16 Sept. 2018.
‘Proposed Railway from Castlemaine to Maryborough’, Age, 30 Sept. 1859, 6, in Trove [online
database], accessed 16 Sept. 2018.
‘The Railway Station’, Maryborough and Dunolly Advertiser, 2 Feb. 1914, 4, in Trove [online
database], accessed 16 Sept. 2018.

Secondary Sources
Colwell, Max, Australian Transport an illustrated history, (Dee Why, NSW: Paul Hamlyn Pty.
Ltd., 1972).
Adam-Smith, Patsy, Romance of Victorian Railways, (Adelaide: Rigby Publishers Limited,
1980).
Osborn, Betty & DuBourg, Trenear, Maryborough: A Social History 1854-1904,
(Maryborough, Victoria: Maryborough City Council, 2011).
Philips, Valmai et al., New Ways in an Ancient Land: Australia from penal colony to
prosperous nation 1778 to 1900, (Kensington, NSW: Bay Books, 1986).
Blackmore, W. H. et al., Landmarks: A history of Australia to the present day, (Melbourne:
Macmillan, 1969).
Hunt, O. W., Australia in the Making, (Sydney: Whitcombe & Tombs, 1966).
‘Rail link ushered in new era of transport’, The Maryborough District Advertiser,
‘Maryborough 150 – Survival of a Resilient City’, 9 July 2004, 22-24.
Australian Bureau of Statistics, ‘2016 Census QuickStats Maryborough (Qld)’, Australian
Bureau of Statistics [website], (2016)
http://quickstats.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2016/quickstat
/SSC31794, accessed 19 Sept. 2018.
Australian Bureau of Statistics, ‘2016 Census QuickStats Maryborough (Vic)’, Australian
Bureau of Statistics [website], (2016)
10
 http://quickstats.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2016/quickstat
/SSC31794, accessed 19 Sept. 2018.
Sobey, Emily, ‘Ballarat-Maryborough line reopens’, Ballarat Courier, 13 June 2010,
https://www.thecourier.com.au/story/545707/ballarat-maryborough-rail-line-reopens/,
accessed 12 Sept. 2018.

Images
(Figure 1) Maryborough Station [image], (1890)
https://museumsvictoria.com.au/railways/image.aspx?PID=2752, accessed 10 Sept. 2018.
(Figure 2) Cleary, J.N., Weekly Times, 23 Nov. 1895, 12, in Trove [online database], accessed 1
Oct. 2018. – Image is a clipping taken from the referenced newspaper article.
(Figure 3) Map of Victoria showing location of goldfields [image], (2001) http://press-
files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p198511/html/illustrations.html, accessed 11 Sept.
2018.
(Figure 4) Birdseye View of Maryborough Railway Station [image], (early 1900s)
https://cv.vic.gov.au/stories/a-diverse-state/goldfields-stories-a-station-with-a-town-
attached/birdseye-view-of-maryborough-railway-station/, accessed 10 Sept. 2018
(Figure 5) Architectural Plans, Maryborough Station, 1859 [image], (1859)
https://museumsvictoria.com.au/railways/image.aspx?PID=2888, accessed 10 Sept. 2018.
(Figure 6) Dave Murchie, Maryborough Railway Station, QLD [image], (2014)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/davemurchie/16146332075/, accessed 18 Sept. 2018.
(Figure 7) Susan Marsden, Maryborough Railway Station [image], (2018)
https://www.historycouncilvic.org.au/photo-story_14_july_2018, accessed 19 Sept. 2018.

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Endnotes

1
J. N. Cleary, Weekly Times, 23 Nov. 1895, 12, in Trove [online database], accessed 1 Oct. 2018.
2
Betty Osborn & Trenear DuBourg, Maryborough: A Social History 1854-1904, (Maryborough, Victoria: Maryborough City Council,
2011), 23.
3
Ibid.
4
Ibid.
5
‘Rail link ushered in new era of transport’, The Maryborough District Advertiser, ‘Maryborough 150 – Survival of a Resilient City’,
9 July 2004, 22.
6
Osborn, 30.
7
O. W. Hunt, Australia in the Making, (Sydney: Whitcombe & Tombs, 1966), 156.
8
Hunt, 160.
9
Hunt, 156.
10
Ibid.
11
Hunt, 160.
12
Ibid.
13
Maryborough 150 – Survival of a Resilient City, 23.
14
Ballarat Courier, 8 August 1868. PULL REFERENCE FROM OSBORN.
15
Max Colwell, Australian Transport an illustrated history, (Dee Why, NSW: Paul Hamlyn Pty. Ltd., 1972), 95.
16
Colwell, 96.
17
Adam-Smith, 60.
18
Adam-Smith, 9.
19
Museums Victoria Railways.

Architectural Plans, Maryborough Station, 1859 [image], (1859), https://museumsvictoria.com.au/railways/image.aspx?PID=2888,

accessed 15 Sept. 2018.
20
Osborn, 188.
21
‘Flinders-Street Station’, Bendigo Advertiser, 25 Jan. 1905, 4, in Trove [online database], accessed 16 Sept. 2018.
22
‘Proposed Railway from Castlemaine to Maryborough’, Age, 30 Sept. 1859, 6, in Trove [online database], accessed 16 Sept. 2018.
23
Ibid.
24
Valmai Philips et al., New Ways in an Ancient Land: Australia from penal colony to prosperous nation 1778 to 1900, (Kensington,
NSW: Bay Books, 1986), 221.
25
Phillips et al., 224.
26
Australian Bureau of Statistics, ‘2016 Census QuickStats Maryborough (Qld)’, Australian Bureau of Statistics [website], (2016)
http://quickstats.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2016/quickstat/SSC31794, accessed 19 Sept. 2018.
12
27
Australian Bureau of Statistics, ‘2016 Census QuickStats Maryborough (Vic)’, Australian Bureau of Statistics [website], (2016)
http://quickstats.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2016/quickstat/SSC31794, accessed 19 Sept. 2018.
28
‘The Railway Station’, Maryborough and Dunolly Advertiser, 2 Feb. 1914, 4, in Trove [online database], accessed 16 Sept. 2018.
29
Ibid.
30
Osborn, 190.
31
Ibid.
32
Emily Sobey, ‘Ballarat-Maryborough line reopens’, Ballarat Courier, 13 June 2010,
https://www.thecourier.com.au/story/545707/ballarat-maryborough-rail-line-reopens/, accessed 12 Sept. 2018.

13