Day 42 Monday 19/6/2023 ‘Marybra’, warm 10 – 26

It’s a warm bright clear morning with dry air. Now is the time to get ahead of the little mouldy bits on the roof hatches again.

We have a bush camp stay coming up so we shop in Maryborough. Driving around town we send Woody nuts with our oohing and aahing over the Queenslander-style homes. Maryborough has so many good examples and each one seems unique.

After lunch and requisitioning done we drive back into town to see the newest attraction, the Cistern Chapel. The community Divine Dunnies Project revamped the public toilets at the city hall. Two artists, Akos Juhasz and Gary Madden (Parenting Room) have created ‘the finest toilets in Australia’. Walls and ceilings have been painted depicting the local history and people, saluting the Romans for inventing plumbing and there’s even a gold toilet in the Ladies. I’m captivated by the mural in the Parenting Room with its flower-filled meadows, bunnies, Mary Poppins (author Pam Travers was a Maryborough girl), and hot air balloon light fittings. The amusing thing is that these are fully functioning public toilets so male and female volunteers are on hand to not only act as tour guides but to shepherd tourists out when someone needs to spend a penny.

We visit Queens Park with its gracious gardens beside the Mary River. The ornate band rotunda was built as a memorial pavilion to former Maryborough mayor Andrew Wedderburn Melville and bequeathed by his sister. Originally the now nearby fountain was erected under the pavilion but at the opening ceremony, it drenched the VIP’s (frasercoast.com.au). We pose under the enormous Banyan Fig, huge birds nest ferns grip its branches. We marvel at the Sausage tree with its pendulous fruit and orchid-like purple blooms hanging on strings. Everywhere bougainvillea blooms bright pink.

The ANZAC memorial is also in these gardens with life-sized statues, moving tributes and the words of the soldiers etched into the pathways.

Dinner after this busy day is a roast chicken and vegetables cooked in the oven.

Accom: $23.00