Queen's Park

Maryborough’s Queens Park was gazetted as a reserve for botanical gardens in October 1873. The Park had been laid out as such from 1866 when the area was a wharf reserve. Apart from establishing a cool reflective place to withdraw, the place also served as a seed bank and nursery for the distribution of plants, including a variety of fruit, vegetables and sugar cane cuttings. Local species such as the Crows Ash or Bunya Pine were planted alongside the Indian Banyan Fig or the African Sausage Tree. Both the Sausage Tree and the Bunya Pine (Araucaria Bidwillii) came from the seed collection of locally based botanist John Carne Bidwill. A memorial fountain and bandstand were unveiled in 1890, a gift to the city from Miss Janet Melville in memory of her brother and local politician, Andrew Wedderburn Melville. A war memorial, designed by architect POE Hawkes was unveiled in November 1922, honouring 100 local men who died during WWI. The granite and marble memorial was later updated to include veterans of WWII. It features a marble winged victory statue imported from Italy. Queens Park also features a walkway to the courthouse known variously as the Judge’s or the Barrister’s Walk.