Curious Little Station and Bomb Shelter

Maryborough’s 1878 railway station has an impressive history but is pretty much sitting in heritage-listed limbo: no one seems to know what to do with it. Signs and neglected buildings eloquently tell its tale.

Beside the station sits a bomb shelter built in WWII when Maryborough’s industries earmarked it as a target. Four shelters were built in the city but this one was for rail employees and passengers only: tough if you didn’t have a ticket if the bombs ever fell (luckily they didn’t).

The railway’s arrival in Maryborough was prompted by the Gympie gold rush but influential citizens decided it should curve around a sugar refinery at Yengarie. When the main Queensland northern rail line was later built Maryborough became a branch line and use dwindled.

Compared to other stately commercial buildings in the fledgling city, the terminal building design delivered to Maryborough from London was fairly modest. Speculation as to why it was so lacking in prestige led to a rumour that the Colonial Office in London had stuffed up. Maryborough, Queensland, it was claimed, was supposed to get a far more majestic railway station but the drawings had gone to Maryborough, Victoria, instead.

Certainly, little Maryborough in Victoria has a remarkable rail station of substance that would appear an over-indulgence for its size, but historians say the mix-up is nothing more than a whimsical legend. The southern city was the centre of the Victorian gold fields at the time and had a claim to a substantial station, built four years before the enigmatic Maryborough (Qld) station.

Though the Maryborough station does have a claim to cinema fame, the long railway platform featured in the 1989 film ‘The Delinquents’, starring Kylie Minogue and Charlie Schlatter. Maryborough, including the Railway Station, being one of the key filming locations for the movie, along with Bundaberg and Brisbane.

The heritage-listed station, platform and adjoining buildings are privately owned and the line into the station, once part of the 8km branch from the main line, has been removed. The line a short distance down the track is still used occasionally for trains going to the Downer industrial complex.

The Whistlestop Museum is open for a modest $2 entry  and the historic Mary Ann steam loco replica is housed here, although its future abode, like the whole complex, is uncertain.