Unique Trio of Guns Beside a Sad Tale

Three historic guns are a rare and picturesque sight as they sit as silent sentries on the high bank of Queen’s Park, aimed across the Mary River for more than a century.

Near the guns is a magnificent bunya pine, Araucaria bidwillii,  named for John Carne Bidwill. A memorial gravestone and story panel tells his unfortunate tale.

All the guns date back to the late 19th century when the British Navy pulled out of Australia and Russian ships appearing around the coastline caused alarm.

The colony of Queensland, separated from NSW in 1859, was responsible for its own naval defence. It gathered guns and formed naval brigades in cities such as Maryborough.  The three guns were all in the Maryborough Naval Brigades sheds by 1911, being used for training.

In 1914 they were part of a nation-wide program to donate obsolete naval guns to councils to be mounted in public parks. While other towns and cities received one or two obsolete weapons, Maryborough is unique in having three on display together. The riverside setting has visitors reaching for their cameras.

The smallest of the trio is the extremely rare Nordenfelt 1 inch two-barrel gun designed for torpedo boats. This is a cartridge gun; the ammunition cartridge was loaded at the top of the action block and the firing mechanism was protected by a cover plate. It is considered the best of its type in existence.

The largest gun is the Armstrong 5 inch sent to the Maryborough Naval Brigade near the turn of the century. It has curious markings and instructions, including a garter bearing the words ‘Honi soit qui mal y pense’, a saying from the time of King Edward III that means ‘shame be to him who thinks evil of it. Queensland’s five Armstrongs all remain in existence.

The middle sized gun is a Nordenfelt 1.5 inch, a quick-firing, breech-loading gun manufactured in 1884 which was mounted on the foredeck of the Queensland gunboat Gayundah.