29 February 2012
Timber from the Urangan Pier has been given a new lease of life and will link Fraser Island, Hervey Bay and Maryborough.
Timber salvaged from the pier during refurbishment works was used to build an entry statement at the Original Maryborough Site on the corner of Alice and Aldridge Streets.
The first European settlers established their township at the site around 1847.
As larger ships started arriving they struggled to navigate the river’s many sandbanks and several went aground, so it was decided to move the settlement downstream to deeper water, almost deserting the original site.
Remnants of the buildings at the site gradually disappeared leaving a clearing. The Original Maryborough Site is one of only a few original town sites in Australia still relatively untouched.
The site now has walking trails through the area where homes and buildings once stood. Artefacts dug up from the site by archaeologists are on display in Customs House in Wharf Street.
The timber from the pier, which opened in 1917, came from Fraser Island, was trimmed and milled by Council’s carpenters to create the new entry statement which has been inlaid with stainless steel lettering.
The three-metre-long sign also doubles as a seat.
Works undertaken so far at the site include concreting the floor of the old slab hut, replace old post-and-rail fencing adjacent to the hut.
Further works include:
- Installation of new stainless steel panels under the slab hut telling the story of the Original Maryborough Site.
- Installation of a table and seats under the slab hut.
- Replacing a chainwire fence around the grave behind the slab hut with a timber picket fence.
- Installation of brass plaques adjacent to headstones to relay information that can no longer be read on the headstones.
