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 The following article was published in the March 2000 edition of 'Forebears'. 'Forebears' is published each March, July and November and is free to members of the Maryborough District Family History Society. MARYBOROUGH IN 1886 Donald ADAMS and his wife Margaret (Maggie) McCONOCHIE arrived in Maryborough on the "Cloncurry" on 13 August 1886. They were met at the wharf by David McCONOCHIE, Maggie’s uncle. Donald Adams wrote an account of the journey out here and the following extract tells of life in Maryborough on their arrival. ………. Maggie says, I might as well fill up the book when I am at it, so I will try and give some account of Maryborough. You would not take long to walk through it. It is well laid out, the streets are macadamised about the centre of the town, and in the outskirts. The streets in wet weather are just mudholes. All the houses are built of wood, except some of the hotels and large shops in the principal streets which are built with brick and cement fronts. All the public houses are hotels, and there are no licensed grocers here. Grocers shops sell all sorts of delft and ironmongery goods. There are a good few auctioneers sale rooms for selling land, property, horses and cattle. You can buy an allotment of land within the town, ¼ acre or so for £70, outside the town about £30, over the river from £6 upwards, up the bush £1 per acre and less. They don’t start work here before 8 in the morning, 12 o’clock is the dinner hour. There are two foundries and one shipyard, two or three sawmills and two sash and door factories. They have got two newspapers, ‘The Wide Bay News’ and the ‘Maryborough Chronicle’, the first is daily, the other 3 times a week. The only suburbs the town has got yet are Granville and Tinana. There is a good river navigable for about 15 miles above Maryborough. The harbour is only a small piece, piled in here and there for a vessel to lie at. Vessels about 800 tons can come up to Maryborough. There is a railway station, trains go to Gympie, Gayndah, Howard, Kanyas etc. Steamers to Brisbane and up north. There is not much to be seen up the bush, when you go up about 3 miles, you see as much as if you had went 50. It is all the same – large trees, and small trees, and all sorts of creepers, cedar, gum, ironbark, fig, orange, lemon, pineapple, banana and the prickly pear everywhere to be met with. The woods are full of birds, parrots, laughing jackasses, and all sorts with a beautiful plumage. There are plenty of snakes and guanas and lizards of all kinds, while the ground is swarming with ants and the croaking of frogs on the approach of rain is something tremendous. There are plenty of mosquitoes too (we know that for a fact before we got a mosquito curtain). There are plenty of beautiful butterflies and insects, and very large spiders. I will now tell you about the houses. The houses are all raised a foot or two up off the ground on piles, that is for to keep cockroaches and other vermin from gathering, as well as for heavy rains. They have all got a verandah and a back door. The partitions don’t run the whole way up, but a little higher than the doors, that is for ventilation in the summer. 
All houses have either a garden or a paddock. The water is not led into the houses, the water cock is always a piece back from the door. They don’t use a grate, only an oven and two iron bars. I will try and give you a drawing of a fireplace. The fire for cooking burns on the top of the oven. When you are doing anything in the oven, you put a fire below. The oven is always hot on the top shelf. There are no W.C. in any of the houses, they are all outside. The women don’t bleach clothes on the grass, they hang them on a line outside for a day or two, and the air makes them beautiful. The Maryborough water is very soft, far softer than rain water. You can almost wash yourself in it without soap. They wash all clothes in cold water. I think I have told you all I know myself. I will now close with saying that we are all in good health, and that Maggie was never better than she is now. You ought to see the lump of beef she can put out of sight. Tom can eat as much, nearly as I can. He is walking now and is a sturdy wee fellow. I think we will agree with the place, it is a splendid climate. I will give you a sketch of our house now and say Good-bye. 
When you see one house, you see the whole of them, 6/6d per week in rent of the one I have shown you, without the gravitation water, 6/- per week. There is gas into all the shops, and a great many of the houses, but I have not found out the price of it yet. We use a paraffin lamp, candles are 2d each or 9d per pound, fire-wood varies, split 4ft lengths, 6/- per load, that will burn about 6 weeks, cut 18" long, 8/6 per load. Iron bark out of the sawmills cut in nice pieces, 10/- per load. This will last about 12 weeks, and is the best of the lot, but if you have a horse and cart and an axe, you don’t need to buy firewood. It is only the labour you pay for. I was up in the bush a bit, where they were clearing away the tress, and there were tons upon tons of wood piled up ready for burning where they lay. It would pay a man with a small capital to put up a small sawmill to cut that wood for the market, the carriage would be the only obstacle. The roads are only a track through the forest, and in wet weather a dray with a load on it will sink up to the axle and would require about a dozen horses to draw it. The kind of men Queensland wants most, is men with money who would take up the land and clear it when they could sell it again for 20 times as much as they paid for it. The orange and banana plantations are just growing among tall trees. They clear away the underwood and ring bark the large trees, which makes them die. That is, they cut a ring round the bark with an axe, they then plant between the trees. These large trees will stand dead for years. Another thing I forgot to mention – you must have a meat safe in your house to keep things from the ants. I made one out of one of our chests which had given way on the voyage. I got the loan of tools from one of my shipmates who lives a few doors from us. 
Another thing you have to watch are your clothes, and keep them from the silver fish which will eat holes in them in no time. They are an insect which comes out in the night time, and they shine like silver. I will draw one for you, full size. They get in the seams of the wood and there is no getting them out. Talking of insects, the time I was walking in Mr Murray’s garden, I saw some of the ugliest looking insects you could imagine. I was afraid to look at them. If we left our coats hanging over a fence, the pockets would be full of lizards when we put them on. Fleas are as lively here as at home, and grow to a very large size, but I am told there are no bugs in Queensland, and I hope I have been told the truth. Now, anyone who reads this may thank Maggie for so much information, she kept me writing so I would finish the book. She said there was no use buying a book at 5d (that is the price of this book here) and not filling it up, so I have done my best to fill it up. If I have put down anything wrong, or given wrong information, it is done unintentionally. Some things I have been told, others I have seen myself, so you can depend on what I have seen. I will now say Good-Bye. Sept 30th 1886 1 March Street, Maryborough, Queensland ‘Thank you Maggie’ |
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